Ristorante Picolinos — Restaurant in Seattle

I want to preface this review by being very gentle with it in this time of the pandemic and what small business owners like myself are dealing with...I know how tough it is and how much we need to pivot to stay open. This is not a review to talk bad about the restaurant itself but our specific experience.

After seeing some amazing pictures on social media, we made 8:30 p.m. reservations for my girlfriend's birthday. We were not let down! Their outdoor dining area was awesome. Heat lamps all over, holiday decorations we're up... beautiful!

After ordering our food, we noticed it was taking a long time for it to come out. When the server finally came with our food, my order was correct (chicken marsala), but we realized that the dish that my girlfriend had ordered was wrong (she ordered pasta with wild mushrooms). So we asked the waiter to take it back to have it corrected. A few minutes later he came out and mentioned that the specific noodle for her dish was out but they would put the topping on a different type of noodle. We were totally cool with that. Then he came out again a few minutes later and basically said that they were out of all the ingredients to make her particular dish. After he explained to us that several of the items on the menu were sold out, we just decided to share my dish.

I asked the server how in the past 20 minutes of our order being put in did they not know that they were out of the ingredients. He mentioned that the chef had known but for some reason put a different topping on it anyway to serve it to us. It was all very confusing.

With no more than a few bites of our shared dish, the server came out with her original dish in its entirety. Ten minutes earlier they were completely out of all the ingredients, but yet there he was. He did ask if we still wanted it or if we wanted to take it to go. We politely declined.

At that point, the overall experience was slightly tainted so we opted to forgo dessert and just get the bill and leave. Maybe because it was late in the evening and the restaurant was in the process of closing, the server didn't really apologize for the inconvenience which for restaurant like that I would have expected. He certainly wasn't rude about anything, but based on the bizarre sequence of events for our dinner, he didn't go above and beyond.

So takeaway: outdoor set up, solid 5 stars, food, 3.5 stars, service 3 stars. Yes I would go back to support this business! Just hope this...

We have been going Picolino’s for about 10 years now, it’s our “go to” restaurant for special family events. Lately I have been disappointed with the inconsistency of the food. The veal parpadelle can be perfectly prepared and presented on one occasion & then dry or half parpadelle & half fettuccini or some other pasta on occasion; sometimes it has carrots, on other nights it does not. Tonight the pasta special was seafood pasta with “lobster claw”, shrimp & scallops. It came with some kind of skinny crustacean claw, definitely not a Maine lobster or thick lobster claw meat. It was more like a crab claw. The “scallops” were 1 scalllop. Lastly, we have asked for bread on the side for our 2 last take out orders. Last time there was no bread. Tonight I asked the gentleman who took our order to add bread. When I went in to pick up order I asked if there was bread in the carry out bag. I was assured there was bread, got home, no bread. Picolinos can be great, but lately it has been inconsistent and disappointing. They can do better with consistency. It’s a lovely atmosphere & we hope it regains some of the consistency it had when it opened.

Thanks for the response. I was not rude to the staff. I made a simple request for a few pieces of bread (not a loaf of bread). I didn’t think it was an unusual request ; your restaurant generously provides with each entree when you dine in. I don’t mind paying for bread if that’s what would be required for takeout, but paying for bread was not mentioned to me as an option when I made the order/request. When I called back to let your staff know it was disappointing there was no bread, your staff member (very) sarcastically told me “Oh, we’ll make sure you get extra bread next time” it was a rude response, I wasn’t asking for more bread, I was calling to let you know your staff made a simple mistake. . My review of the food was honest, this was honestly not the first time the food has been inconsistent there. We have had more good experiences at your restaurant than bad. I understand your staff is probably stressed with the current situation. I will admit, a 2 star review was unfair. Your restaurant deserves the 4 star & above most of the time. I don’t think the customer is always right, but there are 2 sides to every story. 3 stars (at best) reflect my...

Came here with high expectations and was promptly disappointed.

It started with the host who was good about acknowledging us as we entered, asking if we had a reservation and promptly handing us off to a server to escort us to the exterior tented area. Although they tried to make the exterior welcoming with drapes, lamps and small carpets on the floor, the cold iron chairs and cold room temperature even on a sunny Seattle day weren't cutting it.

We asked to move indoors and they didn't even have the courtesy of having the waiter or host tell us that the indoor dinning area was "for reservations only". They sent the kind but new busser to do this for them. They offer heat lamps which they didn't turn on until we asked, and even then they didn't work, and some small blankets, that I had no desire to put on during what is supposed to be a "nice" dinning experience.

We tried three appetizers, the ceaser salad with dressing that tasted like watered down anchovies (would not recommend), the beet and burrata salad which was fine, but lacking beets, it literally had four slices of beets, and the gambas (shrimp with garlic) which were good.

For the entree my husband had the fish and I had the chicken marsala. My husband enjoyed his fish my chicken marsala was on the salty side.

Over all our impressions of the dinning experience was that the food was okay, the wait staff was nice - not super attentive but they tried, the host was horrible - didn't provide clear information from the beginning and didn't even acknowledge us as we left even though he was standing there doing nothing.

All in all I would never go back, Seattle has better options if your craving...