Ariano — Restaurant in Media

Good pizza but bad service and lousy table This place was recommended to us for their pizza. For that, it was mostly a success. However it suffered for service & atmosphere for my visit. We will likely not return except that the Grutola pizza was quite good and that may possibly entice us but we won't sit at the same table.

We feel like we wasted $60 and an hour of our life eating at Ariano tonight. We just didn't enjoy it. The week before we ate at Picasso and Spasso and enjoyed both.

CONS: They seated us at a small table for 2 the size of a Monopoly board in a back corner. I faced my friend with a blank wall behind him and to my immediate left was the wait station with a view of the sink, cleaners, nasty cabinets, etc. plus the constant clang of silverware and dishes. Tight space when table behind me was seated. The waiter/waitress would 'squeeze' by my chair to get to the table next to the window. Irritating a bit but not a biggie. Nice specials list but no prices. The pizza special was $16 and worth it - no shock there. Waiter did not introduce himself. Service was ok except waiter did not come back to see if food was ok after being served or to offer another round of drinks. We had to 'ask for more water' after glass was empty for 10 minutes. When we asked to take food to-go they handed us a box; waiter didn't take the food and box it. VERY loud dining room on 2nd floor. Stay on first floor or outside unless you are in a party mood. We wanted a relaxing dinner but had to talk loud to be heard. There are speakers on the wall but we could not hear music. Walls are scuffed and the drywall is stripped in several places. They need to do some maintenance. Food issue: We really enjoyed the pizza but it could have used another minute or 2 in the oven. The toppings were still a tiny bit cold. Normally I would send it back but we weren't enjoying ourselves and just wanted to get out of the place.

PROS: Flavor of pizza was good. We didn't get apps or entrees. Gelato was good and super smooth as it should be. Restaurant was strangly full of mostly woman; probably to see the cute wait staff. Nice ambiance with lotsa windows unless you are seated in the corner where we sat. They really need to have one table back there instead of two and turn it sideways. Peroni beer! -good stuff.

Note we have walked past this restaurant several times and its always busy. Outdoor seating is a plus. Final thought: This place would have got a higher rating if service was better, specials had prices and our table wasn't in a...

Based on the menu prices Ariano is competing with high end suburban Italian restaurants. Price is where the similarity ends. We had a reservation for early on a Saturday night. We were served in the basement area that used to be the gelato shop. This is a low ceiling area and is incredibly noisy. We could not hear each other speak without leaning in very closely. Despite the prices the food was sub par. The mussels in a bread bowl at $20.50 was an enormous portion of mussels in a bread bowl. It sounded interesting but all the sauce got absorbed in the bread leaving the mussels without much sauce. That really didn’t matter since the sauce was watered down tomato sauce with no seasoning at all. The chicken Milanese $33 was another odd dish. It consisted of 2 small then medallions of over-fried chicken surrounded by a teaspoon of pesto. An arugula and tomato salad was dumped on top of the chicken. This is not a thing. I would have assumed the salad was an accompaniment. There were other odd combos on the menu which we didn’t try, like gnocchi with pistachios and dried blueberries. The servers were a bunch of dudes who really had no clue about how to serve a table. Little things like telling us to have a good time when they seated us just seemed unusual. Enjoy your meal might have been a lot more appropriate. All our courses came out in stages. One appetizer then 5 minutes later the other came. Same with the mains. The server blamed it on the kitchen being slammed. Place wasn’t full and that doesn’t matter. You bring everything out at once. Despite our table of retirees not ordering any drinks our server thought it normal to ask us if we wanted to end our meal with a round of shots! Might be what he and his bro’s do but not most seniors. Just clueless. There are plenty of cheaper Italian restaurants in Media with way better food and service. Dine at...

Great wood fire pizza for a reasonable price, and if you really value atmosphere and setting this place is great! But you may need a reservation during busy times.

Order: Two Pizzas (Quattro Fromaggio; Fig & Goat Cheese) and two scoops of gelato About: $40

Review: My wife had a training in Media so we decided to grab food afterwards and a friend of our recommended Ariano. We both LOVE pizza so it was a pretty easy choice.

We got asked almost right away if we had reservations and even though we didn’t, we were still seated right away. That being said, my 5:45 this place was totally packed. If you don’t get there early you’ll probably need a reservation.

The atmosphere was super cool even though seating was pretty tight. If felt very much like a modern Italian restaurant and the staff definitely did everything they could to make you feel taken care of. While it’s not super fancy (there isn’t a dress coat) it’s definitely upscale dining.

The pizza was quite good, though nothing earth shattering. I would say that if you’re hungry you’re probably going to want your own (or at least one per person and then split them). They crust was nice and semi-crispy and the toppings were all delicious. The goat cheese was particularly exceptional, though I think the four cheese was actually our favorite. My wife is also a sucker for gelato and they had a flavor we’ve never had before; chestnut, so clearly we had to try some. It was really good and had a very unique flavor somewhere between hazelnut and cinnamon.

Ariano is definitely a dining experience, not a place to run in and grab pizza, but the food is delicious and the staff is fantastic. You might need a reservation if it’s busy but I think it’s worth it for a...