Pogacha Of Issaquah Restaurant

I had been wanting to try this place for a while. I drive by it all the time, and from the outside it looks like just the kind of place we love, a unique, neighborhood, non-chain, family friendly restaurant. I mother's day was a good time to give it a shot.
Service:
Lost our rez (they sat us shortly, but still...), ice water had to be requested 3 times, waiter neglected to take my 10 year old's dinner order. Waiter repeatedly made excuses of an "issue" with the kitchen. Our appetizer came out AFTER our food and well after we were repeatedly promised the waiter was bringing it "right over". The waiter knew were were quite unhappy with the service to this poing and continued to apologize, he promised he'd be "right back" with our check, at which point, he completeley dissapeared for about 30 minutes. When he finally returned, and collected our card he actaually had the gall to stop at other tables on his way to ring us out! They did comp about $20 of our $60 check, unprompted. I might chalk this up to a busy night (except they weren't that busy) but the food was awful too.

So, now that we have the service out of the way- let's talk about the food. To sum it up, I agree with other reviewers who mention it's overpriced for what you get. I don' t mind spending for an excellent meal... but this was anything but. My husband ordered the rib-eye and it was so fatty/gristly it was inedible. HIs food was cold. He would probably not say anything about this but it was also not cooked as ordered and was missing the gorgonzola the menu promised. I ordered a pogacha, which was ok, but nothing spectacular. They charge extra for sauce, which I ordered and was charged for, but didn't receieve. The artichoke dip was quite unpleasant.

I will usually give a restaurant a second chance, to allow for an "off night". In this case, we won't be back.

We like to explore restaurants and after reading reviews on Citysearch decided to give Pogacha a shot. We found the atmosphere to be cosy, the service to be responsive, and the food to be tasty. In the mood for Italian? It is much better than a lot of the alternatives out there and doesn't feel like your at a chain. The bar is great and has a fireplace which is nice for rainy nights. The artichoke dip is a MUST! We have been back three times since and are adding Pogacha as one of our regular places to grab a bite to eat.

So my wife and I went to the cougar mt zoo to see the new tiger cubs and on the way back through town decided to stop at Pogacha. It was only 4:30ish in the afternoon and we had no clue what type of place Pogacha even was! We went in and asked to see the menu and decided to stay based on what we saw.
We don't typically order appetizers, but if it's our first time in a new place (to us) we will try to order an appetizer and then dinners and then dessert.
We started with the hummus which had great taste and just the smallest hint of a kick to it..quite tasty with pagacha's wonderful bread.
For our dinners we split the dobar chicken pasta and the Pepperoni & Gorgonzola Pogacha (flatbread). Both were just wonderful! The pasta especially was great..penne with a port sauce and gorgonzola cheese...with port soaked grapes...I mean come on...whats not to like about that! The flat bread was great also. They say you can get it with a red sauce but we choose to take it like they offer it...minus red sauce and it tasted fresh and was light and between both dishes there was more than enough food. We ended up taking a little of the pasta home and about a 1/3 of the flat bread. As for the hummus...way too much for two people! We took a lot of that home and our wonderful server actually gave us quite a bit of extra bread!
All in all, an excellent experience! My wife and I will be back :)
I give it 5 stars for our first trip there...It was good enough that we will be back soon!

We went to Pogacha on a Saturday night with no reservations, and had no problem getting seated. The atmosphere was nice - lots of families, although we were just a party of two adults. We ordered the ham, pineapple, and macadamia nut pogacha, which was quite good, and the bread with olive oil and vinegar was also excellent. The service was alright - our waitress didn't stop by at first, so we had to flag someone down to find out who she was. The big disappointment was the main course. I ordered the tenderloin skewer cooked medium rare - it arrived medium well, the quality of the meat was quite low. The meat was tough and flavorless. The risotto that accompanied the steak was bland and boring - I had to request extra cheese to make it edible. My companion ordered the salmon linquini, which was also awful. The sauce was runny, the salmon was overcooked and dry, the dish wasn't flavorful. After hearing the rave reviews, we were really looking forward to this place, but after paying $60 for food that was really not good, it was a huge disappointment. We may have just gone on a bad night, but we'll never go back to try it again.

Pogatcha is a great place to go out with the kids and still enjoy an adult meal. The Pogatcha flatbread with butter are so addictive my kids want to fill up on them and not eat their entrees. The salads are fresh and the mediterranean sandwich is delicious. Highly recommended for faimilies.