Piada Italian Street Food — Restaurant in Akron

Upon entering the store, I see that there is no menu board, which I suppose makes it look less "fast casual," but also sets off alarm bells in my head because I have no reference as to how much my lunch will cost.

At the end of the line I see that there are some menu cards in a rack that provide some, but not all of the menu options with a few prices. The location of the rack gives you about a minute to decide what to order, which is not a good thing if arriving with a group; If you are new to the concept, you really slow up the line. Perhaps adding another box that is chock-full-o-menus at the back of the line would help a smidge.

The menu card does not appear to show all available menu items, nor is it clear as to what is included with each menu item, as if I am already supposed to know what's going on. As I learned later, it also does not include details (beyond the protein options with upsell prices) on all of the things that cost extra at the end of the service line....More alarm bells....

I ordered a large bowl with diavolo sauce and a meatball, and we headed into the minefield of "extras," some of which are included, while others are "upcharges." Did I mention that you have no idea which is which? Apparently the items I asked to be dropped into my bowl were not extra, but the guest ahead of me kept getting told her choices were an extra charge. She finally gave up and left with an almost-plain bowl and a very negative opinion of her experience. You might have lost another customer with that one.

It appears that you can add feta, parmesean, arugula, chopped peppers, squash/mushrooms and chickpeas without incident, but you're on your own for the rest of the offerings. Suffice to say that some guests won't notice or won't care if additional charges appear on their bill, but quite a few that have dined at older Piada locations where the "Chipotle" method of filling the bowl was offered will be turned off by the upsell experience.

I had ordered to go, and once I opened my bowl 10 minutes later, it appeared that my bowl was one-third full of somewhat dry pasta with 6 ounces of sauce, plus the free goodies I had on top. Slicing into my meatball, I observed that the interior of the meatball was the consistency of what I have to come to know as "hopefully barely fully cooked," as in it had the same texture of raw meatball mix. It was hot, but did not provide the reassurance of a meatball fully cooked to the center; the reassurance stopped about halfway, with a healthy dose of concern to the center. Let's just say I worked out my concerns and ate about half of the meatball. All of the other ingredients appeared to be fresh and of good quality.

The restaurant appeared clean and well-stocked, with plenty of open seating at Noon and almost nobody in line; My observation was that it was pricey for lunch, clearly more expensive than other revered area pasta options (including ones that offer a comp salad or soup plus free garlic breadsticks), and well past the $5 price point that has recently become so popular at competing restaurants in the area. Aside from the meatball debacle and the "escape from Upsell Island", it was well-presented and attractively packaged. I did not purchase a beverage, even though there are some tasty House Italian Sodas at the beverage bar. 3 Stars for menu confusion and meatball...

I walked in on 6/24/2020 I have visited on 2 other occasions, and didn't seem to have an bad experience, well I was in line and standing there. There was a female chef she wore a white chefs coat. She looked at me and still asked the lady behind me how she was and what she could get started for her. After the customer behind me placed her order. I waited another 2 mins to be acknowledged. She then asked if I were in line which was in itself an crazy question. Why would I be standing here if I weren't. I simply said yes, I started my order. And 2-3 more orders came in for online she still started those orders ahead of mine's. I placed an order for 2 bowls. With double protein and a soup! I waited for over 10 minutes. My bowls were already made and sitting on the counter as other orders were being placed and made. So I am just standing here with my baby on my hip waiting I was never told there was a wait for the protein. I just waited the customer service was over all terrible I didn't say anything then because with every thing that's going on now. I'd hate to simply complain about anything with fear of being mistreated or my food being tampered with. Michael was very nice I guess he could tell I was irritated and after he put the protein inside the bowls him and only him apologized. If chase didn't have an partnership to get extra % off my billing I would not have even bothered. It's just the fact that people can really look past you like you don't matter first the taking an order for someone who was behind me and the the wait while my food just sat on the counter getting cold. Without even simply saying we need to drop more is that okay with you. Yes, this will be my last time spending any money($40) here. I don't look forward to getting response if the staff can't even acknowledge any wrongs or simply provide a decent CS experience I am sure this will be another situation swept under...

I placed an order online today at work, and while eating my chicken salad I bit into something hard!! As I pulled whatever this was out of my mouth, to my surprise it was a chicken bone!! I'm so glad I was paying attention because I could have easily swallowed this bone!! Now, my coworker's and I order from this piada all the time, and we've even had lunch catered before for our agents! So, when I called and spoke with the manager Cameron about it, she was less then apologetic!! All she said was "Ok!" I was appalled! She then proceeded to say they've had a few complaints regarding bones in the chicken the past few weeks and there's nothing they can do about it! She offered no apology at all, nor did she act remotely interested at all!! The more and more I was on the phone the more upset I became! I asked for her District Managers name, and she said "I don't know!" WHAT? What do you mean you don't know! You're a manager! Then I told her my company is placing a large catering order with them on Thursday, and she still was very quiet and dry! Still really unapologetic or interested in anything I had to say! So I asked for her managers name, and what do you know, she at least knew that! Then I asked how long has she worked at this location, and she said first a while!! You've worked there for a while, and you're a manager, and you don't know you're District Managers name!! Unbelievable! I had to give her a little bit of management training 101! I told her she should be asking for my name and my phone number to have her manager follow up with me also!! Do you think she asked me? NO!! Needless to say, you better believe I will be talking to my company tomorrow about canceling our catering order!! We'll take our business to a company who cares about their customer experience just like we...