Piccino Wood Oven Pizza — Restaurant in Littleton

Decided to try a new pizza place since we moved a few months ago and this was up the street. Went in on a Saturday evening so I expected them to be busy (even with takeout during this time). I walked in and was second in line to place my order so I checked out the menu while waiting. Got to the counter and she asked my name to which I replied "Emily" and also showed her my nametag from work which was still on. Ordered two kids cheese pizzas, a spaghetti with meatballs, cheese bread, side salad, and a dessert. They assured me it wouldn't be much of a wait if only for the pasta but that instead of waiting in the common entering/ordering area, I could step aside near the actual seating area since I had my toddler with me and that we could sit while waiting for our food.

Fast forward 20 minutes my toddler is obviously not wanting to wait any longer. She was giggling and we were playing but what toddler wants to stay in one place for that long? She got irritable, so we stepped outside and were still visible through the windows. Throughout our time waiting multiple people came and went and I assumed they were online orders so I thought nothing of it. We were outside for probably 5-10 minutes and it was chilly so we went back in and I politely went back up to the counter to check what the ETA on our food was. They asked my name (still visible on my name tag) because they couldn't find an order for Emily and wanted to make sure it was actually me... The order I saw put down while we were still in the waiting area was mine, with the wrong name. (They had called a name and nobody answered so it got set back instead of inquiring. The same staff was present. I proceeded to ask how long it had been ready knowing it had been a while and a lady said "Oh it actually just came over here which is why it wasn't noticed."

Instead of causing issues I figured I'd just take the food and go home to feed my kids. The kids pizzas were cold and neither of my children (10 and 6 years old) wanted to eat them as they said it didn't taste good and there was no cheese or sauce on them. I gave them my spaghetti and figured I'd eat the salad and cheese bread. Their Caesar dressing had no taste and the salad had one full anchovy just thrown in there with a few croutons.

Not sure if I'll ever return. They were friendly at first glance but didn't care much about checking in with their waiting patrons and the food was...

To say we were unimpressed would be an understatement. How this has such high reviews is stunning, to say the least.

First, you counter order, get a number, and go sit down. I'm actually OK with this. There are a couple of places that do this, so its a style of placing an order.

Then we sat down and waited... and waited... and waited... for 3 Bowls of spaghetti and meatballs and 1 Testerossa Pizza. These tasted like generic, bagged frozen meatballs that were overcooked. Pasta was cooked fine. Sauce tasted like jarred Ragu from the store. It was so basic and reminiscent of cafeteria food. Incredibly uninspired. And to top it all off, the food was just warm... not hot, not cold, but warm, as if it was sitting there on the line for a while.

But wait, this place is all about the pizza, that's gotta be good right? Think again. The pie was served warm... not cold, but certainly not hot. Similar to that of the pasta. The crust was done and had a nice crunch around the edge, but the rest was soggy and falling apart. The mushrooms looked like they came from a can. The sauce was tasteless. I kept wanting the next bite to taste better, and I continued to be disappointed.

We had leftovers, and none of it left with us. We rarely saw any servers. I felt bad for those coming in after us. I doubt we will return... and we really like a wood fired pizza joint. Piccino misses the mark, though. I mean... how do you screw up spaghetti and meatballs? And how do you screw up your namesake dish?!?!?! Either way... we have some serious problems that need to be...

I do like the atmosphere there. They had nice music playing and it wasn't too loud like it is in some restaurants. But the quality of the food just was not good. Starting with the salad--it was supposed to be a caesar salad, but the dressing had very little taste to it. Real caesar salad has anchovy and some sort of mustard. This didn't taste like it had either. I'm not kidding--it tasted like a watered down ranch dressing. Also, we were told at the counter that it came with garlic bread on the side. All we got was foccacia--no garlic or butter on it at all. I ordered a meat calzone, and my partner ordered cavatappi alfredo. These dishes were prepped and put on the counter for the waiter to bring to us. We watched as the waiter looked at the dishes and then walk into the kitchen of the restaurant. We waited a few more minutes before I finally went to get our food. As I was reaching for them, the waiter reappeared and said "Hey, I can get those to you." By then, I already had the dishes snatched up so I just told him that I had it. The calzone was supposed to come with a side of marinara, but it was never brought to our table. The cavatappi alfredo was served in a bowl that, it appeared to us, it was microwaved in. There was evidence of bubbled cheese on the edges of the bowl the whole circumference. During the course of our meal, we were approached once to see if we needed a refill--at least our glasses were not quite empty at that moment.

All in all, I couldn't recommend the place. The atmosphere was fine, but the service was lacking, and the food is only...