Reino's Pizza & Pasta — Restaurant in Tiffin

This restaurant will be a bit different than my other restaurant reviews, in that I want to focus on tradition, ownership, and pride. Our group found all three of these qualities on display when we visited on a busy Friday evening, 4/21/23.

We came through the door and were greeted by happy chaos. Maybe they were short-staffed? Maybe because it was a Friday evening everyone was doing dinner? Maybe it was because college is close to ending a semester? In any case, customers and staff were still jovial, and the mood was infectious.

We were quickly seated at a clean booth. Our waitress came by and took our drink orders. The soft drinks came first. We waited a bit for our mixed drinks, and then the waitress came back for our orders.

We talked, and soaked up the atmosphere, then our salads began coming out, two at a time for our party of four. Service was slower, but it was no problem. Packed restaurants are packed for a good reason!

These folks make their dressing in house. The house Italian is miraculously not oily, but balanced, and somehow ordering bleu cheese gets a delightful creamy concoction to blend in with the dressing. The French dressing was lightly sweet, flavorful, and again, not oily! These folks are wizards!

Our entrees arrived. See my pic of the chicken Parmesan below for reference. I tasted everything. What I tasted was flavorful, and quite good, but more than that, what I tasted was seasoned with time and love.

The standout for me was the New York style Alfredo. It was brilliant. It is rich, but wow! The garlic was forward, but not over-powering, and the flavor of the butter still came through. I know what I'm getting next time, and there will be a next time. I'm also going to try one of their pizzas. Hey, a place that's been making them since the late 1940's must be on to something. 😉

One off note was our server, a wonderful lady with a great sense of humor, forgot our bread. No worries! This is where pride comes in. The very friendly owner came to visit us at our table and noticed we didn't have bread. Within one minute, we did.

I commended him on the quality of our food, and he asked me what I throught of his flavors. I told him I tasted time-honored traditional flavors, and that his food was honest, and quite good.

That's what you'll get at Reino's, folks: Tiffin tradition, time-honored, flavorful, honest, fresh, and satisfying Italian food. For us, it was easily worth the drive from Bucyrus.

We'll be back, folks. Thank you for a great meal, great atmosphere, many fun memorable moments, all in a cozy, warm environment.

Bene! Molto...

Date: 4/23 (Saturday) Time:9:30 P.M. Oh, this one was a drop in for the sake of nostalgia. Reino's is a Tiffin institution, and has seen many relocations over the years. When a pizza joint started in the 50s and is still in business and serving up the original recipes some 70 years later, that should tell you all you need to know.

I used to go to Reino's in the late 70s with my dad, and, having recently moved back to the area, was longing to see it as I said, for nostalgia's sake. Well..... just as you and I don't look like we did 40 years ago, neither does Reino's. It's no longer a relatively sparse, sort of charmingly neglected, red-checked tablecloth place that I knew - and for a few seconds my heart was sad. But we were quickly welcomed and had a seat at the bar. There were a few locals seated by us, good for easy conversation, and I learned that the original owner's grandson is now in charge -- again, that says something. I talked to him briefly, giving him another story of his grandfather to add to the many he said he'd heard.

We ordered a 2 item medium pizza, and it took probably 30 minutes to arrive more or less. I could tell right away it was real mozzarella and not the weird combo cheese. The sauce had a bit of sweetness to it, not too chunky not too smooth, and the toppings were adequate although I prefer heavily topped so that's just a subjective issue. The crust and general texture of the pizza is "doughy", which I like. If you're looking for a thin, cracker crust or fancy gluten free cauliflower stuff, this isn't it. Next time I might ask them to bake it just a bit longer, but only because I do like the crust to actually have some greater degree of hardness to support the pie, you know? But the flavor was great - again the authentic sauce and cheese made a huge difference. It was a family recipe, history, love and yes, nostalgia.

This was Saturday night and aside from a few carryout orders and the departing locals, we had the place to ourselves at 10PM (They close at 11) so I can't speak for the crowd at other times --- but I will find out because I'm definitely going back and...

I've always heard about this place but was tonight was my first time visiting it. We got there before the dinner rush there was only a table or 2 in there. When we arrived, but by the time we left, it was almost filled

At the recommendation of the locals we ordered Frankie's original, an order of cheesy bread with sauce and some hot parmesan chicken wings.

The cheesy bread arrived first. It was extremely hot and fresh. The cheese, the bread and the flavor was absolutely incredible

Next to arrive where the chicken wings, they were truly fall off. The bone and again, hot and fresh.These were absolutely some of the best chicken wings i've had in a very long time

And last but not least, the frankie's original pizza, a staple here since nineteen fifty one, it says on the menu, and it did not disappoint everything about it.It was top, notch and it was some of the best pizza i've had in a long time as well

It was nice and clean and quiet and the staff was very friendly and did an extremely terrific job. I would definitely go back...