Parasson's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Akron

Oh parassons... how this review pains me.

Its difficult to write this review since the "old" parassons was my all-time favorite restaurant. We just went to the "new" parassons after dining had been closed for a number of years.

One of the notable differences was that the meals no longer include any kind of side dishes. The prices seemed reasonable until you take this into consideration along with the fact that portion sizes are much smaller. I know. Inflation and all that. But parassons used to be our go-to for an economical family meal, so this was disappointing to us.

There are also no kids meals. The waitress suggested just orderig a side for my daughter to enjoy. This might work with other kids, but mine wanted spaghetti and meatballs. This is 2 separate sides. So $4.99 for the spaghetti and $4.99 for the meatballs, and I just dropped $10 on a meal for a kid- not to mention this was way too much food for her. We ended up taking it home. The entrees followed a similar pattern- you had to purchase all the parts separately.

Our waitress... ugh... now I must add since they are just reopened they had signs all over the tables saying to be patient with the "new" waitstaff. But our waitress, I feel, was in a league of her own. We got our drinks, but she did not bring us straws. We saw everyone else had straws so we would ask for them when she came back for our meal order. 3 of the 5 of us finished our drinks (my grandmother and daughter NEEDED straws) and we had eaten all of our bread, but our waitress had not come back. She was busy sitting down and talking and laughing with another waitress in a nearby booth. She finally got up and went to the register (which was near our table) and I got up and asked her for straws, water, and bread. She literally threw the straws on the table with a look of disgust and turned around to get the water and bread. Ok... she came back and tossed the bowl of bread on the table. Fine. Then she took our meal orders.

She immediately went to the kitchen and brought out my moms meal- she had ordered an entree antipasto salad. So my mom was the only one with food and she wouldn't eat it because we wanted to eat together. So it just kind of sat there until everyone else's food comes. I realize its often customary to serve salads first, but because it was my mothers entree AND she was the only one, I feel like she should have been at least asked if she wanted it so early or to wait for the rest of the food.

After that our waitress went to a booth and sat down deep in conversation with another waitress. The (larger) group next to us had their food come and go with a different waitress. We were fuming, but waited for her to get up and check the kitchen. She finally brought out our food.

The food was a solid 10/10 for taste. I LOVE parassons. I missed it so much! The meatballs were melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and their sauce is slightly sweet. The pasta is cooked to perfection! The drawbacks being portion size and price.

During this time our waitress never once asked us how our meal was, nor did she refill our drinks.

After we finished our meal we sat there waiting for a take home box for my daughter and our check. It was 40 minutes. I finally got so annoyed I just grabbed a take home box myself since they were right next to me by their register. I packed up her food, but still no waitress. I grabbed another employee and asked for our check. She got our waitress, who brought the check. We paid immediately. We were not going to wait more.

As we were packing up to leave our waitress came back to the table and started collecting her tips while we were still at the table. This just seemed very rude. We are usually very generous tippers, but we only did 15%. She seemed satisfied..

We were there from 3:30-6pm. It was 2 and a half hours of waiting. Obviously not all the waitresses were like this because we did see a number of people come and go. But omg! This girl... she is definitely deterring me from going back more than anything. It was a pretty...

We called in and ordered a family size baked spaghetti with tomato sauce. The picture I have included in this shows that they must be afraid to put cheese on it. Also, the noodles were mushy, no al dente here and it was, for some reason extremely salty. Best thing about this meal was the garlic bread dipped in the house Italian dressing. This meal, was just under $42. Too bad it went in the garbage. Because calling to ask why it just isn't good or wanting a refund isn't going to happen. They just don't care. It really is such a shame This used to be in my top 3 all-time favorite places to have a sit down meal, with decent and affordable prices. They gave really good size portions of pasta, and they had absolutely yummy salads( I always got antipasta one with my meal). Their house Italian dressing was was my favorite, and it went well on the garlic bread also. BUT NOW....., they claim since COVID happened they don't even include any salad with your meal but charge you as if one came with your meal. Their prices went up for just pasta and they don't include a salad!! Come on now, I know Covid changed a lot of things and inflation hurt everyone. However, this is Italian restaurant that seems to no longer really want to satisfy their patrons in the same manner as pre- Covid. It is sad and very depressing that they have turned into the equivalent of a fast restaurant. It is no longer a much better than average, Italian sit-down restaurant, let alone a place for a take out meal.They just are not really the Parasson's I remember and sometimes crave so badly. I hope the owners read this and really think about bringing back the Parasson's they once were. It shouldn't be ALL about the money. I get wanting and needing to make money, but us customers need to be happy and continue to come back. If we don't keep coming back the money stops coming in. I know, for a fact, that I am not the only one that is disappointed how things are now here. Also.....I guess they are not much for being handicap accessible with the only entrance being up step. My Aunt, who is up in years, called and called and called to see if they could bring our order out to her and got no answer. She had no choice, but to go up the steps and then back down them. I believe there is AT LEAST 5 or 6 of them. Unfortunately this doesn't surprise me The meals(no salad included)are not what they used to be, why should customer service be any different. I really am sad this restaurant isn't what...

If you're going to charge as much as they charge, at least have a variety of food and keep your old recipes.

The items that are now currently gone - Alfredo sauce, grilled chicken, Tony special, Mickey special (cheesesteak), veal, french fries, onion rings, chicken tenders, sauteed green peppers/onions for anything, ravioli, all soups, almost all of the salad dressings.

This is all gone now. Your choice is pasta, pizza, salad, or subs made with pasta toppings. At an extremely inflated price - beyond what other restaurants have charged to keep up with inflation. I was still paying out the rear when they had Alfredo sauce (around $17-$19 if I recall for a baked penne with chicken and Alfredo, my favorite) since it's the only Alfredo I like anywhere, and just learned today that's gone too. Yet they're still serving up that subpar lasagna. What's next to cut from the menu? Cheese? Garlic Bread? Meatballs? The Creamy Italian dressing? I've never seen a menu shrink so much.

As for the food they DO have... This could just be my own taste buds, but the sauce tastes slightly different, and not better. There was a lot less cheese than they used to put even a year ago. The piece of hand-breaded chicken I got for the parm had dark spots on the chicken when you pulled the breading away and was very tough - I miss their old tenders so much! Or even the grilled chicken they used to have. The salads no longer have black olives and they've gone from 2 tomato slices to 1 (and mine was a core piece 🙄). After taking that off it was just lettuce, red onion and a little sprinkle of cheese 😁 this was over $20 for an entree (baked penne + chicken), side salad, & bread.

By all means, if you can put up with all that and are willing to pay $20/dinner with a $4 soda per person, I'm sure it's not busy and you'll get your food quick. It's such a shame to see this once thriving business run into the ground - that's why it's upsetting, when you knew how good it used to be. If it was the original recipes and there was more selection, it may almost be worth the prices.

No reason to order here any more, so will just head on down to Luigi's which is cheaper, better, and the recipes have never changed... You just have to wait a little longer for your table because...