DiCicco's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Denver

A coworker chose this place. It’s located in the hotel ghetto near the Denver airport, where it has a somewhat captive audience. I only noticed one other place within walking distance, a Chili’s or something similar.

You may detect that my expectations were low, and you are correct. Fortunately they were exceeded. I had a personal pizza, which was fresh, tasty, and more than large enough. Our party shared an appetizer of fried calamari, which was perfectly cooked and not at all oily. One of my companions had the veal marsala, which they rated a thumbs up.

The decor is over the top, in that uniquely Italian way. The dining room is huge, with multiple levels. You will feel like you are eating in the Colosseum in Rome, but instead of gladiatorial combat you are treated to black and white movies (without sound, thankfully) on a big screen.

Our server was very cheerful, friendly, and just the right amount of attentive. She was helpful with questions and clearly knew the menu well.

If you don’t check out the web site before visiting, the food might not be the only thing that exceeds your expectations. Maybe the marinara is simmered for days by an Italian grandmother using tomatoes she grew in her backyard, but $18.99 for a plate of spaghetti with red sauce (as one example) seems steep to me. Luckily my boss was paying, so my similarly priced pizza wasn’t a concern. Keep in mind also that unless you are paying with cash, you will be dinged an extra 3.95% for paying with a credit card.

Examining the menu reveals more little surprises that may rankle. A $3.99 “plate charge” for splitting an entree? So they serve huge portions and then penalize you for not wanting to waste food? How many people staying in an airport hotel have a way to save leftovers? Warnings about not splitting checks, extra charges for takeout and substitutions round out the fine print.

These are the types of things that leave a bad taste in my mouth. The impression left is either that the place is having trouble making ends meet, and stacking on extra charges in a desperate grab for greater revenue, or that the management is simply petty. Not flattering either way.

If you are craving quality Italian food near the Denver airport (and cost isn’t a factor), or looking for a place to host your big fat Italian wedding reception, check out DiCicco’s. Just make sure you read...

My wife and I stopped in for a late lunch / early dinner with a few hours to kill before her flight out of DIA. I didn’t expect much being that this place was tucked in with all the hotels near the airport. Walking into the main dining area was really quite impressive with three levels of dining, all very nicely decorated. The video projected on the 2-story wall I’m sure is very entertaining for the young ones, but the quiet and almost romantic accompanying music was quite pleasant and added nicely to the overall experience.

Now on to the food ... I thought everything was very tasty! Wait staff was very welcoming and our waitress immediately brought us out some warm house-baked bread that smelled fantastic and tasted just as good. We started with the Bruschetta Tomato Bread. It was a very large portion for an appetizer and full of mouthwatering flavors. We then shared a house salad with “Blue Ranch” dressing — yes, that’s ranch dressing with blue cheese in it — a very tasty mix of flavors and not overpowering. We also shared a cup of minestrone soup, which could have used more seasoning, but after adding some salt and pepper, was still pretty good. My wife had the manicotti with meatballs, and I ordered the beef ravioli with two meatballs. Both were excellent! Meatballs were definitely freshly hand-made and the marinara sauce was seasoned perfectly. My wife said her manicotti was delicious, and my ravioli was, too.

With still plenty of time before having to head over to the airport, we sat enjoying the music for awhile before ordering desert. I had been disappointed not seeing cannolis on the desert menu earlier, but was overjoyed when our waitress started off with, “We have a cannoli special for Valentine’s Day.” I ordered that and my wife had the tiramisu. Expecting the traditional cannoli on a plate drizzled with chocolate syrup, I was quite surprised to see how this cannoli was served (see picture) — very beautifully done and in a way the cannoli shell would never wind up soggy on the bottom as so many do. Both the tiramisu and the cannoli were a wonderful way to finish our meal.

Any time we are around DIA in the future, DiCicco’s will be our...

Came here during the WAI conference (March 2025) as we were craving “a meal after long show days. We were greeted warmly by the hosts and chatted with- there seemed to be no wait time and the atmosphere was lively and friendly. Oddly enough it felt like once we told the waitress we wanted to “share the meal” we “disappointed” our waitress. It wasn’t a financial decision- just trying to cut back on evening meals/calorie intake. We ordered the trio to split- and were told there was a $4.99 “sharing plate fee”. We said that was fine. (On this date, the trio was $21.99). We also were just drinking water (we don’t typically order drinks). We then asked if bread came with the meal and were told yes. We asked if we could do the homemade pasta and were told that was ALSO $4.99- which we were also fine with (again- not a cost choice-) Food came quickly and was hot. She offered fresh grated cheese which was great. We enjoyed the meal and added a crème brûlée to share. The crème brûlée was honestly perfection-

Surprisingly- she came with the bill and it was $51– in my mind, because we were sharing- I mentally thought the total would be about $30 ish. So I asked her- she pulled the ‘receipt’ up on the hand held screen which essentially indicated the trio at the $21.99 and 4-$4.99 fees and then $8 for the crème brûlée.

Due to fatigue and not wanting to bicker about their additional fees we just paid the bill and left a generous tip— but in discussing as we drove back to hotel realized it was not a meal worth $60. The additional fees to have homemade pasta and to share the meal and the dessert are ridiculous when the portion was not equated to $22 of food.

We would recommend the restaurant for the personality of those when we arrived, the flavors and atmosphere. But waitstaff and added fees were a...