Il Forno Pizzeria — Restaurant in Frederick

We came here for date night after seeing a movie and visiting Barnes & Nobles. My girlfriend's uncle loves this place but we'd never been so we figured no better time like now to give it a try. So I'll give you the full recap of my experience. The outside looked like it could be nice when it's better weather out as they had outdoor seating. The inside reminded me of classic pizza places from my childhood like Uno's and they had a sign that said you could seat yourself but on the opposite of the sign there is the option to switch it when they are busy to "please wait to be seated".

THE FOOD:

Food was excellent as it arrived quickly and was hot to the touch. We had to give it time to cool down it was so hot. My girlfriend and I ordered a few appetizers. She LOVES mozzarella sticks so you know we just had to try em'! They were full of cheese perfect for the epic cheese pull. We also got an order of garlic bread which was very good, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. We ordered a soda for her and a tea for myself. Then we each got our own pizzas. She got barbecue chicken pizza and I got pepperoni pizza. We both enjoyed the selections we chose. I even had a slice of hers to try but she's not a fan of pepperoni so we also got chicken parmesan pasta. The chicken was coated in a nice batter for crispiness but tender enough on the inside to still be enjoyable and flavorful. I got a crab pretzel and it was good.

THE SERVICE:

So this portion of the review is where they lose one star from me. When we first arrived we got service from a gentleman named Ethan. However after he provided our drinks he was also scheduled to get off his shift around the same time. He said that someone else would be taking over for him to still take good care of us, however this appears to not have been properly communicated to the people who were supposed to be picking up his tables as we went 20 minutes without any service from anyone and no one came to check on us and see if we still needed assistance. 20 minutes is a long time to not receive service, granted they did get busy towards the middle and end of our visit but it should always be properly communicated when you are doing a handoff to someone who is supposed to be taking care of your tables. If I can track you down before you leave for your shift and give you your tip even though you didn't get a chance to serve us our food at the very least you can make sure that the people who are taking care of us are aware of this. Some people would have gotten impatient and just straight up left without the opportunity to actually try the food off of something like this. That said, once my girlfriend noticed no one was assisting us she went and ping someone for help and we got a great gentleman by the name of Luke who assisted us through the rest of the night. Luke was on point with his service! He made sure to take our orders quickly, he apologized for the wait and he made sure that our food came out quickly and that it was piping hot. I even asked him to put in an order for some corn chowder soup towards the end of our visit and a lady actually came and checked to make sure that this is what I actually requested and for to come out later to go. Luke saved our experience from being a terrible one by being very helpful and making sure to check on us throughout the visit as we were enjoying our meal. This is what I would expect of a good server and he definitely earned the tip that we also gave him. We really appreciate the level of courtesy and respect that you showed and we will be returning for future visits. We just hope that in the future the shift changes are a bit more smooth and customers don't just get left hanging like we did for the 20 minutes.

THE ATMOSPHERE:

The atmosphere last night was initially pretty chill was not very busy at our time of visit when it first started out, however Midway through our visit it became actually pretty crowded and busy as tables filled up with families and their kids. This is a family-friendly environment and enjoyable by all...

At there with our family last Friday 3/1/24. Years ago we ate there and the pizza was very good. I can't say that for when we ate there last Friday. Apparently they were slammed and filled up full all tables full. We just so happened to walk in when a small family of four was leaving. Because they were so busy the waiter apologized and said because some famous reviewer on line gave their pizza great reviews people found out and came out. We ordered the Fried Calamari and Wings. Calamari was the worst I had. Extremely chewy and no flavor. Very wilted looking and the basket was not that full. Wings were somewhat flavorful, but you could tell that they were super quick cooked right out of the freezer. Chicken itself was not even seasoned. We ordered 2 pizza medium sized and when we got them they were super super loaded up with Mozarella cheese. Too too much. Our veggi pizza didn't have that much veggies and the meat pizza too had way too much cheese. Crust seemed nice, but because of the cheese it wasn't that great at all. Sauce also didn't have any flavor. I was very very disappointed. Normally we eat most all of our pizzas we order but for this each of us only at 1 pizza each. We did pack up the rest to go for the next day to eat, but we just threw it away the next day. Shame, next day pizza is usually awesome in our house. I guess the only thing good was our soft drinks LOL. I do have to say that our waiter was super nice and made sure to give him a tip. I would not recommend II Forno. Instead go to Cugino Forno. Now they have AUTHENTIC itallian pizza. 5 stars! Sorry II Forna, lost...

My family came here to celebrate a birthday. We originally sat at a 4-top table but decided to move to a larger table as we were going to order a variety of dishes, therefore we needed more space. Once we moved a server immediately came and took the extra tables saying she needed them for trivia. I asked if we could at least keep the small table as we would need more space once the food came out. That request was denied and dismissed, rudely. As our food started coming out the server (Katie K) and other food runners looked rather annoyed as they were trying to place the dishes on the table (there wasn't enough space). At one point the server handed me the pizza because there was not enough space on the table. Another group of people came in and the servers moved tables together. I asked again if we could have the smaller table. The server said "no", she needed it. This group of people said we should have just taken the table. There were two ladies sitting behind us who noticed the interaction and expressed how rude and unaccommodating the two servers were being. They offered us a pizza stand to help provide more space on our table and jokingly offered to push our two tables together. They said they were so put off by how rude and unwilling to work with us the...