Pasta Mista is a Mess...

Puddle of raw hamburger juice

Pasta Mista in Chalfont, Pa...

Pro: It's clean. Staff friendly.
Con - from order of worst to least:
Ordered a Texas burger well done. The outside was done. The inside was RAW (see photos) - red juice totally leaked from the burger and my daughters plate was swimming in red juice. UGH.  Took it up to show the counter person. The cook came to counter and said, "well, it's a big burger, it happens." Tried to make me feel bad.
They took the burger off our bill and I requested a slice of pizza instead. They charged me for that (if I owned the place, I would have apologized profusely and given a free slice of pizza or free cannoli)
It took almost 20 minutes for the "well done" burger to arrive.
Took almost 10 minutes for our soda (2) to arrive.
The "chips" (don't' know if they are homemade or not) are brown and taste stale (on the 2 different occasions we tried this place).

Looked promising (after 20 minute wait)

The grilled chicken wrap had a tough (stale?) wrap and was bland.
It was a cold day when we ate in - the place is so small that every time the door opened, it let in a ton of cold air. Had to keep our jackets on the whole time. This probably won't be a problem on warm days.
Steak fries - fine.
The pizza was crisp on the bottom. Pretty good. There's an eggplant pizza and a taco pizza - something that is different from other local places. I haven't tried those, but the pizza I did try (Bruschetta, plain) was good, but nothing that would make me choose Pasta Mista over other local pizza joints.

I hate to give a bad review to a new business - esp. since there are so few in Chalfont - but we had waited weeks after it opened to try it out. They should have ironed out the slow service and there was no excuse for the raw burger. We gave it one more try by ordering a wrap for a pick up and steak fries - but, while it was ready as promised, it wasn't tasty enough to give this place another chance.

"They Were Just Trying To Help Me Chew" - Hysterical Girl After Her Wisdom Teeth Removal Video

This is such a funny video! I love it. A drugged up girl apologies to her wisdom teeth after having them removed.

Free Cookies In Service Shop? Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

I sincerely wish I didn’t have to tell you that I almost had to shell out almost 800.00 in order for my car to pass inspection. I sincerely wish I didn’t have to tell you that is appears that a local dealership mislead me and almost robbed me of 600.00.

I am happy to tell you that I was able to find an honest service department that saved me that 600.00! (that’s 12 tanks of gas! Pre-Obama it would have been 23 tanks of gas!).  

The offending dealership? Kia of Warrington.

First, let me say we have a KIA and love it. The sales guy at KIA in Warrington was wonderful. I took my 2003 Grand Am to KIA for the State/Emissions test because when we bought from KIA, we were told that the State inspection would be free for ANY car in the family. It seemed an awesome deal at the time!

The pros about the KIA service center in Warrington? Free cookies in the waiting room! Free coffee! Spacious and comfortable – big T.V.

And all the employees were extremely nice.

Then one of the service advisors explained that my car needed almost 800.00 worth of work in order for it to pass state inspection. It passed emissions.   

Lucky for me, I have a family member who then looked at my car – he agreed that it needed all the repairs suggested by KIA, except for one. He was able to make the repairs.

We then took the car to the Pep Boys service center on County Line Road in Chalfont. The waiting area is not plush. There are no free cookies. There is free WIFI and a soda vending machine!

But I soon discovered there is something far more priceless – honesty.

The service repairmen, Matt, called me into the garage. My car was on the lift and he explained that my family member did indeed make the needed repairs, but when he fixed the offending brake, he should have also replaced the other. However; he did agree with my family member that one of the suggested repairs that KIA had added to the tally was not necessary at all.

Matt explained that dealerships and corporations try to “upsell” services or repairs that aren’t necessary; they are in business to make money.

Matt, however, didn’t treat me as a deposit slip for his company’s bank account – he treated me like a person trying to make ends meet, and though I may not know much about cars, I deserve to be respected and treated honestly.

In all the years I’ve taken cars to have them inspected or serviced or repaired, I’ve never had a service technician actually show me what was wrong and he also advised me of what I might need down the road and what would be a waste of time and money.  

Sure, Matt could have tried to sell me into buying a repair I didn’t need – and it would have added to Pep Boys bank account. But what Matt sold me on was the value of honesty – and I’ll forever be their cheerleader and recommend anyone who values honesty and savings take their cars to the Pep Boys on County Line Road in Chalfont.

The emissions test cost almost 60.00 at KIA – I spent about 100.00 for parts, and the state inspection cost about 30.00 at Pep Boys. But even if I hadn’t had a family member make the repairs – there was still that “repair” that KIA told me I needed which would have cost me 200.00+ labor.

What I learned? There are still auto service technicians who view drivers as people, not as checkbooks. And a free cookie is never free – somewhere, somehow, there is someone who paid 600.00 for your complimentary treat.

Pep  Boys Chalfont -  

215-997-5862