Parioli Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Solana Beach

Horrible experience; would never consider going back. Do yourself a favor and avoid at all costs.

Unfortunate because the food was pretty good, but the service was so unbelievably bad, I felt like I had been robbed once I saw the bill.

Had a reservation for a big group of about 25 (half with kids). My friend stopped by earlier in the day, and the owner assured him they could definitely accommodate. Arrived on time; they still needed to setup. No problem we thought; it’s not very busy, probably 20 people seated inside, will be ready soon. We headed to the bar to order drinks.

20 minutes later, tables still not ready, drinks hadn’t been made. After asking when we could sit (and where the drinks were) several times, they finally said they had another big group in the back (apparently where we were supposed to go) who didn’t want to leave so our only option was to sit in the front patio, which clearly wasn’t meant for dinner. Fine, whatever, everyone is hungry; but where are our drinks?!

Sat down; waited another 20 minutes and several trips inside before anyone came to take a drink order. “Well we ordered several drinks at the bar 40 minutes ago, and you have our credit cards; any idea where those are?” Had to reorder the drinks with the waitress and physically go back to the bar to “cancel” the drink order we originally placed, 40 minutes ago, just to get our credit cards back. Again, there were 20 people seated inside; it’s not as if this place was pouring drink after drink the past 40 minutes. We should have left immediately.

Unfortunately, against our better judgement, we stayed. Ordered a few pizzas and plain pastas for the kids as well; that was all they could handle though, and asked us to wait on everything else. Mind you we’ve now been here 40 minutes after our reservation began.

Another 15 minutes later and we’re finally allowed to place our food order; albeit only after we protested when they initially asked us to “only order appetizers and salads right now; wait for entrees”. We’ve been here an hour and have had nothing to eat or drink; we’re ordering before we don’t see you for another hour.

Fast forward another 15 minutes, after we finally got drinks and kids pizzas (they forgot the kids pastas entirely; we had to wait another ten minutes for those) and two garlic breads. The drinks were fine but the wrong bottle of wine arrived; they brought the cheaper vintage. At that point we didn’t even say anything for fear of the waitress breaking down and crying; we smiled and said thank you and moved on.

Another 15 minutes of us sitting and waiting, and here comes the waitress. She brings a third garlic bread, apologizing for all the delays, saying it’s on the house. A $7 side item; much appreciated.

Meals came another 15-20 minutes later (we’re now 1:40 past the reservation), and the food was good, but honestly no one really cared at that point; we just wanted to eat something.

Ready to get out of there, one member of the party pays the bill, so we can split it later. Upon seeing the picture of the bill... wow. That free $7 garlic bread they were so generous to offer as the only concession? Was on the bill, charged in full. The bottle of wine? Charged for the more expensive vintage, despite getting the cheaper bottle. The kids pastas (spaghetti and red sauce)? Full $24/plate adult charge.

The owner, who my friend made the reservation with and had assured him they could accommodate us, was nowhere to be seen after initially apologizing for the delay (about five minutes into this debacle). We received no concessions and no complementary anything, but were charged for what we didn’t ask for and overcharged for what we did ask for (but didn’t get).

Worst restaurant experience of my life. If you can’t handle a group of 25; no problem, it’s not easy, we get it. Just say that before you accept the reservation, and then ruin everyone’s night with the...

If I could give less than one star, I would. You literally have over four years worth of the same negative review, and still haven’t changed they way you operate.

Let me describe what I’m talking about. We called the restaurant and scheduled a reservation for 7:30. When we arrived, we waited over 10 minutes for anybody to even acknowledge us. Once they came to talk to us, we realized they didn’t even have our reservation saved. So another 15 minutes of waiting for them to scramble and find us a table, and finally we get seated.

We were then left to wait for over ten minutes AGAIN so the waitress could get us our waters. Once she returned, she finally took our order. Two of us ordered the Spicy Sausage Penne. One of us ordered Pasta Carbonara. One of us ordered Chicken Parm. She wrote our orders down, and then left.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. For over 50 minutes, with no contact from our waitress at all, and no food to speak of. My sister ordered a sparkling water that never came, as well as a salad that didn’t come out until the rest of the food did.

Oh, the food. I’m gonna sound like Gordon Ramsay here, but the food… bland. Tasteless. Boring. Small portions and poorly cooked dishes that we would’ve been better off making at home. All for the low, low price of OVER $140. The carbonara was more akin to buttered noodles. The chicken parm was tough. The “spicy” sausage penne was anything but, including but not limited to literally no red pepper flake in, on, or around the dish, and a “spicy sausage” that I’d compare more to a grilled hot dog.

This place obviously does not care about the service they provide, or the food they serve. And that’s clear from the four years worth of the same review I’m leaving now.

If I could give ZERO stars, I would. Avoid this restaurant, at all costs. I promise you, you will be better off going literally anywhere else.

And hey, maybe stop ignoring all of the negative feedback. Clearly, people aren’t too happy with you guys. But I guess filtering your reviews works too.👎👎

And no disrespect to our waitress. She was very pleasant in person. She just… wasn’t really...

We ate here last year. Drive by often and wish it had been a great experience. Food was pretty decent, but expensive given how many great options are out there. Server was pushy upselling several times.

The biggest reason for 2 stars though...got the check, the prices were higher than the menu stated by $2-3 per item leading to like 10-15 higher than expected. When I asked the server what was up, he told me they had just raised the prices, but the owner hadn't gotten updated menus yet. This was a random Tuesday. Something fishy, that's false advertising. At the very least, you should notify your customers before they order. Otherwise, give them the price on the menu and apologize. Unprofessional way of doing business.

Edit: Saw the reply from the owner. This is not a debate. 100% for sure the prices we were billed were higher than the menu stated and we had a conversation with the waiter who said a new menu was forthcoming with updated pricing, And we were still charged the...