Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Bloomington

TL/DR: If I could figure out how to do it, when I go back I'd order "one of each" and love every bite of it!

Ok, I confess, I'm becoming somewhat of a foodie. Or maybe at the level of an apprentice foodie. That said, this place was amazing. They would do tremendously well in my home town of Pasadena, CA, a place known for its excellent restaurants.

We loved the food, and the service was almost as perfect as you could get (perhaps better - more in a bit.)

Starting with the food - the homemade breads were just great. And instead of the balsamic and olive oil dip Italian restaurants often serve, at Biaggi's they start with a serving of grated fresh Parmesan, pour the oil from the decanter that is on your table, and grind fresh pepper over that. It's outstanding - I'll have to try that at home. Though I don't know what to do about getting the fresh baked potato bread (never had that before. It's wonderful).

I started with the house salad, my husband had the Mediterranean. Both dressings had just the right seasonings (full of flavor without being overpowering) and combination of veggies.

At our server's recommendation, I had the baked ziti. I haven't had better anywhere. Shrimp, chicken, onions, creamy lobster sauce (and other stuff!), blended perfectly. My husband had the lasagna and chicken parmesan combo. When I tasted the lasagna, I thought, "Oh, that's what lasagna's supposed to taste like. Now I know."

I wish I'd had room to try the crab cakes appetizer or a dessert. And I wanted to try every soup our server described. As it was, I took home half my entree, leaving feeling quite satisfied (ok, I'll admit, almost overfull. Well maybe stuffed would be more accurate. The food was too good to stop when I should have.)

Now about the service. Our server, Gary I believe, was outstanding. Personable, friendly, knowledgeable, and so helpful. Always there if you needed something, seeming to appear out of thin air at the right time.

So, while I was composing this review in my mind (yes, I do that), one of the serving assistants brought our entrees when we were about halfway through our salad course. I had just finished mentally composing, "the service was great, but the timing was less than perfect" when Gary came by and apologized sincerely for the entrees coming way too early. Wow. I hadn't said a thing. My expression hadn't changed. He just knew what was right and made sure we knew that he wanted both the food and the dining experience to be just right.

In my reviews here, I often give 5 stars to really good places - I don't want to ding an establishment with a 4 star when there's no real important reason. So I wish this review system had a check mark which said "honestly, don't check this unless the place was substantially better than outstanding". Biaggi's would get a double check. Need I say,...

The food quality at Biaggi's Bloomington has declined significantly over the past several months or longer.

One of the meatballs in the spaghetti with meatballs I recently ordered (Dec. 17, 2023) was simply repulsive. It was nearly impossible to cut with a fork. Once I finally succeeded in cutting partially through it, I realized the pieces remained connected by a sinewy (tendons-like), presumably organic string structure.

I have never before observed anything like this in a meatball!

The above is the third dissatisfying experience I've had at Biaggi's since June of 2023. In late June, the chicken in my wife's gluten free chicken parmesan was under-cooked. By itself, this was not the end of the world. It appeared, however, that the gluten free breaded chicken had been prepared offsite. My wife surmised some months earlier that the gluten free eggplant parmesan was prepared offsite. So, as a fan of the regular chicken parmesan, she figured she might be better served by rolling with the gluten free chicken. In contrast to the regular chicken parmesan, however, the GF chicken consists of chicken tenders--akin to Tyson's "fully cooked" frozen microwaveable strips. To say this was disappointing would be an understatement. And while the manager was appropriately apologetic about the under-cooked chicken and comped her dish, that didn't change the disappointment accompanying Biaggi's obvious corners cutting.

In October of 2023, it was my turn to be disappointed. I ordered the chicken parmesan and lasagna combo plate. I'm not sure if the lasagna was overcooked or just left over from the previous evening. But the lasagna was not fresh.

Since I have been dining at Biaggi's in Bloomington since 2001, I was reluctant to conclude that the above were anything but isolated goofs-- even if utilizing prepared GF offerings is really problematic. I want to reiterate that I am a longtime fan of Biaggi's and have regularly frequented the restaurant for more than 20years. Apropos of my most recent experience with the sinewy meatball, however, it may be a while before I return to...

Biaggi’s catered our wedding reception and we could not be more pleased with their food and service! First of all, DawnMichelle was amazing to work with. She took the time to meet with us and answer all of our questions. She provided suggestions, but ultimately was flexible and provided us the exact service we asked for. Once we booked with Biaggi’s, we were provided a tasting service that was extremely impressive. The staff that served our food was professional and the food was delicious! Because of this tasting, we decided to use Biaggi’s not only for our reception, but also for our cocktail hour food. Biaggi’s provided bruschetta, fried ravioli, charcuterie, and veggie and fruit plates for our cocktail hour. Our guests raved about how good the food was even before our reception started! For our reception, we chose a garden salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and fettuccine alfredo with chicken for dinner. Everything tasted amazing! Since we had vegetarians in attendance, Biaggi’s gladly offered the meatballs and chicken on the side. They also provided green beans with peppers as another dish that tasted amazing and was a great alternative for vegetarians. We also had a couple gluten-free guests and DawnMichelle provided special noodles for those guests. We even had a guest that forgot to mention that he had celiac disease on his RSVP and DawnMichelle came prepared with extra gluten-free noodles to give that guest. The professionalism alone would have given Biaggi’s a 5-star review, but it also helps that their food tasted incredible and was a big hit with our guests. We would choose Biaggi’s over and over again for our wedding if we could. Thank you, Biaggi’s, for providing us such great service and making our day even more special than we could...