Pazzo Pizzeria — Restaurant in Stratford

This was our 7th visit to Pazzo, and will be our last. Every time we have been here, we order a selection of dishes to share, and ask that they all be delivered as soon as they are ready. Every time previously, this was done perfectly. For this visit, it was a comedy of errors.

First off, we are NOT complainers. We have eaten all over the world and we have never once sent food back, even if it was sub-standard. We always laugh with the serving staff when small mistakes happen. That's just life. We are super-easy customers. This is my first EVER restaurant review, and contains some of the things that happened.

Our table had a SEVERE rock (we corrected it), which caused water to spill all over my wife.

We did not receive the bread/olive oil/balsamic starter that everyone else received.

The food quality has declined significantly from previous visits; at least for the food we received had.

We sat for 25+ minutes waiting with no food, for our last two dishes (simple pizzas which should take less than 5min to cook). (We had asked for everything at the same time). The server never gave us any updates, nor asked if we wanted anything during that time. This complete absence of even basic communication was the norm during this visit.

During our wait, it was oppressively noisy. Solid walls, ceilings and walls with no sound dampening on the kitchen side of dining area (the other side is usually much quieter). We both had headaches after we left.

Finally, we explicitly told the server to cancel those two items, give us the bill and explicitly said not to bother cooking them if they weren't already in the oven (I had a suspicion at the time, which is why I said that).

Then the server told an untruth and said "but you asked me to 'stage' the item service". We certainly did not. In all of our communications with her we were extremely clear, extremely calm, and extremely polite. There was zero chance of anyone misunderstanding. We did not approve of the attempt to blame us for her actions.

Waiting for our bill, we saw our server go to the kitchen area, disappeared for a while and then she bussed a table. After several minutes came with the bill (no communication during this time). She told us the pizzas were just put into the oven and they were going to box the pizzas to go (for free). We never asked for anything free. We explicitly told her NOT to cook them if they weren't already in. Yet she did it anyway. She was trying to play a guilt trip on us, and we do not appreciate that kind of manipulation. We paid our bill...and did not take the pizzas.

In about 1h, we received 1 app, 1 entree and 1 drink between the two of us. At least my wife's drink was good, so that was something.

We assume the owners will take this information as constructive criticism. Your server unnecessarily cost you about $45 in retail pizza costs, in an attempt to cover her backside. How you deal with that,...

I have been working in hospitality industry for over 20 years and I used to be member of the Restaurant Canada Association . It was my first time to be in Stratford and to try this place due to the reviews. I went with a group who were suppose to bring over $1,500 as an average cheque revenue to this place. I have never seen the worst service, disrespect, and rudeness to clients that I have seen in this place. Ended up by leaving the place after being seated.

We went there couple of days ago as a family of my wife and two daughters, we went with a family group and we asked the manager to be seated in a separate tables due to COVID. We were directed to sit in a separate tables as we asked. Kids were sitting together in one table and adults were sitting in 2 other tables. As we started to take our table a server explained the rules of Covid which we totally understand to follow, but noticed they have more restrictions that any other place. One of the group were standing to get his 2 years daughter and then a manager who was a man in his fifties with a grey hair asked him in a rough/rude way that he is not allowed to stand up in his place due to Covid which was strange than regular regulations in other restaurants. I told him in a calm way he will sit after organizing himself and his 2 years daughter. He told me as per public health no body is allowed to stand up !!! I told him we totally understand public health rules and we have doctors in our group, but we may need to stand up or check on our kids while wearing our masks. I asked him I will need check with our 8 years daughter to help her order food. He aggressively said no, you can connect with her by using wifi texts !!! You can go only to the washroom. I knew his way was very strange and didn’t appreciate his aggressive way of talking, but thought to not upset the rest of the group and keep sitting. I asked the waitress later how come we can go to the washroom, but not to my daughter, she left and said I will call my manager. The same manager came and told me you made my server cry and she’s crying now in the back !!! I was shocked from what he sayed as I didn’t say anything more than what I mentioned above. I wondered why, I didn’t say anything to her, he replied in a rude way by saying I told you already why you are asking her again about the washroom. I felt there was something weird about this person or he didn’t want our group at all. I was not sure, but I was sure there was something wrong about him or the place to treat a group of clients with such an aggressive rudeness way. I didn’t try their food, but attitude/service was crucial to us. We decided to leave as a group to go to Pizza bistro which had an amazing people, service provided by a local family.

I would recommend to the owner to train his manager/staff on...

After reading all the amazing reviews it is safe to say that I was very disappointed after my visit last night. I'm not one to write bad reviews but I can't help but share my sub par experience. Let's start from the top, 7pm reservation, arrived at 7 and was sat right away. After being sat it was about 5 minutes before we were greeted by our server. We noticed he closing out two other tables when we arrived so no complaints there, one can only do so much. After being greeted and asked what we would like to drink I asked what the "Feature" draft beer was. He said he wasn't sure and went to find out. A few minutes later he came back with an answer. By this time we were ready to order our drinks, app, and entrées.

Our appetizer arrived before our drinks. Got started with the appetizer while we sipped on our water. When our drinks finally arrived (7:35pm now) my wife was brought white wine instead of the red she had ordered. So basically we were done our app before we ever got our drinks. Then our entrées were brought out shortly there after, I will say that the food came out pretty quick so that was good. I just don't understand all the raving reviews about the food though. My wife had pizza that was nothing special and I had the seafood linguini that tasted no better than something I can make at home in 10 minutes. Very bland. I also asked the server for parmesan cheese (which you would think would come with pasta but they charge an additional $1... not a big deal). I finished that pasta and it's a good thing I did because the cheese never came out, and neither did the waiter to check in on how our meal was or if we needed any more water (which was empty from when we had our appetizers).

Just can't wrap my head around the 35 minute wait to get a beverage... and how we got our appetizer prior to ever receiving a drink. It wasn't even that busy when we were there. There was one table of 6 that received their drinks before us even though they showed up 10 minutes after us.

Like I stated before I'm not one to write bad reviews but really my wife and I were just so disappointed with the service and food on this particular night and can't wrap our head around all these 5...