Piada Italian Street Food — Restaurant in Carmel

I am a health foodie person always struggling to find a healthy yet affordable and fast lunch place that is equally attractive to me and my teenage son who does not mind some fried food, mac cheese, or steaks even though he is OK with greens and veggies, too. This cute Piada Italian place fits the bill. My son and husband were happy with their spaghetti/greens/steak bowl, I was pretty happy with my salad/calamari bowl. You get your food from the counter, but it's very easy to order because it's very balanced in variety (a healthy mix of greens, carbs, dairy, and protein) and simplicity making it easy to grasp if you are new to the place. You can choose a fixed recipe or customize it when ordering if you are to exclude grains/dairy/meat from your bowl. I was especially impressed by the FRESHNESS of the ingredients - your avocado pieces are cut from a whole avocado right in front of you - WOW - and parmesan cheese is manually grated from a solid piece right in your bowl - fantastic!-, the greens were truly fresh, the protein was cooked in very small batches - we had to wait for ours for a couple of minutes to be served right from the stove into our bowls. The service staff is very efficient and friendly. Another WOW factor was they did not force a tip collection on you which seems to be rampant almost everywhere. We've had a very satisfying lunch for $10 per person (for a small portion) of the highest quality food you can get for the money and time. The only downside was a lack of coffee which I expected from the Italian street cafe. Nice espresso would bring us into a bliss, for sure :). Anyway, this Piada Italian will be my first choice for a quick affordable lunch whenever we are in this area for sure and I highly recommend it to everyone who looks for more greens and quality protein in your diet or...

Came here for the 1st time on a Saturday for my Father's Day meal with the family, and not disappointed at all. It has a Qdoba-like feel as you approach the ordering area where the employees prepare your meal as you work your way down through the various options.

I chose a Piada ($7.49), which is sort of like a burrito, but didn't do one of their pre-sets as I wanted to include certain fillings that weren't all included in the listed options. I chose to go veggie so that my wife could sample my selection, and added mixed greens, spinach, parmesan, mozzarella, zucchini and mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, onions, roasted sweet potatoes along with diavolo sauce and spicy ranch to give it a kick. I forgot to include pasta as I had seen that as a recommendation in the reviews I read, but it was still awesome tasting nonetheless and I would definitely do it again. My son did a piada with chicken ($9.58), and my wife and daughter chose a Power Bowl ($10.49) and a Farmer's Market Salad ($8.99). They each also indicated that they would order their items again.

To get a range of their menu items, we also chose a Piada stick ($2.99) and Calamari ($5.99). The stick was a little disappointing as it was just a flat doughy item with pepperoni in it (although we tried to order the parmesan option). However, the calamari seemed like an amazing value and tasted great. It wasn't too greasy nor were they rubbery. There were enough in the order that it seemed like it could be a meal unto itself. I'm not sure I could go again and not order it.

So overall, very much enjoyed the entree items as well as calamari. Only real knock is the location since it's not that close to where we live. They need to add a location in the Grand Park area in Westfield because there is nothing like it...

Wowww, this place has fallen off hard. Walking in almost passed out from the stench of sewer, was with my sister who had never been there so I stayed. Everyone, no exaggeration, that works there literally looks like they just got out of prison. Blank expressions, no smiles, no personalities, long greasy hair with no nets, dirty-looking with nasty looks on their faces and attitudes to match. The one girl greets us like we've arrived at a funeral, then proceeds to scold me for reaching my hand over the glass?? I was literally just pointing out what was available to my sister. I said excuse me? She said it again. I apologized. When she asked me what I wanted I said no, I don't want you to make it, she can, and pointed at her co-worker who was just as obtuse, these people barely know how to speak. She acted like her work space was so pristine when all of the toppings looked disgusting and were scattered everywhere, it was a mess back there, I mean really gross. Then they shorted us a pepperoni stick so I asked for another one and was struggling to use their new card machine while the employee stared blankly at the wall, not doing a damn thing to help. Well, she didn't like that because she told me she hoped my day got better. Again, I said excuse me? I said honey, my day is going just fine! Well, she really didn't like that and all of the employees, including THE MANAGER, were mean mugging us, all loudly whispering about how I had just wounded them so badly, (my sister and I took our time, ignored them, and kept on laughing and as I left they made sure to yell have a nice day to which I gave them a firm one finger salute. Bad vibes, bad people, wretched customer service, food wasn't that great either and actually stunk of sewer. Never going back! Avoid...