Piccolo Trattoria — Restaurant in Hopewell Township

If I could give this zero stars I would. This was a big disappointment. My husband and I visited this restaurant on the advice of of our hotel staff. Before we decided to go, we read several reviews online. They are very misleading. My husband and I travel extensively, and have eaten in the best dives to the best upscale restaurants. One of our favorite places to eat is Mr. Johns in New Orleans. Any of those of you that have eaten there, knows good food.

For starters, we ordered the calamari. It was prepackaged frozen for starters. It was under cooked and bland. If you have ever eaten calamari at Sullivans Metropolitan Grill in Anderson, SC knows what excellent calamari is comprised of. I know that sounds off, but trust me, they quite possibly have the best calamari. I ordered the lasagna. I do not have a lot to complain about, however it was just ok. Nothing special, and ninety percent of run of the mill italian restaurants do it just as well. Definitely nothing special.

On to my husbands dish. I believe they called it Berlinni. It was sea bass and jumbo shrimp served over linguini in a white wine reduction sauce, topped with tomatoes and a poblano pepper. This dish did not work well at all. Again, the sea bass was very bland and mush. It wasn't firm and flaky like well prepared sea bass should be. Again, to compare, the almond crusted sea bass at Chophouse 47 is the epitome of sea bass.

On a last hail mary, and honestly to get the taste of the previous dish out of my husbands mouth, we decide on dessert. Another letdown. We ordered the Coconut Ball. It was described as frosted vanilla sponge cake filled will coconut cream. It looked appetizing on the dessert tray. When it arrived, I took the first bite. I was met with dry crumbly sponge cake, which I believe it was in the refrigerator for far too many days and not making a new batch. There was minimal filling and it was more of a frosting thatnactual coconut cream. My last comparison, the coconut creme pie at Marietta Diner in Atlanta. The standard for creamy, velvety coconut creme.

In closing, you do not have to take my word for it. Just as we, we found out on our own. I will say, there was no shortage of people that raved about this restaurant and there were no shortage of patrons. I feel that I may be skewed some what as I have had the pleasure to eat at some of the best eateries offered, but, it does not mean that I am wrong in my assessment. Again, go for yourself and form your own opinions. Happy...

We made some reservations for 8:30pm last Tuesday 6/26 - I had family visiting from Portugal and I wanted to take them to a nice place with outside seating. This seemed to be perfect. Our waiter was nice and did a great job handling all 10 of us. Unfortunately the other staff were not as pleasant. To be honest a bit rude. We ordered our food and it came out. It was very tasty I do have to say I enjoyed the pasta. Awesome taste and texture to it. Nevertheless we ordered more bread the gentlemen who was working the table was not happy. He actually was a bit angry we ordered more bread. Then we tried to order more water but that was a bit hard to do. If felt like were being ignored - I would understand if the place was packed but there were only tow tables with people - our table and another one. We tried to be positive and kept thinking they were having a bad night. We had dessert and was being forced out - how could I tell because the gentlemen told us in angry voice they close at 10. The bill came unfortunately the waiter didn't separate it so we had to do it. Well that got the staff even angrier that we were doing that. In matter of fact they turned off the lights and left us out there in the dark. Can you believe that? We hurried up to do the best we can and just paid the bill. Very unfortunate we were treated that way. If we knew they closed at 10 we would have done an earlier reservation in matter of fact they should have said something we we made the reservation. But to be left out there in the dark and not be treated the way a paying customer should be treated is uncalled for. I really don't know if I will...

The only bright spot was our waiter who had a very positive attitude and was very polite.

My wife ordered the $38 NY Strip Steak which was the fattiest piece of steak I’ve ever seen a restaurant serve so she barely ate any of it. Someone came by our table - no idea who he was because he never introduced himself - and asked how everything was. To be polite I told him there was too much marbling in the steak and it wasn’t to my wife’s liking. We found out when the bill came, our waiter had arranged for our desserts and my wife’s cappuccino to be covered which was very nice.

However, I also discovered when the bill came the cost of my scallop meal was $46.50 instead of the $33 listed on the menu. I asked our waiter and he said some of the prices are higher due to the current situations surrounding increased prices for goods snd services. I told him I understood, however, if an item’s price could change frequently it should say “‘market price” next to it - something which is extremely common with seafood dishes - so diners can ask the cost. He agreed and said they have nothing to do with the menu, that it’s all handled by the Doylestown location. He came back and said he was able to get $10 of the $13.50 overcharge taken off the bill. The oddest part about this is it says market price next to the broccoli rabe! Try to figure that one out.

Overall this place is overpriced, the food is mediocre and they have no problem charging customers more than the prices on their menu.

BE SURE TO CHECK THE BREAKDOWN ON YOUR BILL...