Piccolo Padrino — Restaurant in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert - Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe

The pizza was excellent, I'll give them that. Well cooked, crispy - too many ingredients for my liking (an entire burrata is a lot) but that's a question of taste. It was, however, getting cold when I received it, as if it had been waiting for 5-10 minutes.

Unfortunately, the service is amateurish - chaotic, even. We arrived at 1910 and the waiter didn't even notice us till 1920. At 1930 another waitress came out only to tell us that a different colleague would take our order. (Just how hard it would have been simply for her to take our order herself wasnt broached.) Meanwhile, a couple next to us who had arrived at the same time had already been asked their order, well before our waiter had come to ask for ours. Anyway. About 10 minutes later another waiter did finally take our order.

Except that he then came back another 10 minutes later saying our order had been lost and we would have to order again. So by this time its 1950 and we haven't even been served drinks yet. The waiter who lost our order didn't seem to think to himself that it might be an idea to get us our drinks pronto, so it was 20h - a full 50 minutes after having arrived at an only half full restaurant - that we even got refreshments.

During this time one waitress came to us twice with drinks that weren't for us and once came over with drinks that were for us but when asked said they weren't. So the table markings and staff direction clearly aren't clear enough.

The pizzas arrived at 2020. As I said, they were good but had clearly been given the waiting room treatment. Indeed, as I went to pay I saw the pizza maker put two calzone pizzas back on the lip of the oven to keep them warm because the wait staff hadn't got around to picking them up.

Even paying took 10 minutes as there seemed to be only one till (and just for good measure I got stuck behind a gentleman armed with many questions who wanted to pay and order drinks, which delayed things a bit) and the wait staff had to key in things to the single till between the gentleman and myself paying, which slowed things down.

The woman at the till I presume was the owner and she did ask how the food was and was polite, and I did tell her that the service was too slow. She apologised and said that it was not normally like this and even offered compensatory drinks, which I declined as we had to leave. However it was a Wednesday, and only the terrace of the restaurant was actually really in use. The truth is that this place suffers from "Belga Syndrome"), which is to say that much like the well-known bar in Flagey it has lots of staff who either don't know what they are doing and/or think activity is a substitute for achievement.

The challenges for this established restaurant in its new location are not insurmountable, but I shall not be going back until it's clear they can serve a single round of drinks and four pizzas in 45...

Good Points: This restaurant has a great location and a lovely view. When sitting outside on the terrace, you can enjoy a beautiful view of the Meudon area (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert) and the main entrance to Park Georges Henri. These pleasant surroundings complement the good Italian food and Mediterranean atmosphere.

Food: As an Italian restaurant, it offers the standard dishes you would expect from similar places in the Brussels area. However, the restaurant lacks unique local dishes or specialties. If they do exist, the staff makes no effort to highlight them.

Not So Good: Unfortunately, good food can't make up for poor service. On my second visit, I encountered the same rude and seemingly unhappy person who negatively impacted my dining experience. For example, I received messages like, “I’m not here to help you find a good dish,” and “I don’t have an opinion on any dish for you.” After waiting for 30 minutes, my self-service order was canceled with the message, “I thought you had canceled your order.” Consequently, my dishes arrived after more than 45 minutes, accompanied by the manager's apologies.

Recommendation: The manager should invest in training the employees to better handle a diverse clientele. In a cosmopolitan urban area, good...

We asked, very kindly, if it was possible to have a vegan pizza. First (straightforward) answer was no, but then, we asked the pizza to be a marinara, without anchovies, then no problem, or so. In total, I asked 3 times for the pizza to be vegan, without anchovies, yes yes no problem. Kind of had the impression that I was asking something so peculiar, with awkward vibes in the room, but okay.

Coming back home, eating my pizza, of course there was an anchovy, but only one, so I ate it without knowing it. "Not the most pleasant taste" for me, and also it lasts for ages in my mouth, but when calling the pizzeria to explain the situation, the only explanation I got is that "the cook dropped it by accident"... I mean, seriously guys... Not like the dead fish was hanging in the air... Not cool !

Maybe I'm extrapolating a bit here, but I do seriously hope that it wasn’t because I was either vegetarian, or gay. Reaaaally really hoping so, but again I hope I'm wrong. Sorry but I don’t want to come...