Piccolo Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Mayfield Heights

This is the last time I am eating here. This place misses the mark on taste and flavor. I have eaten here probably 4 times and no more. I ordered the special which was advertised as penne pasta in a ricotta cream sauce with chicken and red peppers. What arrived was in fact penne pasta, a weird-tasting cream sauce, red peppers, some unidentifiable pepper or mushroom (which I hate) and wait for it…..poached chicken. Who the hell poaches chicken in a pasta dish? Hello 1979 calling. It was white, opaque and not visually appealing. I pulled out all the chicken and lined them on my plate. Our server (who was terrific by the way) saw what I did and asked if I wanted grilled chicken instead. Yes please. Why don’t they offer this instead? I understand that, depending on how you season chicken, it can fight with the flavor of the pasta. But when done right, the dish can sing. Grilled chicken was delicious. The hubby ordered the double pork chop. He said it was very good. The dish was advertised as being served with a demi-glace. By looking at it on the plate and seeing the sauces transparent edges, it was a cheater Demi-glace. Now I understand not every restaurant will make a demi-glace from scratch because of how time-consuming it is (especially for an Italian place and not a meat-centric place) but that semi-glace looked like a package gravy mix. Caesar salad was good.

Like I said I have eaten here 4 times and I am throwing in the towel. The dishes need better visual presentation, flavor edits and authenticity. But I have to say this place is always crowded so Piccolo is catering to the taste buds of an older crowd who think the food is good. If I want true blue Italian, we will head to Little Italy or dare I say that Mangia Mangia past Chesterfield has a great red sauce and other pasta dishes. It is no frills but the...

Why wasn't the focaccia served warm? Okay so I ordered Eggplant Parmesan and it wasn't hot. Let me say it again not hot. Yes the pasta had steam coming off of it which the manager pointed out, but the Eggplant Parmesan itself was not cold, but was most definitely not at the proper temperature to be served. Our server George when I sent it back says to me do you want it reheated? At $19 and you are asking if I want you to take it into the kitchen and microwave it? The manager then comes out and argues with me. No apology, no nothing. I guess it was crazy for me to expect my food to come out at the proper temperature the first time without it having to be reheated. Now I have managed restaurants before and here's where the train really left the tracks. The coke they originally gave me was diet and not regular and even though I asked them to take my food back, they still presented me with a bill for the coke. That's just poor form. It's also poor form to then dismiss the person who sent back their food and ask everyone else how their meals were. Like I was invisible. Oh and George why did you never come back and refill our waters like you said you would? I will gladly go back to Gaetano's Restaurant where they actually value the customer and the bread is served hot out of the oven and the entrees are also at the correct temperature. I actually had an honest to God Italian nonna and she would never have served food of such...

The Food was good not great. We ordered the Alfredo with shrimp and chicken parmesan. I was upset to taste that the Alfredo was missing the cheese and what I tasted was only heavy cream and even when having an order for carry-out presentation should still be key. It looked as if the sauce was cooked in the pan and then the penne was placed on top after it went into the Togo container but never mixed now that could have also been from sitting too long in the container which if that was the case I would suggest you make the Alfredo closer to your pick up time that you quote or when the rest of the food is about to be done and it could very well eliminate the one issue. The chicken parmesan had a great presentation you saw that the cheese melted all the way and then sprinkled with parmesan cheese and the chicken was tender. I would recommend more sauce for the chicken parmesan with that amount of pasta and in general making the pasta al dente and fresh to order or at least make it fresh every 2 days. I apologize if this review is upsetting for you being in the culinary industry ourselves I only hope you take this as...