Piccolo Paese

Jack Tocker

Walked into a packed restaurant with reservations. Stood at the front door for more than 5 minutes before someone even came over after I yelled “can someone help us” . The woman bartender/hostess (who has been there for years) in her very unfriendly normal tone shouted out “we are full”. I said “we have reservations” and she said “no you don’t” Don’t get me started but she finally came over to the front door and found our reservation on the computer. There was 1 table left right at the front door not even set. She sat us there until someone finally came over and set the table while we were seated….took another 10 minutes Whoever this woman is….needs to get out of the service industry. What a miserable human being ! Service was excellent but once we got served and food delicious. This restaurant needs to get their acts together…what a shame !!a,

Charli Henley (Abyssiphus)

First, the good: I am high risk for covid and my family wanted to eat here for a graduation celebration. They don't have outdoor dining so I called ahead and asked how busy they thought they'd be that night. They said not too busy (it was around 5:30 or 6 pm on a week night). I told them about my covid concerns and they said they'd place us at a table far away from everyone else. Which they did and I felt safe. It was awesome! The service was good and everyone was very friendly. They had fountain soda and they refilled our soda and water several times. The appetizers we had were good. We had the meat and cheese board and the fried zucchini. The fried zucchini was divine. It was thin and had a delicious dipping sauce. The sauce was a mystery to us, but we loved it. It had a hint of some kind of Indian spice, but none of us could figure it out. And now the not so good: First, the bread - they brought out a little basket of hot bread. The bread was fine and it was nice that's hot. But for an expensive Italian restaurant, I expected a little bottle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe even parmesan cheese to be served with the bread so we could mix up a little dipping sauce. It's what I've experienced at similar restaurants. We did ask for a bottle of olive oil and they brought one out, but we didn't have the tasty extras. Second - the burrata caprese - I'm a vegetarian. I looked at the menu and figured out what to order before we even got to the restaurant. I ordered the burrata caprese. I didn't know what that was so I googled it and it looks great on Google. Here's what Google taught me: the tomatoes are sliced, about 1/4" thick, and placed around the burrata cheese. Then basil leaves are individually placed on top of the tomatoes. The whole thing is drizzled in extra virgin olive oil and either balsamic vinegar or balsamic glaze. Finally, kosher or flaky salt and freshly cracked pepper are sprinkled on top. Sounds good, right? Go ahead and look it up on Google. The pictures delicious. I was expecting this expensive, Italian restaurant to pull off this simple dish with ease. Alas, they did not. The tomatoes were cut into wedges - they were basically the tomatoes you got in your school lunch salad. Sliced just like the school lunch. Depressing. The basil was a little branch, plopped on top of the cheese. The dish was garnished with four olives and a random pepper. And then - nothing else. No ground black pepper, no hint of salt, no olive oil, no balsamic. It was sad. I didn't eat it. I left the sad tomatoes and brought the ball of cheese home as a treat for the dog. The cheese is a mild, soft cheese and it really needed that extra flavor from the pepper, olive oil, and balsamic. Third - other people in my group liked their food enough to eat it, but said it was just ok. They had the chicken parmesan and the cheese tortellachi. Each dish was $23 and the problem here is that the quality and tastes of the food did not match the price. They tasted like they were $16, not $23 if you know what I mean. Fouth - the desert - it was fine. Not great. Which, again, we expected great from this restaurant. My tiramisu had so much powdered cocoa on top and around it - it made my throat dry. Someone else in my party had vanilla ice cream and the tiramisu ended up going well with that because it added needed moisture. So if you're craving tiramisu, I suggest you ask for ice cream as well. The raspberry lemon drop cake was lovely and presented nicely on the plate, but it was mediocre. All in all, I will not return to this restaurant. The food is the quality of a restaurant whose prices are about 1/3 lower. It would be worth going if they dropped their prices by 1/3, but even then - the food is solidly mediocre at best. This would be two stars for me, when combining the food and the prices. But they get an extra star for friendly service, taking covid considerations seriously, and a lovely, well-decorated interior.

Sandra R

The food was good but the service was horrible. Kyle was our waiter and his customer service was horrible. We had to ask the other staff to take our order because our waiter was across the room socializing with other guests and never came to our table to take our dinner order only just to give us our bill of course. It gets better, so we left a $5 cash tip (that was still too much for his non-service) so on the receipt i indicated in the tip section CASH. A few days later when the transaction posted on my account Kyle helped himself to an additional tip of $15 overcharge. This is why i keep my receipts in case someone tries to do a fraudulent transaction such as in this case. Now I’ve disputed the entire amount with my bank. This is the first & last time they’ll see my face at this corrupt restaurant, i would not recommend anyone eating there. Not only that but they seem racist , we were the only “minorities” there they treated everyone else with exceptional service except us. This is what you happens when you go to these little white towns, you get lower white class workers. The workers scheme the customers by taking their own tips, unacceptable. If i could rate this restaurant a negative 5 stars i would!

Ashley Weigelt

Food was perfect & great service. I love how I did not feel rushed, the service was perfectly attentive without rushing. I like to take my time & relax while dining. The veal piccata was delicious. Fabulous time.