Pietro's Italian Cuisine — Restaurant in Riverside

My husband and I went for the lunch special today. He ordered the spaghetti with meat sauce, and subbed soup for salad with no problem. I ordered rigatoni with meat sauce, and the included salad and garlic bread. When our meals came, his was steaming hot, mine was barely warm and the pasta was tough, chewy, and obviously undercooked. I called the waitress over, who did her best to accommodate us. I sent my meal back, and she came back and told me there was no more pasta cooked, and it would take 5-10 minutes to cook more. My husband said if we had to wait 10 minutes, he wanted his food refired. Was he asking for the moon, as her look suggested? I don't think so.It was cheap pasta, not filet minion. I declined waiting and said I would just eat bread, but this needed to be taken off of our check. That's when she came back and said there was spaghetti, after all. I accepted, but it came with a too sweet marinara sauce instead of meat sauce, so our check still had to be adjusted. We were never offered a refill on our drinks, which is our major pet peeve. Also when we first arrived, both of us in power chairs, I asked if the ladies' room was wheelchair accessible and the hostess(?) told me she didn't know, because she didn't use a wheelchair.(!?!?!) By the way, it's not wheelchair accessible. Isn't the law nowadays that public restrooms have to be accessible? We were looking for a place to have lunch frequently when we're near the Arcade, but this definitely isn't it. Needless to say, we...

I'd like to support a local business, but for now Pietro's gets just three stars. The server was sweet but slow. She was by herself in the front end. However, it was 3pm and just four tables were occupied, inclusive of me and my daughter. We were there for about 1 hr. It took about 30 min. to get out food. It took about 10-15 min. for her to take our order. She got placemats and silverware before taking a drink order. We were never offered a refill. My duaghter ordered lasagna and garlic cheesebread. I ordered just iced tea. The bread was the right kind of Italian bread, crunchy on the outside and warm and soft in the middle. But strangely, that made cheese sandwiches out of the garlic bread. Top was matched with bottom, and the melted cheese glued the piece together. Next was was the lasagna. It too had an unusual presentation. It appeared to be a boat of toasted sauce and cheese. It wasn't unappealing necessarily, but I prefer to see the neat layers. The ricotta was very good and mozzarella okay, but the sauce had an unusual flavor. It wasn't basil or oregano. My daughter didn't finish it, but i enjoyed trying to decide on the mystery flavor. The restraunt itself is clean but dated. It has the same ungentrified, rustic 1950s charm as the rest of Brockton Arcade. I'll be back again and maybe try...

If there was a zero star rating I would choose that. I've lived in Riverside for 35+ years and this place used to be AMAZING. I hadn't been here in years and wanted to treat my kids, so we went for dinner. My older daughter got spaghetti and it was totally tasteless. The little ones got pizza and it was so average. I got a salad and the chicken Fettuccini. My salad had a whopping one cherry tomato and it was cut in half. Lol The Fettuccini was AWFUL! I seriously am not hard to please, but the sauce was like water. The chicken, all six pieces, were the size of a nickel and had zero flavor. My older daughter and I seriously got upset stomachs from the taste of the food. We have a big family so we always take home our leftovers, but not from this place! 😫. After dinner, I let the cashier know it was awful. She said, "well, what did you have?". I told her what we ordered and I told her that their food used to be delicious. She smirked like she already knew the food sucked and didn't even apologize. We will never, ever, EVER come back and I'll make sure to let whoever will listen know how HORRIBLE it was. Shame on you for charging money for...