Piola Italian Restaurant Hallandale — Restaurant in Hallandale Beach

Disclaimer: I’m writing this review on Passover and drooling (lol). If anyone is familiar with this holiday, we do NOT eat bread during this time and as per usual, I am extremely delayed with this review and am now currently craving pizza which I can’t have for another few days.

This was our second time coming here. Its a great local spot with gluten free options. I forgot the name of the man who took our order, but he was super nice - I believe he said he was Macedonian and was one of the managers. Great guy with great suggestions. He gave good feedback for ordering the pizza - I wanted to select a pizza with olives, basil, sundried tomatoes and sardines (hold the sardines) but he said that taking off the sardines would change the taste completely and told me I can add olives to the Margarita pizza instead since I really wanted a pizza with olives. The pizza was really delicious. I loved the olive oil flavoring that was mixed with the cheese and the dough. It made me feel like I was in Positano sitting under a lemon tree eating pizza. I guess sitting outdoors in Hallandale is pretty close to that though lol. The kalamata olives were salty and flavorful just the way I like them and they weren’t stingy with adding them onto the pizza either. My husband got the “all you can eat gnocchi” and said he loved the flavors and the service. Different servers were coming around with various flavors of gnocchi (rosé, pesto etc.) and offering it to those who selected this option. I believe Piola has this day on the 28th ? Or the 29th of every month. Feel free to correct if I’m wrong.

Overall, we love this spot and would definitely come back here. Its close by to all the shops , the pizza is a great option (and apparently the gnocchi too). One comment that I do have is to be allowed to book tables in advance either through google or OpenTable. It gets a bit crowded here so that would save the crowd the hassle of waiting in long lines in the front of the restaurant. Other than that, see you guys soon ! We’ll be back after...

2018: Very good pizza, close to the Italian original with thin crust. Like the fact they serve Polish Zywiec beer (my favourite beer in the world). Service was good. Toilet area could be improved.

2020: Unfortunately I had to replace the previous good rating with a bad rating. We have been customers of Piola for 10 years and we know about the "Pizza time" special, a great concept, especially for families. We were just in last week on a non-pizza-time day and asked to remind us when the pizza time special days are. We were told every week Monday-Wednesday 4-7pm. We went back again on a Wednesday afternoon right after 4pm and I was surprised the bill didn't contain the discount. We told the waitress that it's supposed to be "pizza time" but were told and I quote: "not today". We wanted to speak to the manager but they refused, saying today doesn't have specials. It isn't a special, it has been Piola's concept for over a decade. Even their pizza time signs don't say anything about excluded days. So this was just plain rip-off. Very bad service, not even trying to satisfy the customer. A shame how Piola treats such long term customers. And obviously they don't care about that. Besides that we weren't even greeted properly when we arrived and said we wanted to sit outside. Sour faces towards us because we seemed to "disturb". I remind we went to Piola a week ago and left a good tip. Bye Piola, you were once excellent. Not anymore. That was our last time there.

Update 2024: 4 years have passed and we decided to give Piola Hallandale another chance when we were in the area. It seems that the management has changed, the staff (and their attitude) was completely different. The service at the front was helpful, even for just a take away order. The pizzas tasted very good. So that moves up the rating from previous 1 star to 3 star, still affected by our last...

Update 05/28/23 still the most amazing mojito in town! We are very happy with the lunch specials menu and food overall. management seems to have changed several times and just for the better. Pizza is thin crust and very tasty. I increase my review to five stars ⭐️

Update 12/06/22 this place made and keeps making the best mojitos in town. Like seriously. :) management and service improved greatly.

We used to come to this place regularly ever since they opened and still do come every week at the least. But after tonights confrontation with one of the waitresses and the manager our opinion completely changed about them. We simply asked for the shrimp to be grilled for the Cesar salad (as usually it comes steamed and chilled). And we get this salad every time we come there. At least 15 times previously we got shrimp grilled. And today we were categorically told no to have the shrimp grilled. The waitress kept claiming it not be done and refused to even ask in the kitchen. No matter the fact that this is done for us all of the previous times. Obviously we were not happy to hear this. The waitress walked away saying “she wont deal with the attitude” apparently. Of course We would have an attitude when it was always done before. Manager came after request and claimed that they don’t do this at all. Eventually she agreed to have it done. Then came again saying that she spoke with the general manager and they definitely don’t do this and she actually asked to find our which waiters did this for us in The past - like she was going to reprimand them for doing something criminal! I mean come on - how long does it actually take to put on a grill 4 PRECOOKED shrimp to make them warm?! Seriously this place...