Paolo's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Kent

We were in the area for my boyfriend's doctor appointment and it's been a while since we had Italian food so we stopped by Paola's for lunch. It was Monday around 12ish and there was plenty of parking for us as well as amble seating inside. When we arrived, a waitress was the only one working the front area which seemed fine but she seemed very frazzled. The dining room definitely fits the romantic vibes with great lighting, cute partitions giving you more intimate feeling, and they were playing lovely Italian music. The bathroom was lovely and clean when I went to use it.

We ordered the sandwich and soup combo and chicken Florentine. The food took way too long on a non-busy week day. It would have been different if they were full or getting consistent take-out orders. Or an update on when it was arriving would have been nice from our waitress. The corn chowder was really good, cranberry turkey sandwich was decent but the placement of the ingredients made it so that things were falling out with each bite, and my boyfriend enjoyed his chicken Florentine which had a nice light sauce. But I wouldn't say the food was impressionable or worth that wait.

Some issues that I had was the complimentary bread is offered way too late into the dining experience. It was not offered before ordering nor after ordering. It was offered to us like midway through after we had ordered and it seems that was the case for others as tables that came after us got the same treatment. Furthermore, the bread pieces you get look like pieces that would get thrown out to feed seagulls or crows. Other restaurants would give you more appealing cuts but the presentation and amount of bread just looks like leftover scraps. They do offer a free complimentary dessert for an anniversary but not sure if I want to come back for an anniversary or special occasion and just in general. The final issue was our waitress was just a bit too frazzled and slow on service. Our water got low twice but it was filled once and that was at least 20-30 minutes of it being empty. I also asked for lemon slices and the waitress gives it to me 10-15 minutes afterwards but at least she remembered but they were also already squeezed so it was kind of pointless. And one minor gripe that I have was the music from the initial visit was nice but then there were random pop songs that were Italian dubbed or just did not fit with the rest of the playlist. It almost felt like whiplash when I heard it. I was really looking forward to this place due to reviews but this is the first time that I can't agree with the...

This is going to end up being 2 different reviews for different aspects of the visit.

Food 4 stars I ordered the tortellini gorgonzola which was amazing. The sauce was creamy and rich, the chicken and mushrooms were cooked just right, and the portion was perfect for me. For desert I had a cannoli, it wasn't the best cannoli I've ever had, but it was good. My husband had spaghetti and said it was pretty average, and a pound cake for desert which was pretty okay, not quite what he was expecting, not what he was wanting really, but not bad. The spaghetti portion was a bit small and after paying our $70 check my husband was still hungry.

Atmosphere 1 star When we walked in only about half of the tables we're in use, so it wasn't really that busy for 6:30 on a Saturday night. Maybe 5 or 6 tables with customers and 2 at the bar. It was so loud that we were unable to hold a conversation. I was so tense because of it that I left with my neck and shoulders hurting and a headache. The kitchen is in the same room as the dining area and it got incredibly smokey by the time we left.

Service 2 stars We apparently had 3 different servers concurrently. One took our orders, the second delivered it, the first and third checked on us a few times. Number two asked if we wanted to see the dessert tray and we said yes but not just yet as I was still eating. Less than 2 minutes later she was at our table with the dessert tray. She went over half of it, stopped mid sentence, and stood there staring at me expectantly while I waited for her to finish (she didn't). We ordered, then number 3 came over 5-10 minutes later to see if we wanted dessert. Number 1 and 3 were friendly, number two obviously didn't want to be there, was standoffish to the point of rudeness. It also took a REALLY long time to get our drinks both times we ordered them.

Overall one meal was divine, one was average, portions were okay to small, prices were a bit high for what you get. Service would have been okay to good had we only had one server instead of every front of the house employee stopping at our table. Atmosphere was awful. We likely will...

My husband and I had high hopes after reading all the reviews. This was our first time going there on 9/30 for his birthday. Since we had never been there I called 3 days in advance to make reservations. We arrived and were seated promptly and the waitress dropped off menus. She came back and took our order and seemed very rushed. I ordered shrimp scallop angel hair pasta and my husband ordered chicken Parmesan. After we ordered we overheard a different waitress waiting on the table behind us and she informed them of two specials (which our waitress never mentioned these to us) we overheard pumpkin ravioli & seafood risotto. Which we definitely would’ve ordered if we had known about them. Our dinners arrived and my husband’s chicken Parmesan wasn’t breaded just covered in marinara with mozzarella on top. The fettuccine that came with it was all clumped together and rubbery. The chicken was also rubbery. We informed the waitress of this & asked about it not being breaded and she said that is how Paul (Paolo)makes it and said he told her that this was the traditional way (no breading) if we wanted it breaded we had to order it that way. Please remember this was our first time here and it didn’t mention 2 preparation options on the menu. My husband is Italian and he informed her that he has always been accustom to chicken Parmesan with a breadcrumb crust. My shrimp scallop angel hair wasn’t appetizing either, the angel hair pasta was tough and almost had a undercooked crunchy ramen noodle texture. No it was not the typical al dente texture. Our waitress then disappeared and never came back. I was at least expecting her to come back to tell ask us if we wanted to order dessert. I wanted to order Tiramisu that I’ve read they are famous for however another waitress came over and handed us our bill without even asking about dessert. So needless to say my husband bday dinner was a flop and we weren’t even given the chance to...