Il Pizzaiolo

11/11/09

Don't Bother, Below-Average Italian

by Jahnesta at Citysearch

After eating at Bistro 19 I was very excited when I saw that Il Pizzaiolo was right next door. I had thought about eating here in the past but was always put off by the location. That being said, I went to Il Pizzaiolo last night with my fiance, and I have to say I was very disappointed. We started with the Caesar salad, which was OK. The dressing was delicious, however there was very little of it, and we found ourselves eating entire bites of dry, flavorless lettuce. It was also an outrageous $10 dollars. Don't get me wrong, had this been an entree sized portion, $10 would have been more than appropriate. However it was just a starter size, and should have been no more than $6.

We then shared their margherita pizza which had delicious flavors, but was incredibly soggy. It was also fairly small, but that was almost to be expected. It was $12 dollars, so the size was not necessarily a problem, however it was hard to enjoy such a soggy mess of a pizza. We also shared a pasta dish which was INCREDIBLY overpriced. At $17 dollars, I was expecting more than a small bowl filled with dry pasta. It was homemade, and well made, however it was almost insultingly small. We finished with tiramisu which was excellent, and appropriately priced at $8.

In all, I found the flavors of their food to be excellent, however i was horribly misled. Not only was every menu I found online roughly $2 to $3 dollars cheaper than their actual menu, but there was a table next to us who ordered pasta and received an enormous portion, prompting us to order pasta. It was only till later did we realize that they were employees who had decided to dine their for the evening. We also had a serious problem with the timing of the food. The service was great, however for a Tuesday night, I would have thought their kitchen could time the courses properly; we had barely started our salad when the entree's came. In all, I don't think I will be going back to this restaurant, nor would I recommend anyone waste their time traveling out to Mt. Lebanon for average Italian.

• Pros: Flavors, Ingredients
• Cons: Quantity, Quality and Price of Food

08/23/09

HORRIBLE!

by rudybeet at Citysearch

I'm plenty familiar with a good authentic Italian pizza cooked in an authentic wood burning oven.

Unreal how they can serve pizza as soggy as this pizza was. We ordered two pizzas and both were a soggy mess. Do they ever taste the food that the make?

Ingredient quality is supposed to reign supreme for this style of pizza but I didn't notice anything special with the cheese or toppings on both pizzas. I know what good Italian ingredients are because I buy them for home cooking.

Homemade tiramisu was also overly soggy.

We were there on a Saturday night. Hard to believe that the place was packed and with a wait. Simply unbelievable!

ps. Amused by the 10 oz diet coke in a glass bottle. Yep, really made me feel like I was in Europe (sarcasm).

• Pros: None
• Cons: Soggy pizza, soggy tiramisu, regular ingredients

04/16/09

Don't waste your money!

by Foodgirl09 at Citysearch

My guest and I were told there would be a 10 minute wait. That wait stretched out to over 1 hour. The hostesses were not apologetic and were actually a bit rude about it. Once we were seated we had to wait another 15 minutes to get our order placed and then 45 minutes for the food to arrive. I have a lot of patience but this was by far the most ridiculous wait ever. None of the employees or management staff apologized for the wait or extremely slow service.

The food was not very good either. We ordered a pasta dish, a pizza, and a salad. The prices were absurd and the food was not worth even a 1/3 of what we paid.

• Pros: I can't think of a single one.
• Cons: Can't possibly name them all.