Trattoria Marcella Review

 A Bad Case of “Salad Envy” Turns Instructive

For a special evening celebrating the college graduation of Jenny, StingyTipper’s son’s long-time girlfriend, ST turned toTrattoria Marcella at 3600 Watson Road in beautiful South St. Louis city.  StingyTipper chose this establishment specifically because it is the place where, over the years, ST has most often celebrated special occasions.  And, once again, it lived up to its reputation of being a truly magical place to enjoy some of life’s special moments.  When you enter Trattoria Marcella you feel like you have arrived at one of the great dining spots in St. Louis--from the crowds awaiting tables, to the wonderful aromas in the air, to the sophisticated bar service with soft lighting over the pictures, to the whispered conversations of the patrons, you feel like this place is IT!

Perhaps because the place is indeed so special, it is also enormously popular, making it difficult for a reservation (which are taken) to be honored on time. ST’s party arrived at 8:20 for an 8:15 reservation and we were not seated until close to 9:00 PM.  This reservation time slippage, coupled with a pretty perfunctory greeting from the hostess and table escort (we were just one more group in a sea of people), unfortunately put StingyTipper in a bad mood, reflected in the score of 1 that was given for Salutation on the S.E.R.V.I.C.E. rating system.  Even our table server was not particularly welcoming, ignoring the two young adults at the table in asking whether we would like another round of drinks. In sum, the ambience made us feel special at Trattoria Marcella, but not the staff.

Fortunately, all other dimensions of the S.E.R.V.I.C.E. rating scale (see below) were scored a 2 (Satisfactory) or 3 (Commendable), resulting in an overall score/tip of 18/18%.

At one point in the dining service experience, ST was feeling slighted again, when the waitress did not ask whether we wanted to order salads.  We had ordered appetizers, and when those were consumed and she took our entrée orders, there was no prompting about whether we wanted to order salads.  ST got the sense that she was “too busy to bother” with salads.  This eventuated in StingyTipper developing a bad case of “Salad Envy” when it was noticed that many other diners around us were enjoying lovely salads before their main courses.  However, in further examining this perceived oversight, StingyTipper’s feelings have been reconciled (i.e., a two Equity score was given instead of a one) by coming to the following conclusions:  

• The waitress assumed that we had read the menu and would order salads if we wanted to, operating under the assumption that we’re all adults here and are capable of making our wishes known without any prompting from her.
• The waitress assumed that with the very generous appetizers and the large entrée portions we were ordering, we would not be in need of salads--at least not from a hunger perspective.  And she was right!    
• The waitress did us a favor in not asking us if we wanted a salad because, as ala carte items, they would have added another $25 or so to the bill.  (Don’t you just hate it when you’re prompted to order salad only to discover later that they weren’t included in the price of your meal?)  

(At this point in the service review, you may be thinking: “Why don’t you just relax and enjoy yourself and stop obsessing over salad!”  Sorry, that’s just not the way StingyTipper operates.  It’s in ST’s DNA to obsess over service.)

The most impressive thing about the service experience was the Responsiveness of the wait team and the fact that the waitress was highly Informed. Examples of the former include prompt and efficient water refill service, attentiveness to bread and butter (actually humus) needs, refolding of napkins during restroom breaks, timely removal of used serviceware, quick response to any special requests, and nicely spaced “checking back” inquires regarding our needs and satisfaction.

As for being Informed, not only did the waitress display a high degree of knowledge about all of the options on the menu, but when ST’s spouse seemed puzzled about what to order, the server gently probed about what the dilemma was and guided ST’s spouse to select just the right main course entrée.

Couple Responsiveness and Informed with a menu that is reasonably priced (Value), a lovely setting (Comfort) and equitable service (Equity), and you have an overall

dining Experience that was worthy of an 18% gratuity.  Had the Salutation dimension been up to par, a 20% tip would have been provided.   All-in-all, once StingyTipper got over “Salad Envy” and the reservation time slippage, a really fine dining service experience was had by all; and ST will definitely return again to Trattoria Marcella to celebrate yet another of life’s many joys!

Scoring Key

1 = Unsatisfactory    2 = Satisfactory    3 = Commendable

S.E.R.V.I.C.E. SCORE

Salutation                     =  1

Equity                            =  2

Responsiveness            =  3

Value                             =  3

Informed                       =  3

Comfort                         =  3

Experience                     =  3

            Total Score:                   18 = 18.0%

Gratuity Scoring Guidelines



                   "Stingy"                        7-10 = Tip Same %          

                   "Not-too-Stingy"      11-15 = Tip 15%               

                   "Gracious"                   16-21 = Tip Same %