Stancato's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Parma

Stancato’s excels in delivering classic Italian comfort food that feels both homemade and restaurant-worthy. From chicken parmigiana and veal piccata to their signature eggplant rollatini, the flavors are robust, hearty, and often nostalgic. Guests frequently rave about their rich red sauces, creamy Alfredo, and slow-cooked meat dishes.

One highlight many visitors mention is the complimentary garlic rolls served with marinara – warm, fluffy, and addictively flavorful.

Standout dishes:

Chicken Marsala – perfectly tender with a well-balanced sauce

Lasagna – deeply layered and generously portioned

Cioppino (seafood stew) – for those wanting something more adventurous

They also offer a robust buffet, particularly popular during lunch and Sunday brunch. It includes pasta, pizza, salad, dessert, and rotating specialties. For around $12, it’s considered a solid value for both quality and quantity.

Room for improvement: Some guests noted inconsistencies in seasoning, with certain dishes being overly salty or arriving lukewarm. While not the norm, it’s a detail that, if addressed, could elevate the experience further. The restaurant offers a thoughtfully curated wine list, with Italian and local selections. They even bottle their own label, which pairs nicely with their pasta dishes. Their bar also serves classic cocktails and after-dinner drinks like Amaretto and Sambuca.

Dessert is no afterthought here — the tiramisu, cannoli, and Italian cream cake are all house-made and generously portioned. Many opt to share one after a heavy meal or take it home for later. Stancato’s shines when it comes to hospitality. The staff is warm, welcoming, and often remembered by name in reviews. Servers are attentive but not overbearing, and they’re well-versed in the menu.

Some reports from take-out customers mention occasional missing items or less-than-friendly interactions when correcting mistakes, but this seems to be more the exception than the rule.

The interior strikes a balance between traditional and cozy. Think Tuscan tones, brick walls, warm lighting, and classic Italian decor. It’s ideal for:

Date nights

Family dinners

Business luncheons

Large events or banquets (they have private rooms for up to 150 guests)

Noise levels are moderate, and the space accommodates both intimate meals and larger, lively groups. For the portion sizes, food quality, and overall service, Stancato’s offers excellent value. With most entrées in the $14–$22 range and buffets around $11–$14, you walk away feeling well-fed and satisfied.

They also provide:

Take-out and curbside pickup

Catering for events

Private banquet rooms

Holiday buffets and...

Absolutely. Terrible. My wife's baby shower was held here last week. They were given a two hour time constraint, which is fine in theory. The servers were a mother, and her young teenage daughter, that were also handling another large banquet. As a result of this, the food was brought out fairly late in the two hours. No one in attendance received refills on their drinks, and the food quality was fairly low on half of the food (I assume this is due to crunch of the very large banquet they were also hosting.) We were charged extra fees for the servers to cut the shower cake (which they did not do, we finally did it ourselves with 11 minutes remaining before the $200 fee for going over time, as they were nowhere to be found.) I had to personally go downstairs, find another server, and ask them for forks for the cake as none were provided. It took this secondary server nearly ten minutes to find our server who was off with her daughter. At the conclusion, they packaged 5 pieces of the massive tray of chicken, a few meatballs and a TON of vegetables each in packages, and (I assume) took the rest of the food home themselves?

When I contacted management to speak about my concerns, they were standoffish and kept asking me if I was sure, because no one had ever complained about bad service before. It was odd, but none the less I told them I'd wait to hear from them. Rather than ever contacting me again or reaching out, even though I was the person in contact with them, they chose to contact my 75 year old mother (who when taken into another room by the server, at the event, was prompted to leave a $100 tip?), and informed her they'd be happy to credit her the few dollars for the cake cutting bill off the massive $650 bill in which they kept the remainder of the food. Laughable to say the least, and scamming an elderly person who wished to avoid conflict, in reality. I am giving strong consideration to taking further legal action after circumventing me to avoid any amicable outcome.

Avoid at all costs. Do, not, hold, events here. I have happily gone to Stancatos for years, but I will never go...

I realize this restaurant once had a great reputation. Not from what I experienced on a Thursday evening. The salads were anemic and poorly constructed, and the salad dressing was from a can. One party ordered chicken Marsala and it arrived as a 4 inch diameter disc floating in brownish red gravy. The broccoli was served separate, and was okay. The order of seafood frittata didn't look like the menu photo and was exactly like the inexpensive seafood patties one gets from the freezer section of the grocery store. Mostly breading and tasting sour. The sausage and peppers and onions ( SPO on the menu) was not fresh. The sausage had been cooked, refrigerated, and tossed into the onions and peppers that weren't freshly sauteed either. The sausage was black on one side and dried out throughout. The pasta was supposed to be plain but arrived with sauce. One drink, G&T, tasted like watered down cheap gin and an old lime wedge. The rolls were dry and stale.

I had asked for no cheese on my food and was told "everything here has cheese." No discussion or concern for the customer.

Any objections brought to the waitress's attention were dismissed with "that's how we make it now." As soon as we finished half our food a person came to our table, and asked what we wanted boxed to go. Soon after the waitress wanted to give us our bill.

We never were asked how our meal was, we weren't asked or we wanted more drinks, and we weren't offered a dessert menu.

Not one employee smiled at us, or anyone else, the whole evening. We were there 2.5 hours.

Also, everyone was ushered into the bar to dine. The whole dining room was darkened and we were made to walk through it to the bar.

It was a very unpleasant food experience.The evening felt nearly hostile. I know we will never return, especially after seeing what it cost us to be...