Piattino: A Neighborhood Bistro — Restaurant in Mendham

We stopped in on Saturday about 4pm. There were maybe three or four people inside. We were just hoping to have a beer and an appetizer. We had been riding our bicycles around Mendham as it was a beautiful day. Understanding that we were in our bike riding clothes - we wanted to sit outside to enjoy the weather. Every table outside was vacant. Not one person outside. We ordered two beers on tap. The glasses were half the size of a typical pint glass. After getting our beers no one came out to see if we wanted to order. Finally after waiting for almost 30 min our waitress came out to check on us. At this point we decided to get our check and go. Hahaha over 17 dollars for two half sized beers. Not sure what was wrong -we felt as if we were not welcome because we were on our bicycles and dressed in active wear clothing. It is rare for me to leave a poor review. We truly felt awkward and unwelcome. Such a shame because we will back a business completely with good service and good atmosphere. Not this one. Go...

Had a fantastic meal here - starting with an Octopus appetizer with pickled white beans, and then a fantastic duck and pasta dish - topped with a fried egg. Our dessert was a cannoli bowl, which was a deconstructed cannoli of sorts - it was a bowl with cannoli cream surrounded by broken cannoli shells. While clever, it was a little bit messy and not that great tasting. But... when our waiter checked in and we said it was just fine, he just switched us to a different desert - a lemon cake that was delicious - all without asking. Overall, i would say the service is excellent - very personable and committed to giving us a great experience. (we saw a different waiter similarly fixing an issue with a nearby table as well) We will definitely be back!

Some additional notes - they have a liquor license, a good wine list, and a bar that full as well. The one observation we had for the ambiance was that it was a little bright - the lights could have been dimmed...

To be clear the 1 star review is for the service: our specific waitress, not the food. Food was was easily 5 stars which was pasta e fagioli, herbed milk ricotta, Sunday sauce, and bianco bolognese ravioli. After getting our appetizers our waitress didn't come back to our table a single time. Received my soup without a spoon and as mentioned before, I couldn't even ask her for one since she was no where to to be found. I was finally able to get someone's attention after about 5 minutes. Received our dinner and could have used hot pepper flakes and grated cheese, but nope, no one to ask. Both my wife and I could have used went for a second glass of wine, and more water, but I think you know what happened here: waitress no where to be found. Keep in mind it wasn't busy and I believe she only had one other table...