Pistarro's — Restaurant in Frederick

Underwhelming. Having recently moved into the area we've had a lot of recommendations for Pistarro's.

Before I start, it wasn't bad but just average. Maybe my expectations were to high......

We turned up on a Saturday night, asked for a table of four. There was no room inside the restaurant but they offered us a table around the side, outside, on the balcony. We obliviously obliged, no problem at all, despite it being a bit chilly. They do have outdoor heaters but we weren't sat underneath it.

We sat down and the waiter gave us the menus and left to attend to another table. When they came back, we asked if we could move to another empty table due to being on a slight decline making it uncomfortable to sit on. They didn't say we couldn't move but also made it sound like we were asking for the world despite there being lots of empty tables. So we just said 'its ok, we'll stay here, not a problem'. This wasn't a major problem, we aren't ones to complain and we were all still looking forward ot the meal. This is were it went down hill....

It took the waiter then about 20min to return for us to order drinks and food. She was very short with us. This might have been because we asked to move tables, I'm not sure but we didn't ask rudely or anything.

Anyway, we ordered one Mailae pizza, two Pasta dishes with mussels from the specials menu, Gyro and a bottle of wine.

The food arrived within good time and it all looked a bit 'meh'.... The Pizza had a lovely charcoaled crust but the dough was undercooked inside, the meat on the pizza was okay, I would have liked the toppings to be spread out a little bit but no dramas. The pasta dish- Mussles were nice but the tomato sauce was more like soup with a tiny hint of spice but it just covered the whole meal in this watery sauce and the pasta was a bit overcooked for my liking but that is personal preference. My partner did enjoy the Pasta dish, so I don't want to be too critical of it. I didnt try the Gyro but supposedly it was nice.

Oh and the wine turned up at the table halfway through the meal.

For desert we had cheesecake, again it was ok. Nothing to write home about but definitely nothing to complain about either.

They cleared the plates and we asked for the check and it took the waiter around 20min to bring it to us and then another 25min to collect the money.

I dont want to give it such a bad rating, as we have heard some great things about this restaurant, so maybe we just had a bad night but it all just felt a little lazy. Waiter not attentive, pizza undercooked, pasta was average and drinks turning up late. Pistarros selling point is Pizza but I cant help but think there is better options in Frederick (Cugino Forno to name one)

We wont be rushing back anytime soon and instead we'll be trying some more local restaurants to see how it...

TL;DR: Manager tried to gaslight me when picking up a modified to-go order.

I’m a bit neurodivergent and my senses get overwhelmed at times. Im one of those odd balls who can not enjoy a food based on the way it feels versus how it tastes. One of the biggest offenders is too much cheese on a pizza, which is basically the opposite of every other person on the planet.

I’ll usually ask for light cheese, with varying degrees of success. If it’s too much, i just pull it off and eat the bread and sauce and move on. Suffice to say, this was one of the failed attempts that would require cheese removal. But that’s not unusual, nor why I’m leaving a poor review.

I didn’t even look at the pizza. I didn’t ask if they remembered to make it with light cheese. I wasn’t worried about it. I’m usually confident they hadn’t. But hey, I’ve gotta give it a try. I just go into it with managed expectations.

The manager ends up being the one to grab our food. Before even handing me the out to-go order, she tells me, “I checked…it’s light cheese”. I thought, that’s unnecessary but how nice of her.

What kind of made this worse was that there was no sauce either. So I’m guessing the kitchen got it backwards and went regular cheese, light sauce. I pulled off the cheese and ultimately got some dip out of my fridge and made a snack out of it. No harm, no foul. But I’m really kind of miffed that this woman tried to speak into existence that this was light cheese, like a Jedi kind trick: this is the cheese you’re looking for.

I have to assume she actually looked at it because she said she did. But now I wish I also opened the box up to confirm because I’m very curious how she could make the argument.

It just rubs me the wrong way as this was clearly the manager and the person who sets the tone for the whole establishment. Why did she feel the need to lie? It’s like she was trying to preemptively squash a complaint. Do complaints happen a lot? Is this how she handles them?

Take from this experience what you will. I’ve had Pistarros a few times in the past and was never impressed, but up until now had no reason to dislike it. At least now I have formed a definite opinion.

Sorry I didn’t think...

Came here on a whim for a bite to eat. The reviews were great and the weather was great so we figured this would be ideal. We arrived and were seated outside. To the side of the restaurant, there is an alley way that was converted into a table area. We were seated in the back corner abutting a playground. Because it was a make shift area to sit, I just wasn't enjoying where we were placed. It gave the vibe of a forgotten area. There were some wonderful places to sit towards the front of the restaurant and on the main patio but we were given these seats.

Food wise, the food was outstanding though. The food was so good that it can make people easily forget anything else that may be a negative. We ordered a bread for dipping into oil. Probably a glorified pita bread but it was delicious. I could eat this all day. We ordered some fried mozzarella which was nearly perfect as well. My son ordered for his main meal a kids pizza which was half the price and just as big as the adult pizzas. Now my pizza was literally perfect as well. I enjoy white pizzas and this pizza hit the spot.

I would say that while the service was good, and while our waitress was very friendly, we were forgotten in the corner outside. The vibe felt like we would be forgotten where we were and it came to fruition eventually as well. I would recommend the restaurant cut out maybe the last 4 or 5 tables in the alleyway but it is up to them. With all this said, I would gladly come here again without hesitation as the food...