Illiano's Pizzeria & Restaurant — Restaurant in Colchester

This used to be a good place, but it's gone downhill. On one visit, I ordered stuffed shells. The dish the waitress brought to me didn't look like that. But the waitress insisted twice that it was stuffed shells. I was poking through it with my fork, and she came back and said, "That's eggplant parmesan." She whisked it out from under my fork, and I didn't see or hear from her for another ten minutes. I had to hunt her down, and asked, "What did you do, start another one from scratch?" She said yes, and it would be another ten minutes. My wife was already halfway done with her meal. I was very angry by that time, and told her I didn't want it. She asked me if she could do anything else, and I said no. I said no twice. She kept pestering me until I said, "No means no. Please drop it, because I don't want to lose my temper. I want to be able to come back." On our next visit, as we were waiting for our meal, a waitress came and cleared the dishes from the table across from us, and brushed everything else on the table directly onto the floor. It wasn't just crumbs. When our waitress came back, I told her the mess didn't look very appetizing, and asked if she could sweep it up. She gave out a gasps, and then recovered and said, "Oh, it's no problem. I'm closing anyway, so I'll sweep it up." It was only 7:30, nowhere near closing time, and the mess remained there throughout our meal. Who wants to eat in a dirty restaurant? During the ordering, my wife asked if they had shrimp scampi. The waitress said it was usually a special, but she would check with the kitchen. She came back saying yes, and my wife chose fettuccine noodles. The dish was very dry. It didn't seem like there was any sauce on the noodles at all. The noodles themselves tasted more like the bagged Dutch noodles than fettuccine. We've decided we're...

Well now, I’ll tell ya—we stopped into Illiano’s Ristorante & Pizzeria over in Colchester on a Sunday for lunch, and right off the bat I noticed the main dining room was closed. I don’t know what that was all about, but we made do! Sat ourselves down and let me tell you, the service folks were real nice. They smiled, they brought the food out timely.

Now let’s talk about that Margherita pizza—mercy! The flavor was somethin’ special. That sauce? Woo-wee, had a real zip to it! Cheese was meltin’ just right. But here’s the thing: the crust had so much flop, it was like tryin’ to wrangle a wet towel. I picked up a slice and—whap!—it folded over on itself like it was shy or somethin’. Made for a mighty messy time, I’ll tell ya that much.

Prices were fair, didn’t feel like I had to mortgage the house, and we left full, if not a little sauced up (and not the fun kind). I reckon I’d go back, just hopin’ next time that crust has a little...

A decent place for a meal. The price is reasonable. The service is pleasant though it can be a bit slow.

The dinner items are well prepared but mostly pretty bland. Their pizza is actually quite good, most of the time, but that is the catch.

For me the problem with Illiano's of Colchester is inconsistency. When they are doing well, the meals are a bit better than average and the pizza is excellent! Other times it can be below par.

Consistency is one of my main criteria for rating restaurants. If I am not sure what I am going to get when I place an order, how can I recommend it? For example, McDonald's is hardly gourmet or even very fast food BUT, when I place an order at McDonalds 99% of the time I get what I expect.

On a bad day this place barely rates 2 stars yet on a good day it easy rates 4 stars based the pizza and other related bready baked items. So I give them 3 stars but take it with a few...