Piacquadio's Italian Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Castle Shannon

We’ve passed by this place many times and finally had a chance to stop in on a Friday night for dinner. Since this was a bit of a whim, we were worried about a lack of a reservation especially given that the parking lot was really full – and it was a Holiday to boot! – but they have spots reserved for their patrons right outside their front door which had one available. And, when we walked in, there were open tables.

The restaurant itself is very unassuming. It is also very family oriented. Looking around at the clientele, every other party featured between two and three generations of families with kids from two years old and up to 90 years young. The staff are clearly veterans who’ve been with this restaurant for many years as they interacted flawlessly with the kitchen and each other. In our case, our waitress made a mistake (put in the wrong dish), and when it was pointed out to her, immediately owned up to it and got it corrected.

Right after we ordered, we were presented with the bread plate. This featured three slices of white Italian bread and some pats of butter. While the bread was fresh and had a nice crust, we would have preferred for it to have been warmed up a tad. The butter was room temperature so it spread nicely.

Each entrée comes with a choice of soup or salad as well as side dishes. We both went with the salads for the appetizer and did not select separate appetizers. The salads were obviously prepared much earlier and stored in the fridge as they came out immediately after we gave our order on very cold plates. They were pretty standard with lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, black olives, and grape tomatoes, and a side container of your choice of dressing. Adequate but nothing special.

Almost as soon as we finished the salads, our plates were whisked away. A few minutes later, our entrees and sides arrived. Unfortunately, this is when we discovered that my entrée was wrong. We called our waitress over and explained the situation. She immediately owned up to it, took the dish away and went to the kitchen to correct the error. While waiting, we started in on the other entrée and the side dishes.

The broccoli was simply cooked in water and was done right, but was pretty flavorless otherwise. The penne was cooked and then tossed in a butter and garlic sauce. When we combined the two sides, they complemented each other extremely well.

At this point, we were not too impressed with the restaurant as nothing particularly good had happened yet.

Now my Chicken Marsala arrived to join the Zucchini Parmesan that was delivered earlier. We had not seen Zucchini Parmesan on any menu before, so we had to order it. What it was, was planks of breaded and fried zucchini with a wonderful seasoned red sauce and cheese layered together. Fantastic! The Chicken Marsala was pounded thin and the Marsala sauce was deeply flavorful and the mushroom quarters that were cooked in it must have been simmering in the sauce for a long while as they absorbed the flavors completely. A wonderful example of how to do this dish correctly.

These two entrees elevated our experience along with the way the staff handled the whole evening. Mistakes happen, but this one was handled correctly and efficiently.

We ended up with leftovers. The total cost for the meal – which included two glasses of wine and tip – was around $30 per person which is very good for a nice night...

On Monday, August, 22, 2023 we went to dinner at Piacquadio's Italian Restaurant & Lounge and I ordered the Alfredo with shrimps. The waitress was funny, friendly and the food was delicious. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning. I didn't realize it until I woke up 4am in the morning with severe cramps, nausea, and diarrhea. Today is Thursday, August 24, and I still have diarrhea. Fortunately, I've been able to consume a small amount of food today.

I wonder if the chef knew the shrimps were bad, because I observed him visiting the dining area about five times. I think he was checking in on me to see if I got sick or not in the dining room.

FYI, don't order lemons for your water because they charge 30¢ per slice. Also, beware of the shrimps, it might be a bad batch.

UPDATE:

Response from restaurant: “It's highly unlikely you got food poisoning from here. I'd look into what you ate Saturday or Sunday. If the shrimp was bad you would have known as soon as it hit the table.”

My reply: It appears that you turned off the “leave a review” so I’m going to reply to your comment here.

What makes you so certain that I did not get food poisoning a few hours after from eating at your restaurant? I worked in four restaurants in the past 3 years, and it’s HIGHLY POSSIBLE that I GOT FOOD POISONING FROM YOUR RESTAURANT!!! You can easily mask the credibility of your dishes in a sauce and no one will ever know it while consuming the tainted dish at the table.

It appears that you may need to get a better systems to maintain and properly store your dairy and/or seafood and get rid of the old, outdated and/or spoiled items.

Note: If you deny it again, I’ll make sure you get a surprise visit from the health...

In the time where customer service is no longer the norm: While this used to be the best Italian restaurant in the South Hills, the customer service aspect has completely left the building. We were a party of 9 (6 adults, 2 bigger kids and a toddler. 3 handicapped people in the group). We waited over an hour to be seated. Okay we were patient. Totally understand that we were a bigger party and to make it work right certain tables had to be available for us all to be seated together. We ask if we could then have 2 separate tables so we could get seated faster, we're told that's not possible. Not sure why but okay, no problem we continue waiting. We finally get seated at what was an already cramped 8 top, with the high chair crammed in on one side of the table. My grandmother would have realistically had her plate in her lap. So first we get told the only place we can move Grandma's walker is by the bathrooms, cool. Then, to give us more room, we try to put the high chair at the head of the table only to be told that wasn't allowed. Again, not sure why as it wouldn't have been in the walk way area. We said enough is enough and left. Tried to air our grievances to the owner who couldn't be bothered. Unfortunately, I guess our business will be going elsewhere when we crave Italian. Should have gone to Armstrong's. It's a shame, in a time where well established Mom & Pop restaurants are dropping left and right that owners don't care about...