Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza — Restaurant in Gainesville

I'd like to start by saying that I've ordered from here before. Personally.

So I walk into the restaurant with my partner and we sit down. The waitress, maybe in her late 40's, long dark hair, taller, with glasses, she served us. She was very rude and passive aggressive.

I had chipotle with me because I was going to eat it since I don't eat anything from this place. She told me that I wasn't allowed to eat in there. Fine, I totally get that. I'm sure it's restaurant policy and every place is different. I didn't make that an issue as it totally makes sense.

She told me that we could just order our food to go and I politely told her that after looking at some of the reviews online, I didn't want to take out. A LOT of the reviews on doordash were poor. People complained about the same thing which was taste and portion size. There were a lot of people who explained that they've eaten inside and the food was always fresher, and a normal portion. That didn't seem to be the case when they ordered online. So kindly I was explaining that I didn't trust that, that my partner was looking forward to having a good meal and we would prefer to just dine in.

She cuts me off halfway to say "oh I've worked here five years. Pizza is pizza to go or not." I laughed a bit and explained that we didn't want pizza, if she would've let me finish.

I explain the portion issue and that my partner wanted pasta. She goes "ok well I've been here five years and our portions are ALWAYS the same and the taste is never different."

Really girl... you've personally stood over all to go boxes and checked the portions? You're telling me that 30+ people are lying... meanwhile just cutting me off over and over. She was very snippy. I tried to then just say we'd do it to go. I then asked my partner, while looking at my partner, if they wanted rolls to go. She CUTS ME OFF AGAIN to say "I can bring you guys two" so I continue my conversation with my partner because at this point I'm tired of being cut off.

I say "babe, do you want a few to go so we can heat them up at home?" (We love these rolls) She goes off, again, and says "I'll bring you guys some extras for here" like NO I WANT THEM TO GO STOP CUTTING ME OFF.

I realize I sound like a boomer, truly I get that but I am so kind to every service worker. I work in the industry, myself. Gainsville is tough, man. There are a lot of people here who don't take the time to be kind. I make it a point to do so, whenever I can.

Seriously this just rubbed me the wrong way. I guess I won't be ordering their tiny portions online or dining in. She was NOT cool.

Ps. The rolls served to us in house were cold and hard... the only reason she gave us those, and I quote, was "because we're all in a really weird spot right now". She could tell I wasn't too happy. But continued to act like that...

Below is a picture of the tossed in Lasagna that my partner got. Two stars ONLY FOR...

I assuredly would've given them 5 stars because of the quality of food, but when you order a side salad with your meal and never receive it, but it's on your ticket...that's bad. I do hafta give them kudos because I tried one of their bottled "craft" beers and it was horrible. Tasted exactly like a damn Budweiser or Miller Hi-Life! Ugh!! The server, seeing the look of disgust on my face, took it off my bill and I got something I was more familiar with. Yes, it was by Swamp head, but trust me, it was WAY WAY WAY better than that beer by Ommegang. I should've just known better...

We ordered the calamari for an appetizer...you get a HUGE portion of it for your $11. So, although it cost more than other places we frequent, you're getting more as well. Plus they not only give you a dish of nice chunky marinara to dip it in, they also give you a container of this nice spicy sauce that also went really well with it!

My husband had the Arrabiata pasta (and believe it or not, you're allowed to swap out your type of pasta! He hates fettucini, so he swapped to spaghetti!) and believe me, or was SPICY! It's full of Calabrian chili peppers and you'll know it right away!! He loves really spicy spaghetti, so it was perfect for him.

I ordered the chicken pasta carbonara. Fantastic! Fresh...so much chicken in it...wonderful carbonara sauce (and plenty of it)...oh and the fresh garlic rolls? I didn't try them, but my husband was grateful for that...he downed all three and was looking around for more!!

I also ordered a medium pizza because, why go somewhere and NOT try what they specialize in?? Let me tell you...we just found out favorite pizza place (sorry, Judy's)! I got spicy pepperoni, Italian sausage and mushrooms as the toppings. Wow. Just wow! Absolutely incredible. Great crust...the sauce was flavorful....the spicy pepperoni weren't overly spicy at all, but just perfect instead. The Italian sausage had great flavor too, and instead of canned mushrooms, they were fresh! So many times though, when they use fresh mushrooms, they slice them too thick and they never cook all the way through...these, however, were perfectly sliced, nice and thin and yes, there were an abundance of them! Their pizzas are out of this world good!

To wrap up our meal, I just had a simple cannoli. I'm not a big fan of super sweet anything...so I figured I'd be safe with cannoli. If they'd given me the option like Publix does of chocolate chips or NO chocolate chips inside, it would've been better...also, the unpleasant taste of powdered sugar all over the outside of this perfectly crunchy cannoli shell was almost more than I could handle. Next time I'll go for the tiramisu. Unless they drown THAT in powdered sugar too! We'll have to see.

All in all, great experience for our first time...aside from the missing salad. At least when I pointed out to him, he realized he had forgotten it completely and took it...

Just walked out with my family. Only 3 people at the bar and maybe 70% of the table in the front were occupied The host went to check on something waited there looking at unoccupied tables after about 5 mins Host wanted to sit us in the middle between other occupied tables. I asked to sit off to the side with my family and the host said in a friendly tone “absolutely”. Once we sat down we waited approximately 15 mins before a server came within proximity of our table. She went to the table that was already finished and started to turn away and I had ask 3 times if we could order drinks before she acknowledged and cane over looking a bit confused and exhausted. She took our order without writing anything down and it seemed like everything was going to be okay. After another 5 mins or so a total of 20 mins after arriving in a half occupied restaurant my beer arrived. Shortly after a young man named Nico arrived at our table snd asked if everything was okay. I said yes, and he asked “are you sure?” I then said, “well since you asked again, we haven’t gotten all our drinks and bern here now over 20 mins. He gave some excuses like only one server was on the clock (I saw 3 waiters) he went on to say the server said we were rude, I assume he meant when I asked 3 times as the server was walking away if we could order drinks because that’s the only scenario I would imagine the misunderstanding could’ve happened.. Anyway Nico continued on with his agenda and told me “if we continue to be rude he wouldn’t serve us” (All the while the only drink that arrived after 20 mins was my beer) After the managers comment I felt like there was no more saving this situation… I thought to myself; istead of offering us a free drink or something to compensate for making us wait or at least a humble apology this guy is threatening not to serve me and my family. I promptly responded and said; thats okay bud you don’t need to serve us, bye bye. We got up and walked out.

One more thing, I have been personally aquatinted with the owner and her 2 sons that work for her for almost 40 years. Long before they even thought about Paisanos. I am positive that this is NOT the way they would want a long time acquaintance and returning guests to be treated in any of their establishments

I’m willing to revise this review upon a legitimate explanation from the owner on why my family was treated so rudely by the Manager after waiting over 20 mins and still not...