Piccolo Mondo — Restaurant in Arlington

On a Monday night this place is beyond empty. My wife and I came in at 8:45pm (made a reservation online) and only found another couple there quietly dining. As you enter there is a medium between the outside and the restaurant that's a 3'x5' room where a neon-lit sign tells you the specials of the day. Strange touch. Appealing atmosphere in a 3-star hotel sort of way. Cheap chairs that are nicely cushioned, cheap foam ceiling squares, darkly patterned carpet to match the chairs. The bar area was made of an older wooden floor, nice touch for a small place. White, brown, khaki, and dark greens seem to be the shades of choice here. I do not advise coming on a day when the pianist isn't playing, as the music they play is a horrid mix of 80's and 90's pop-romantic and rock music. I thought I was somewhere between Hard Rock Cafe and Olive Garden with the music. Each table has an oil lamp, small but cute - not stylish really. Tables are set up neatly and arranged as needed for your party. The flimsy menus were stained slightly by some dry tomato sauce. Prices were similar to that of what is on their website. They brought us some of their bread as we waited, a very nice and crisp, but soft, baguette platter with a square of butter on the side. We weren't interested in the wine menu, but they have quite a large wall of peculiar wines. I hate to be harsh, but the service was appalling. I had my water glass filled maybe 3 times the entire 2 hour meal. The glasses they give you for water are small, as they should be, but I drink water quickly. And being that it was our only drink for the night, they should have catered more properly. Each time it was filled more ice was added to the cup, ending up to only giving you two to three swigs before the water was depleted. We were never once asked how the meal was once it was given to us. Never even given the opportunity to applaud their cooking even if I wanted to. This was so absurd as even people at fast-food chains like Chipotle or even Buffet places like Golden Corral will ask "How is everything?" more often than at this place. Maybe it was because it was a dead Monday evening, but even then, live up to your image. We ordered a tortellini appetizer, which was tasteful. Creamy, but not too thin. However, the tortellini was overcooked and slightly soggy. I could have made the same thing with Buitoni's stuffed tortellini and some Alfredo sauce. Their Alfredo did taste good, however. Nice ratio of Parmesan to cream and butter. Wonderful with the bread. When he had asked us if we wanted the soup or house salad that came with the meal, we had decided on getting their Caesar salad, he replied "So you wish to Upgrade to the Caesar salad?" I'm sorry, but for an italian joint, "Upgrading" my salad isn't what I'm expecting to do, but I did. Man, that was just out of character on his part. The salad, sadly, tasted bland. Refrigerated lettuce, tasted like seafood. Was slightly crisp, going soft, but every bite brought me the slight twist of seafood in its tang. Now the main course. I had ordered a Eggplant Parmesan dish, but he suggested the Chicken Parmesan as a daily special. My wife had ordered the supposedly famous Lasagna from them. Both were covered in their house marinara sauce which, oddly and sadly to say, tasted similar to that of Chef-Boyardee's tomato sauce. That was very disappointing. Every bite I thought I was biting into a can of that sauce. The cheese was appealing, noodles in my Chicken Parmesan were cooked perfectly. Her lasagna, though extraordinarily hot, was delicious after cooled. It was good food, but the only thing that couldn't get past me was that Chef-Boyardee's tomato sauce flavor.

I do wish to return to give this place another chance. I will not be trying anything that includes a tomato sauce. And I will be returning on a night where the piano player is there. I took a photo of the Lasagna and my Chicken Parmesan, I'll be adding them to the...

I went with my date for Valentine's Day, and the atmosphere was warm with live music and solid, yet muted, orange tones in decor. The staff are extremely attentive: our water glasses were always full and there was a relatively short waiting period between courses (there was always food on our table).

I'm not sure if everyone else in our section were regulars, or have maybe supported the place for a while in general, but an older gentleman who I guessed was the owner stopped at virtually every other table but ours at some point in the time we were there.

The food definitely has its own identity, and I got to enjoy the linguine with clam sauce. It was the best I've ever had, to the point where i was finishing the sauce with bread. However, the carpaccio is quite unique with a dressed slaw in the middle of the dish, and is definitely not for those who enjoy a more standard approach to carpaccio. The lasagna was wonderful (I am overruling my partner's much more critical opinion of the dish, since they like ricotta more than bechamel). Both of our mains came with a salad, which was fine, though I wish it was dressed before being plated (Maybe it's a skill issue on my part, but mixing dressing into salad on a flat plate took more time than I thought it would).

We also had the mussels marinara, which was nice, and the sorbet; the available flavors that night were coconut and lemon, and the coconut sorbet was served in such a cute shell which kept the inside cool. Both the seafood dishes were served with the specific fork and spoon to remove the meat from the shells (the smaller ones, you know the type) and a bowl for the shells. Some things may not have been to my taste, but the attention to detail is undeniable, and that alone makes the dining experience here worth it.

For waters, two appetizers, two mains, and a dessert, the bill coming out to less than $100 was a decent ending to the night. I'm not too sure how the tip out situation works between the servers and the staff dedicated to water, but everyone was doing an...

A stuckup Maitre' D spoils what should have been awesome. We won't come again.

This restaurant deserves five stars, the food was excellent. Indeed I will say that it was some of the best Italian food we have had in years. Also except for the aforementioned maitre'd, the staff was also excellent, world-class even.

Let me set the stage, we had a dear friend who had an absolutely awful week at work. We had arranged to hang out at a convention but work interfered and she arrived so late that the convention was just ending.

So we wanted to take her out to some place nice. We have two daughters a two year old, and an infant. Now my two year old is not always the most well behaved, but that night she did us proud. We had three other patrons, come up and tell us specifically how well behaved our daughters were and how nice it was to see them.

So we had good food and good conversation, but the maitre'd did NOT like us being there. He even came over, leaned against the pillars facing our table, and frowned at us at one point with his arms crossed, like he was waiting for our daughters to do something that would warrant him throwing us out.

So in sum, a nice posh place, and as I said the rest of the staff was excellent and polite. But frankly Italian restaurants are a place I associate with family. A place with all the trappings but without that family spirit isn't somewhere I want to eat.

As we were leaving I smiled and started to thank the Maitre'd for the meal, and he cut me off with a brusque "THANKYOUHAVEAGOODNIGHT." The words all ran together as though he could not spit them out fast enough.

He did Not ask us to come again, and rest...