Picazzo's Healthy Italian Kitchen Tempe — Restaurant in Tempe

We had a not great experience. We arrived Saturday night 6:30 so you expect it to be busy. My wife wanted to sit outside. A couple rushed in as we parked and they got seated right away outside so I was a little shocked to hear it was going to be 20 minutes. No big deal our party was 3 and the birthday girl had not arrived yet.

We did eventually get a really nice seat on the patio. Which was the best thing about our visit. From my seat I could watch the ball game on the tv inside.

Service was slow the entire night even as the restaurant emptied out. They serve Pepsi products so I suffered with a water. And I really don’t like pizza and water so I went with the chicken piccata. Which was huge mistake. I will say the sauce had a nice flavor and I liked the Broccolini or what ever variation it was. Sometimes piccata is made as a cream sauce this was a nice lemon butter. The problem was the chicken was grilled and an after thought. piccata is great because the chicken has that flavor. This chicken was tough and tasted like someone just grilled a bunch of chicken with no spices or marinade. I remember getting grilled chicken at the firehouse in Venice beach all the body builders went there for chicken. The chicken was grilled but always moist and flavorful. And very healthy. The other issue was the pasta. My wife’s pasta dish had 10z more pasta. And not only was there barely any pasta it was extremely over cooked and mushy. And to top it off I counted only 3 Rotini that were full sized the rest was broken pieces. The entire dish was made with no care. My wife’s Rotini was fine and her meal tased good. I’m grateful she is not a big eater because I was able to eat some of her pasta so I didn’t leave hungry

I even asked the server if my dish came with pasta and he said yes. Which seemed strange they he didn’t offer any further explanation but it was busy so I didn’t push.

The server didn’t return to check on the food until I had eaten all the vegetables and all the pasta pieces. And everyone else was basically finished eating

I probably wouldn’t have asked for something else even if he had come right out because the birthday girl picked the place and was raving about how great the restaurant was. I can tell you that for now on she only picks restaurants on her birthday because I felt bad that my wife spent $100 and we went home and made food.

I saw someone that looked like a manager walking around. My question is why did he not check on tables if his staff was busy?

Friday night we went to nellos not far down Warner and had the exact opposite experience. Great food. Great service. Maybe not fancy enough for a birthday but I would pick Nellos 7 days a week over here.

Maybe it’s my fault for not sending back my food but if that’s how it’s supposed to served what’s the point.

My wife’s Rotini even commented on my today about how bad the server was. I didn’t think he was terrible just busy. But if you can’t check on food and at least bring drink refills you probably should t be serving.

I notice this restaurant has a 4.6. And has been around for years and is busy so I have to assume my experience was an anomaly. Generally restaurants delivering this kind of meal don’t stay around long.

The birthday girl said the other location is much better. She even commented that it was weird.

Just don’t be surprised if you get my kind of experience compared to the 4.6 google...

I was at Picazzo's with my family for a Mother's Day dinner on 5/11. I and my family are vegan and dairy free. We ordered two vegan pizzas, vegan puttanesca and the vegan BBQ chicken pizza. We also ordered vegan cheese bread and the vegan Daring chicken wings. I have ordered these dishes dozens of times at other locations and I'm familiar with what Daring chicken looks like. When our food finally came out, the puttanesca appeared to have real dairy cheese on it, as it was golden and my vegetarian husband remaked that it tasted like real cheese, after trying it when my dairy free toddler sons said their pizza tasted weird. When my vegan BBQ chicken pizza came out, it had real chicken and real cheese on it. The chicken was white, chunky and smelled like chicken, and did not look like the Daring BBQ chicken I just had. We flagged our waitress Grace, and she apologized, took only one of the pizzas, and said she would have it fixed. My husband finished the food while my sons and I waited for the BBQ pizza. About a half hour later, she returned with the remade pizza, and she confirmed the previous pizza did have real chicken on it. I finally got to eat my pizza as the rest of my family waited for me to finish. We got the bill, and it was $90+. Okay, but we looked closer and realized she never rang the pizzas up as vegan, she entered them in wrong. She didn't comp my pizza and to boot, and the remake was the only one that was labeled vegan BBQ chicken. The restaurant can look this up in their records. I am very saddened, as the service was not good, and my sons got sick from eating the dairy. We didn't have time to flag down the manager, as it was very busy, understandably so, and we had a long drive back to California. I love Picazzo's but they clearly do not take allergies or their service seriously. My waitress made a dangerous mistake and was extremely dismissive about it, which I didn't think much of at the time because I know mistakes happen, but after seeing the receipt, it wasn't a mistake BOH made, and she blamed it on them, when really, she entered in our dishes incorrectly. I don't know how this can be remedied, but I hope bringing attention to this mistake can help the restaurant and serve as a warning to others to be diligent, especially if you have allergies. I did get a coupon at the end of my meal, but I don't know if I will be back any time soon until they can fix the issues they have at this location. The one on Lindsay has never messed up like this. I just want to be able to trust these restaurants so I can continue to support them so they stay open, as there is so few places for gluten free and dairy free people...

Came here for dinner with my sister when I was in town visiting and was excited about trying more food from this place. Had been here once before because of the plethora of Vegan options on the menu and had the Plant-Based Vegetable Lasagna Bolognese which was delicious but a small portion for the price, as well as the Vegan Elote Pizza on a gluten free crust which was really good.

Tonight I ordered the Vegan Spicy Chipotle Chik’n Pasta and a Funghi Florentine Pizza to go. My sister went with the Vegan Elote Pizza on my recommendation. Everything we ordered was Vegan. Our server Ricardo was nice but not very attentive. After bringing our food out he made a second stop at the table to drop of crushed red peppers and some hot sauce. He soon made a third stop at the table to regretfully notify me that he had brought me real chicken with my pasta dish. My heart instantly sant and my stomach turned. He took the pasta away and promptly brought me the correct order but not before I had already had 3-4 bites of the bird. I was angry, disappointed, and mostly sad.

James the manager stopped at the table where he assured me he would be taking care of the pasta on my bill and Ricardo even brought a Vegan Cheesecake on the house to try and soothe things over. James stopped at the table again and I learned this has happened another time in the past, where they served a Vegan real meat or cheese. I suggested they try and use different colored plates or some other form of safe practice distinguishing the plants from the flesh and to avoid this mistake from ever happening to anyone again. Both were very apologetic but the damage was done. The lack of oversight of the food in regards to dietary restrictions and/or allergies was appalling. Still had a bill for $44.86 which I paid but felt like it was adding insult to injury for what amounted to paying money to be fed real chicken. I guess they needed the money more than I did. Tip was 15%

Pains me to write this but not nearly as much as feeling lied to, cheated, and just plain disrespected like that. If you choose to dine here make sure you double and even triple check that what you got is plant based before eating it. Maybe try Chipotle or Mod pizza for a fast casual place where you can at least watch as they make the food in front of you. Mod will even change gloves for you before making plant based food.

One star feels generous because I wasn’t even 20% satisfied with my experience. Vegan friends beware....