Perlo's Restaurant — Restaurant in Town/Village of East Rochester

We have been coming here for Mother's day for the past couple of years and have always enjoyed their wide selection of food at reasonable prices. We went here for Mother's Day yesterday only to find out that this year they only offered a limited Mother's Day menu. We made reservations over the phone and were never told there would be a limited menu. The selections were very limited, very expensive, and was missing everything we wanted to order. No gnocchi, no pasta dishes, no chicken parm, no greens & beans, & no chicken french.

My wife, ordered some sort of eggplant parm but with spinach in it and cost $28. She thought it tasted just like frozen spinach and it certainly looked like frozen spinach. So, $28 for a lackluster glorified eggplant parm and a disappointed mother on Mother's Day. My son, who was really looking forward to chicken parm, ended up getting the lobster french which was almost $50. It came with 2 lobster tails and was presented nicely and tasted fine but it was nothing outstanding. I ordered the chicken Milanese which was ok but not worth the $38 it cost. The chicken was much drier than I would have preferred. I'm looking at their regular dinner menu online now, and it's normally on $24. So clearly, they hiked things up significantly for their limited menu which we didn't even know about until we were seated. On top of all that, they decided to include 20% gratuity on our table of 3. The service was very good and I definitely would have left at least 20% because of that and I used to wait tables, but what if the service was lousy? So all-in-all we paid, $150 for a family of 3: 3 meals, 2 sodas, a glass of wine, tip and tax.

The whole experience was very disappointing, felt very rushed and seemed more about the restaurant trying to make as much money as possible while not caring about the customer as much which is kind of sad on a day like Mother's Day...

The four of us had the calamari (with the olive and banana peppers) and greens and beans as appetizers. Both were excellent and plenty. We wished the calamari had come with a side of marinara but that didn't stop us from eating it all. The greens and beans were garlicky which was fine with us but might be too much for some people.

Two of us had salads and two had their roasted tomato soup. There was plenty of dressing for the salad so apply lightly at first. I enjoyed the soup very much.

Disclaimer/ Apology: I don't remember the personal names that went with each dish! For our entrees we had: Haddock French Chicken Milanese Cod Picatta Seafood Cioppino

I had the Cioppino but substituted Orecchiette since I wanted to be able to eat everything with a spoon and get a lot of the liquid with each bite. I highly recommend that option! All of it was delicious.

My Mom had the Chicken Milanese. It was enough for 3-4 meals for her! She enjoyed it from what I could see.

My sister had the Cod Picatta which see ordered because it had capers, lemon, and butter (how can you go wrong with that combo? ). It was very good and had the desired amount of capers for her.

My wife had the Haddock French which she enjoyed also. She didn't let me taste it so can't comment personally on it (LOL).

ALL of us had leftovers which they put in clear containers which made it easy to tell what was in it AND they wrapped them all very well with plastic wrap in case there was any spillage which was a nice touch.

They do have gluten-free pasta for an extra charge. If you are on a low carb diet then your options are more limited but you could probably skip the pasta or ask to have it on the side. I don't know if they have an alternative like zoodles (I did not ask).

We would definitely return and the menu is large so there's plenty to...

First, I want to make it clear, this rating is not reflective of the dinner experience itself. The food was delicious, very flavorful and in good portions. The prices are reasonable, the wine was great,. and the service was top notch.

I also want to state that I understand that businesses all over the country, especially restaurants, are readjusting to a post-pandemic economic landscape and may be feeling pressure and facing difficulties. However, I was deeply disappointed and bothered to see that the owner made a point to go out of her way to include, in bold, on the menu, a statement proclaiming that any issues with the dining experience was due to a staff shortage because of "generous unemployment benefits for those who prefer not to work." I found this to be so unnecessary, unfair and rude, essentially blaming any issues on the "laziness" of the potential workforce. This creates a narrative that somehow anyone who seeks more money to support themselves or their family is a problem, and should be grateful for the opportunity to work for whatever wages Pelo's offers. I understand wanting to support your current employees who are probably working very hard, but the best way to do that is making sure they are treated and paid well, not by dumping on the unemployed. There are many, many reasons why potential employees might not want to work at YOUR restaurant, and gaslighting patrons into blaming the wait time for their lasagna on them left a bad taste in my mouth. There are MANY MANY other quality Italian restaurants in Rochester, that I'm happy to patronize, and if any of them share Perlo's sentiments, then at least they are smart enough to not print a statement about it on their menu, which I found to be...