Lazzaro's Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Palmyra

My husband and I were on Vacation when we came across this place while searching for a restaurant. My husband asked if the sauce was chunky, the waitress said no it is smooth. He then ordered a pizza. I ordered alfredo pasta. When my dinner came I tried and it tasted sour it was horrible. I was afraid I would be sick. My husbands pizza came with huge chunks of tomato. Again he asked before he ordered and was told the sauce was smooth. I told the waitress about the pasta and she took it away and brought us the bill. Yep the bill for everything including the bad pasta. No one ever come by to ask what was wrong. I asked another waitress where is the manager? I was told the owners were not there but their daughters was. This girl new this couple that she was talking to all about their upcoming vacation and so on for more than 20 minutes. A few feet away from us but could not even bother to come over to talk to us. I worked customer service all my life and I know this is horrible service. When she did come over she said there is nothing she can do because if she took the pasta off she can go out of business. Finally she said she would give me something of equal value. We are staying at a hotel what I going to do with, pasta, chicken or fish? We were leaving the next morning. Finally I said give my husband a pizza like he had. She argued that it was more expensive than my pasta. We proved to her that it was indeed less. Of course no apology. We ended up throwing out most of the pizza because of the tomatoes. Never again would we go there Nor would we recommend this place! Unless you want to eat a small bag of pretzels for you dinner...

I can quite confidently say I had the worst dining experience of my life here. Given the prices they charge, I had assumed that the food I ordered would be fresh and cooked to perfection. I was wrong to assume that. For an appetizer, we ordered the garlic calamari. The garlic was overpowering which made it difficult to eat. My girlfriend decided she had enough after just one bite. I could still taste the garlic hours later. For the main entrée, I ordered the seared sea scallops and risotto. The scallops were indeed seared but I couldn't appreciate the sear because the scallops were soggy after having been left in some sort of brown broth. The scallops themselves were so chewy that I had to spit out half of them. I could tell they were not fresh. Next, the risotto. I did not get real risotto. The monstrosity that accompanied my inedible scallops was a pile of mushy, unseasoned white rice. Completely tasteless and not the correct type of rice (which is arborio - I shouldn't have to say this in an Italian restaurant). To prove to you that it wasn't just me, my girlfriend said she felt bad for me when my food arrived because it looked that unappetizing. I wasn't expecting anything overly fancy. I just expect food better than what I can prepare at home. That's not what I got here. Whoever prepared my food has low standards for quality food. I decided against complaining to my waitress, who was very friendly, because the guy in the table next to me had to go through a whole ordeal just to get a discount on his meal after complaining that his food was bad. I didn't want to deal with that and I thankfully won't ever have to because I am...

If I could put 10 stars on here I would. I cannot explain the incredible experience we had. We were a party of 7 WITHOUT a reservation and from start to finish we were treated like royalty. Mama Lazzaro greeted us and did everything she could to make sure we were happy. Our server Veronica (the daughter of the owners) was an absolute powerhouse. I've worked with servers who work at fine dining Italian restaurant in Irvine, CA where the place pulls in a million dollars a month. Veronica could've knocked some of them on their @$$. And the food was THE BEST AUTHENTIC ITALIAN FOOD I'VE EVER HAD. Mr. Lazzaro is doing something back there but I know it's not from this world. We had some guys who spent overseas time in Italy who said this was better. From the appetizers, to the house bread, the house salads, to the entrees, the drinks, dessert, and the LIMONCELLO. They make darn near everything from scratch and every flavor sinks into your bones. I had the seared scallops which normally comes on risotto but they just ran out so I substituted rigatoni noodles and a "blush" sauce (red/white mix). This dish, along with every other one on the table, was do die for. The kind of first bite that makes your eyes close and chew slowly. Every dessert was amazing but the tiramisu was the best I've ever had and an absolutely incredible creme brulee. The limoncello was made by none other than Mr. Lazzaro himself and it was, as expected, nothing short of perfection. What a wonderful digestif. THANK YOU...