Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar

The Buzz on Kianti's Pizza & Pasta Bar

Hours - Mon -Fri: 3-6

$4 Homemade meatballs, spicy breadsticks, pizza rolls; $5 Chicken wings

$3 Drafts, $4 well cocktails and Kianti’s wine, $5 bloody marys, varied price featured cocktails

Kianti's Website

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 Julie’s Review

 

Kianti’s is located at the end of the Pacific Garden Mall on the corner of Pacific and Cathcart. It has both indoor and outdoor seating with heaters. Their happy hours are a standard mon-fri 3-6 p.m.  Their happy hour food  menu is pretty limited and pretty starchy – this is a pizza place after all – meatballs, breadsticks, pizza rolls ($4) and chicken wings ($5).  The drink menu was more varied $3 drafts, $4 wells and wines, $5 bloody mary and featured cocktails at various prices.

This was a special happy hour buzz because we were celebrating two birthdays -  Jo’s and  our friend Marky’s.  A group  of the girls planned to get together so we decided to combine it with a J&J Happy Hour Buzz review.

Josephine and her friend Colleen and I arrived at the same time.  We checked inside which had a nice warm interior, but happy hour seating is only in the bar area.  Since we were a large group our seating choices were limited.  We expected seven of us, so we decided to sit at a large table outside by a heater.  It was an over cast evening, so the heater was much appreciated.

Josephine, Colleen and I quickly got down to business and checked out the menu.  Our waitress Shaylin was very attentive and sweet.  Jo and I ordered bloody marys and Colleen had a margarita. We ordered the meatballs, pizza rolls and chicken wings to start. 
 

The bloody mary was a nice tall one, with good garnish – two olives! – but it wasn’t spicy enough for my taste and I couldn’t taste much alcohol in it.   Josephine opened her birthday presents and the food arrived shortly.  The meatballs were tasty – but I’m not a big marina fan.  The pizza roll was like a calzone cut into slices, but didn’t have quite enough filling. The plate of chicken wings was generous sized, interspersed with peppercinis, which I thought was in interesting touch.  Tasty but not outstanding.  However, we were hungry so we had no problem polishing off all the food.

Teresa had arrived by this time and ordered wine.  Shaylin was kind enough to tell us it was almost 6:00 and we would all turn into pumpkins, er, I mean happy hour was ending.  I ordered a margarita and Jo got a beer.  Laura arrived and ordered another order of meatballs with some cheesy bread.

 

By the time we had finished,  happy hour had ended and we were ready to move on. Then Sue and the other birthday girl Marky arrived.  We decided to stay and ordered non-Happy Hour drinks.  More visiting and catching up with everyone.  It was getting cold so I asked the waiter to light the second heater next to us, which he did obligingly.  We all enjoyed the nice big flame.  It added to both the warmth and the ambience on the patio.

Shaylin very sweetly brought ice cream and cookies with candles for the two birthday girls.  We sang “God Danced” (our version of happy birthday) and candles were extinguished and deserts shared.

There was much laughter until the bill arrived.  Then there were major mathematical equations trying to divide it between the various folks, cards and cash.  Shaylin was patient through it all.  

With that settled we bid adieu and went to El Palomar for margaritas since it was happy hour there until 9:00 p.m.

So, in sum, the service was very thoughtful and attentive at Kianti’s.  The interior is pleasant and the heaters on the patio made it nice.  We saw several folks we know walking by, so that was fun.  The regular menu seems a bit pricy.  I also would have liked to see a healthier choice like the Kianti’s Caprese on the happy hour menu.  With the short weekday only happy hours, this is a happy hour that you have to work to get too.  So though pleasant, I think my happy hour dollars will be spent elsewhere.

Julie’s Ratings: 3.5

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Jo's Review

Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar is a bright orange building located on the corner of Pacific Ave. and Cathcart. The place has an open kitchen area with a bistro bar in front of it. The floor plan is open with tile floors and 2 outdoor seating areas.

We were celebrating my birthday and we figured we could kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak, so happy hour it is.  Happy hour here is Monday – Friday from 3pm – 6pm, and all night on Thursdays. They have some but not all of the appetizers at a special price of $4.00 - $5.00.  Well drinks and house wines are $4.00, Bloody Marys and specialty drinks are $5.00 and draft beers are $3.00.

Of course we had a number of friends joining us this time around and the bar area, which is where you get the happy hour prices and service was a bit full so we decided to sit outside. 

 It was a gloomy day, the sun never came out and it was a bit chilly but they have some nice heated lanterns outside to enjoy.

I decide to start with a bloody Mary and so did Julie.   Colleen had a margarita, and Teresa and Laura opted for wine. For eats we get chicken wings (of course), meatballs in meat sauce and the pizza rolls.  The meatballs arrived and they were swimming in a lovey tomato sauce that was asking for bread. They did not have just bread to dip so we ordered some cheesy bread to dip. It was good but I would of preferred plain Italian bread. 

The pizza roll didn’t seem to have much in it and was just O.K. I must admit I’m not a big fan of pizza to begin with so rolling it up wasn’t doing it for me. I am a chicken wings fan though and when they arrived I was a bit dis-appointed. They were breaded wings coated in a spicy sauce. Breaded wings are O.K. but not my favorite. The sauce was mild but had good flavor. The bloody marys came in a pint size glass with all the proper garnish on them. I like my bloody marys spicy and these were a little weak but the tomato juice tasted fresh.

As we ate and drank the rest of the party showed up, Sue and Marky. Marky’s birthday is the following day so we got her in on the celebration as well. We hugged and laughed and ordered more drinks of course. I moved on to beer and Julie changed to margaritas while Marky and Sue went with beer. It was great having all of my friends there to share in the birthday festivities. By the third drink were pretty happy and laughing it up. Since the waitress realized it was my birthday and Markys they brought out two cup with 2 chocolate chip cookies with ice cream and a candle on top.  We sang the traditional birthday song and the other not as traditional song and everyone munched on the cookies and ice cream.

So Kianti’s was an O.K. place for happy hour.  Nothing special, just O.K. I had a wonderful time with my friends though and enjoyed my birthday very much.

Jo’s rating: 3 shots