Mia Via Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Luzerne

My son kept telling me he wanted us to try this restaurant as he lives in the area and he goes there often. It was a hike for us, but we decided to go try it out. There were 6 of us there, and everyone enjoyed their food, but I will speak to what we ordered.

My son insisted we try the pizza as an appetizer. I am not really into pizza when I go out to a restaurant, so I was hesitant. When it came out, it was huge. I loved that it was very crisp on the bottom and it was not overloaded with sauce. It didn't have the typical cheese that slides off the pizza when you eat it. The owner, Chris, came to check on us to see how we liked it. I thought it was fantastic, but I heard that there may be a limited number made during the evening so I think you have to get there early.

My daughter and I shared the bang bang cauliflower and that was very tasty. There was a lot of it so we ended up taking some of that home. The other appetizer we had were the soul scallops. We all thought this was an amazing appetizer and I loved the combination with the cornbread.

We each had a salad before dinner and I personally like the spring mix with tomatoes. It wasn't an overly large salad, but it was a salad was what is was supposed to be: a precursor to dinner. With the portion sizes of the appetizers and the food, we actually ended up taking some of the salad home.

My son got the Italian Chicken and Waffles, which was huge. I was give a taste of that and while it was a combination that I did not think would work, it was very good and a creative recipe. My husband had the Surf and Turf Fricassee and he is still talking about that almost a week later. It was a very nice dish and his steak came out the way he asked. He is frequently disappointed when he goes out to eat in other restaurants by how often the steak is overcooked.

I had the Crab Imperial Pasta, which again, was a large portion that I ended up taking home and finishing the next day. I liked the combination of ingredients so I thought I would give it a try. It has a tiny bit of a kick to it, but it wasn't overwhelming at all.

When talking to the owner, he said that the only dessert they were out of was the Tiramisu (which is one of my favorite desserts). His mom personally makes it so it tends to sell out. Chris.....tell your mother to make more (just kidding).

The staff that we interacted with were very personable and friendly. While this was a little over an hour from home, we will definitely be back the next time we are...

We had heard from a friend this was a new hot spot with homemade Italian food. They have plenty of parking and we were immediately greeted and taken to our table immediately. They do recommend reservations and I would agree, because it was busy.

Our waitress was Jessy. Very nice, very kind and very attentive. I did have to ask about specials as we saw a post on Facebook, but wanted to be sure they had them as they were never mentioned to us prior to ordering. We ordered our drinks, a beer and a peaches and cream. She really loved her drink and thought it was awesome.

All dinners come with a side salad. For appetizers she ordered steamed clams and I ordered New Orleans grilled oysters. Both were excellent except for the fact they brought our salads and appetizers out at the same time. That's a huge no no and there's no excuse for it.

For dinner I ordered one of the specials, Cioppino. It had bronzino, shrimp, clams, calamari potatoes, onion and fennel in a white whine tomato broth. It was very good. She had Shrimp Scampi which had huge shrimp in it. She did not like it at all. The pasta and shrimp were cooked perfect but the scampi sauce tasted like burnt olive oil. I tried it and the olive oil was definitely overcooked with a slightly burnt bitter taste.

For desert we went with an old Italian favorite, a cannoli. It was good.

All in all we found it decent and will come back as maybe they were having an off night. As far as we could tell they had lots of staff. They just need to work out...

🇮🇹 Shoutout to Mia Via Restaurant & Bar and Chris Barge, owner (Just met him for the first time tonight) 🙌 Great guy!

Atmosphere ✔️ Location and Parking ✔️ Service ✔️ Food ✔️ Portions ✔️ Price ✔️ Owner interaction ✔️

Little back story - I'm trying to build a social wellness center for people disabilities and loneliness.

Before getting under contract with a building in WB, I spent months trying to build this center in Luzerne and sadly, nobody except Chris (owner of Mia Via) and his wife wanted to work with me in town to help me with a dozen parking spots that I needed. Chris agreed to work with me, but ultimately things did not work beyond his control. I respect the hell out of that and will never forget that. Shows a lot about his character.

Chris is a stand up dude, did a great job remodeling the place and I love the authentic taste. Just really happy to see young passionate business people doing well. Chris didn't know who I was when I walked in, but he was sure to talk to every table, personally cooked our pizza and was super friendly - I then introduced myself.

I highly recommend you go check these guys out and support small business 👌 🇮🇹 PS, The Rigatoni Rocco and Pizza...