Piazza Bella — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Me and three friends had lunch at Piazza Bella and our experience was incredibly lackluster.

The service was fine and so was the decor. Both of these components my group found to be ordinary for a neighborhood joint. However, what lacked was the incredible tasting and prepared foods that other reviewers have raved about.

We ordered five dishes: sauteed calamari, pappardelle, spaghetti & meatballs, agnolotti, and the rigatoni.

The calamari itself was very bland and chewy. The sauce was much too lemony, and didn't support or amplify the underseasoned calamari in any way.

The pappardalle was very overcooked (mushy). The freshly shaved parmigiano-reggiano shavings were the only redeeming quality of this dish. The pasta water was not salty at all so again, we were served a bland plate of food.

The spaghetti and meatballs also did not impress me. Once again, the noodles were mushy. The sauce (the most important part of S&M) tasted very sweet. One of the diner referred to it as Chef Boyardee quality. Was this sauce from a can? I wonder.

The agnolotti (which is my favorite pasta) was different than the other pasta dishes as these were UNDERcooked. Still no flavor int he pasta water. Short rib was definitely not fresh, and if it was, the juice was cooked out of it.

The rigatoni was the only decent bite of this meal. Sausage was powerful and provided a nice kick to the dish. I loved the mushrooms, however, I felt as if the frozen peas were unnecessary. Pasta also could have been a bit more al dente and more salt was needed in this water as well.

I can't help but think that we simply got unlucky with the day and time we visited. With some fine tuning of the techniques used in preparing these dishes, I am sure Piazza Bella could step it up.

Please make sure your chefs know that it's okay to heavily salt their pasta water (it should taste like the ocean) and to make sure they are aware of the correct...

Not family friendly. Look, I get it. Dinning with kids can be rough - for both the waitstaff and families. We are aware of this and do our best to minimize any "inconvenience" that may be caused by the dame when dinning out. We also tip very well. Arriving here early afternoon, the restaurant was completely empty. The owner was extremely rude to my daughter once he seen her daughter. We offered to dine outside - in which I would have cleaned one of the tables for our small group to eat at and were still refused service. My granddaughter was not creating a scene and was super calm. Rightfully, we were concerned that her wagon would be snatched by leaving it outdoors - should we have been granted service. Being a small business owner myself, it is amazing to me - that after all the complaints of covid modifying business structure and income - that a restaurant would choose to refuse diners rather then accommodate at a very slow time period for them. Worked out in the end, we took our small party down the street to Turquoise Cafe who was extremely accommodating with amaz food. Spent over $100 prior to the 25% tip left. This was my first visit to Roscoe Village. Piazza is cute and from the reviews looks delish. Even on my own, I won't come back to spend cash due to the owner's initial attitude. Luckily for myself, there are MANY excellent Italian places to choose from in the city when coming in...

The evening began well. Our server was attentive, the food, although overpriced. was tasty. It ended there. After we had informed our server that we would only be having coffee not dessert, the host came over to our table and asked us to leave because others were waiting. We looked at the time and thought perhaps we were sitting there too long. It had only been 1 hour and 15 minutes! When we became upset he offered us a small crowded table in the bar. This was not going to be comfortable for 6 adults, 2 in their 70's. He did not budge and told us that was our choice. We have dined out at many places all over the world in all price ranges and have never been asked to leave a table. None of us...