Peppino's Ristorante — Restaurant in Town of Bedford

My boyfriend and I ate dinner at Peppino's on Wednesday evening because we had a gift certificate. It was my first time dining here. I do not have plans to return in the near future unfortunately.

To begin, I am a Chef. I realize there are many critics out there, and sometimes, it is not always fair for people who know nothing about food to write negative reviews. However, I do have a great knowledge of food, and feel I should give some suggestions on how to improve the flavor of some of your dishes.

To begin, the garlic bread is served with large pieces of garlic on top of the slices. There is no seasoning whatsoever. It basically tastes like plain oil, not olive oil and pieces of garlic. Please consider preparing a butter & olive oil mix, season with salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, grated cheese and sautéed garlic. Your customers will like it much better than how you are preparing it currently.

We ordered the calamari for an appetizer. It was light in color so I immediately realized it was not thoroughly cooked. We did send it back to be cooked further, and our server returned it with a slightly more golden color, but a rubbery consistency with all different sized pieces of calamari. Consistency should be key here and all pieces should be cut somewhat the same. It was not seasoned with salt or pepper and just not good. Try changing your recipe.

I ordered the Peppino's Chicken. The pieces of chicken were all different shapes and sizes, thus making the smaller pieces overcooked and too tough to eat. Basically, it appeared to be chicken nuggets that were just covered with a sauce. The sauce was not terrible, but definitely needed improvement. Your sous chef needs to improve his/her skills in making items close to the same size, especially for a main entree.

My boyfriend ordered the Chicken Sorrentino. It certainly looked appetizing, though after tasting the tomato sauce, it was quite bitter. We both agreed. Overall, the dish was good, not terrific. You should consider adding a bit of carrot or sugar to cut the bitterness when preparing your marinara.

Most diners do not realize that it is not always the Chef behind the line doing all the cooking, so perhaps he can re-educate his line cooks to...

If you want authentic Italian food or well prepared FRESH fish dishes, go across the street to Blue Dolphin (go early, since they are much too busy to take reservations) or a few miles north to Purdy’s Farmer & the Fish (they do take & honor reservations). Now, here are the details:

Lobster ravioli: both the sauce and the pasta were processed. No lobster chunks and no indication that a chef put any effort into preparing either.

Sole: fish was mushy and translucent - a sure sign that it was frozen, thawed and perhaps re-frozen.

Family style salad: greens were a mixture of old brown wilted lettuce and newer green and red lettuce. You have to sort out the bad stuff; my wife, who grew up in Italy, simply would not risk it.

Both entrees were disproportionately overpriced and a discouraging waste of money. We’ve lived here now for 8 years and thought we’d give it a try after the mixed reviews. This is our last visit. See the excellent one star review here...

I probably would have given 3.5 stars if that was available. Got off to a rocky start because they did not honor our reservation. We had to wait about 20 minutes. While this is a pet peeve of mine, it was made worse by an obnoxious dude who I guess is the host. I was ready to leave, but we were there with friends so I held my tongue. Once seated, things got better. Good service from our waiter. Food was excellent. Salad was served as part of the meal. They even brought over some Sambuca along with our espressos. The place was busy so they obviously have a loyal following. I would return because the food and service was good and it is local to where I live. That said, if management of the restaurant happens to read this review, you should really re-think having that dude host greet people. For all I know he was the owners son or something. The lady was more friendly although ineffective at honoring the...