Paravicini's Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Don't upgrade your salad! -

I made a reservation way in advance since i know this place is popular from my search for the trip. It was a right call since when we came here at 5:40 pm on labor day, there were people waiting already. The parking lot in the back still had a lot of spots then. I told them we came a bit too early, but they were able to get us seats right away.

I ordered the chicken Marco (Breaded chicken cutlet topped with four cheeses, red onion, tomatoes, garlic, basil & broccoli. Served over fettuccine Alfredo) for $27.95 and my husband ordered the Tutto Di Mare (Clams, shrimp, calamari, mussels & bay scallops over linguini in a red or white sauce, with a little bit) for $32.95.

The complimentary bread was good with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I had 3 pieces and that's a ton for me. My chicken Marco wasn't something I expected. The pasta was basically drenched in cheese, and it's too much cheese for me. I love tons of cheese on my pizza and everything else, but this was way too much... I'm not someone who asks them to remake the food, but my husband was nice enough to swap his dish with mine. I love his dish a lot with all the seafood, and the sauce was closer to a soup that you can drink. I actually ordered the chicken Marco since it's the most popular dish on yelp, but I guess I generally prefer less sauce than others and that was the wrong move for me.

The dinner comes with free salad, and the salads were $4.95 each originally. You don't have to pay if it's their house salad, which is amazing btw. It has Shredded cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce, spinach, bread crumb. The dressing was also just right, so I enjoyed it a lot. Our server told us it would be a few dollars extra for the upgrade, so my husband got the Cesar salad. It was just a regular Cesar salad with nothing special and you have to pay the full price of $4.95 for it. Don't do it, it's not worth it. I hope they'd make it more clear about the upgrade price too because we have never been charged this much for a salad upgrade (usually it's like $2-3 extra). That's why I hate platitude.. people need to be more specific when they talk, or it's just misleading... The Cesar isn't worth the $4.95 before tax price. You can get a Safeway Cesar with bacon and tons more bread crumb and cheese for less.. bigger portions and tastes even better LOL! So I repeat, don't do the salad upgrade!!!!!

The server was cool though, he refilled my water once and he wasn't snobby or anything. There is also an inflation fee of 3% here as well, but that's more understandable than the salad upgrade since you essentially downgraded your salad at a higher price lol.

The portion is big here and we had to take our food back. This is definitely a portion...

Paravicinis has good food, lots of options, and okay pricing for food. I say okay pricing since the portion sizing is massive but doesn't really equate to the best quality. It's good italian but not mind-blowing. If the portioning was smaller, it wouldn't be worth the price.

It is quite cramped in the restraunt and if you do not make a reservation ahead of time for anything larger than a party of two, you may be on a 20 minute wait (especially during peak summer season.)

The server was nice initially and brought waters immediately. I love a good cocktail, so I was happy to see the menu had some classics like the Negroni, Sidecar, and Brandy Alexander. As a guest, if I see these classics on the menu, I assume the bar has the proper tools to make them. I also assume the staff understands how to talk about cocktails in general.

So I received my Sidecar, which had the amount of glaciers the Antarctic has. With so many ice chips floating in the cocktail, you have to drink it fast since it will dilute and flatten the cocktail. This honestly wasn't the worst thing ever, but since I saw I got a cocktail "SERVED UP" I asked the server how they prepared the cocktails if I were to order a Nergroni served up. I mentioned the ice in my cocktail and just wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again or just get something else instead. She did mention that she bartends about once or twice a week in the morning and doesn't know what she is doing at the time I visited. So, I specifically asked if the bartender stirs cocktails served up. Long story short she did not understand anything that was being asked, assured that the cocktail will be served up, gives me a Negroni on the rocks, proceedes to say it's stirred then gets it remade properly served up. While she was getting my drink remade, she had no shame gossiping to the bartender about the whole situation. Now, this wouldn't be an issue if she was more polite, listened, and tried to actually understand what I was asking.

It was a shame to get this experience as many places in Colorado Springs, especially like by so many have all the boxes checked in the service industry. I unfortunately won't give Paravacinivis another chance this season.

P.S I am very understanding, patient, and forgiving when it comes to service, especially if it's busy. I bartend in the industry myself, and it was very unprofessional for the server to...

Have been going to Paravicini's since they opened in Colorado Springs in 2003 and we have always made sure to dine there whenever we're in the neighborhood. We've always had amazing food and service and have told many friends and family of how good it is, but unfortunately we actually had a poor experience last week when we dined there. It was a Sunday night and the restaurant was very busy, which is typical. We ordered Chicken Carsoni and Rigatoni Carmella and both dishes we're completely under cooked with the cream sauce in both nothing but warm cream and had obviously not been sauteed anyway near enough to thicken as is normal for any type of dish like this. The broccoli in both was warm, but almost raw... Extremely surprising as having eaten here dozens of times through the years, these dishes had always been prepared exactly and perfectly the same every time. To clarify, we were in the Springs for a long weekend and had eaten there two nights before and also had the Chicken Carsoni which was perfectly cooked, as was usual. Additionally we should also mention that the chef apparently has decided, based on what two different wait staff told us, that they no longer warm their bread. What we received both nights was an unappetizing, almost cold Italian loaf that was somewhat hard as served. We actually took some leftovers home from Friday night and warmed the leftover bread a little in the microwave, and it tasted great. At our return for Sunday night at dinner we asked our server if they could warm up the bread a little in the microwave and was told that the chef refuses to do that because it's "family recipe" and that they don't allow that. Huh??? I've worked managing restaurants when I was young and know from experience that the customer is always right. Hard to understand that regardless of the desired "recipe" that they may have, that they would not be willing to heat up some bread. How does that work if an entree is served cold/or has gotten cold on the table and a customer would like it to be re-warmed a little? Fairly surprising from our perspective. Having seen a number of other negative reviews recently, we hope this isn't a trend from such an amazing and loved restaurant. We'll probably try it again with hope that this isn't...