Piazza Sorrento — Restaurant in Derry Township

Let me tell you a story about being at home in a strange land... My wife and I always have difficulty deciding on a resturant while we are on the road. Often times we do not know where we are going until 5 minutes before we walk into an establishment. We had been at Hershey Park all day and were worn out. We were looking for a place to have supper (Yes, supper, I am and always will be a Southerner). My wife was doing her normal research on the phone while I was driving and we passed Piazza Sorrento. I said, "we are stopping here". We went in an and the hostess was a beautiful Italian grandmother told us If we don't have a reservation, we can't be seated. I asked if I could use the restoom and she graciously said "Of course". My lovely tired wife standing by the door must have had a very tired and sad look on her face (Her sad face gets me too). Mama, without asking spoke to one of her servers and asked if she could take two more people. When I came back my wife was happy again sitting at a two top to the side of the bar. It was a little crowded but it worked. Our server came to greet us with a million dollar smile with an attitude and personality to match.She brought us water and menus. The crowd around us was loud and friendly. I normally do not do loud but somehow this was different. Every one was extremely happy and in good moods. You could see almost everyone in the place knew each other and were regulars. We felt welcomed into the fold like we were family immediately. Had this been a different time and era I am quite sure we would have been hugged by the hostess and server. Our server was very attentive even though she had multiple other tables.She truly seemed to be happy we were there.

Food? Oh yes, there was food! My wife had the cheesy Baked penne and I had the trio. Delicious is an extreme understatement. The trio was Lasana, Alfredo, and chicken Parmesean. The freshly made pasta was very light and salted to perfection with the perfect amount of Ricotta cheese between the layers. The chicken was tender, moist, and flavorful. The pièce de résistance however was the alfredo. Never in my life have I had better! I could subtly taste the pasta, butter, and garlic. I have vowed to never insult this meal by attempting to make my own again.

The reason they were so full was a wedding reception in one of the back rooms. I feel if we had gone to the room we would have been welcomed as if we had known them all our lives. We got our ticket and it was quite reasonable for the quality of the food and atmosphere. As we were leaving I wanted to thank our "new grandmother" (for the record, she was likely no more than a year or two older than my wife and me). She was busy taking care of others with her personal touch so we left without saying good bye. When my wife and I are looking for a vacation place again Hershey will be in the consideration because of Piazza Sorrento in addition to all the other wonderful attractions...

I am sad to say I can no longer recommend Piazza Sorrento. I write this review in part as a tribute to what it was and a plea to the kitchen staff to find the spark that once fueled their great establishment.

Having eaten at Piazza Sorrento over the last nine years, it has only been the past year subject to my critique. When friends needed a recommendation for a bite to eat in Hershey, I’d send em to Sorrento. Consistently excellent for pizza and the best gluten free offerings in the state of Pennsylvania, it was a no brainer in my book. Having had three loved ones (including myself) encounter bowel distress and full on evacuations after eating the food at different times over the last year, I no longer can write glowing essays of praise.

Sorrento’s old world pizza is, on a good day, a wonderfully rich complex mouth experience. The pie is damp in tomato sauce and spices. It is a pizza pie unlike anything you ever encountered anywhere else in Central PA. If anyone knows of it’s equal, please share. Even when I moved away to Maryland, I still found reasons to occasionally drive an hour and a half just to indulge in this decadent treat. I have fond memories of friends and family sharing this pizza with me, reflecting on its flavor as we watched a sunset or contemplated life. I could easily eat a whole one all by myself.

My family ate one the other day on a family road trip. Driving thru Harrisburg I insisted on stopping at Sorrento. The pizza didn’t have its heart in it. Bland, dry and overcooked. Suddenly we were inundated by waves of nausea. We had to make detour after detour. My intestines fought the food the whole way down kicking and screaming. At one point, with no bathroom in sight, we had to pull off on the side of a roadway.

The other meal in question happened in 2021, and the meal ended in another family member having a rapid and steady evacuation after eating the gluten free pizza. We thought it was a fluke, but now we are reconsidering that initial assessment.

So traumatic was the experience that my family is taking a temporary hiatus from all pizza. It’s just too soon. I am going to have an impossible time convincing any of them to go back. Once you have to evacuate your bowels with no bathroom in sight, it’s hard to be up for a return trip.

May you dear reader have better luck...

I've been to this establishment twice ever so far. Let me say from multiple experiences, this place does not disappoint. If I could give 6 stars, I would. On our most recent visit, which is the one I am currently writing this at, my mother and I both had wonderful meals. I had the chicken fettuccine alfredo. If you like Olive Garden's fettucine alfredo, prepare to have your socks knocked off by this stuff. The sauce was creamy and delicious, with a perfect richness. The pasta was pasta that you could tell was fresh, with a chewy al dente bite and a perfect egg pasta flavor. The chicken was also very fresh, and it is to my knowledge not frozen, which is always nice. It was seasoned beautifully and had good grill char marks. My mother had the eggplant parmesan toasted sub. She said that the bread was crispy and that the eggplant completely melted in her mouth. Other highlights include our very fresh house salads, our incredible meatball appetizer (which was also beautifully seasoned and cooked), and the amazing toasted garlic bread. This place also has a wide variety of deserts to choose from, all of which looked delicious. Another small detail that I noticed was the attentiveness of staff. A patron in the table behind us had a gluten allergy, and the staff and chef worked diligently to make sure this patron had the same experience as everyone else. Very good! As an Italian myself, I could not give this place higher praise. Come here with an empty stomach!

Edit: Make sure to request Emily as a waitress. She was very good, very attentive, and gave great recommendations. She was also the singular server for more than 5 tables at...