Zano's Family Italian & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Truckee

Zano’s has been a “go to” location over the years. A great place to sit at the bar and enjoy the company of other locals or to bring friends and family when in town and recommend to tourists looking for hearty meal in a family friendly environment. But things are changing, I’m not sure how much longer I can say that. The following is just one example, but to me it speaks volumes of the new ownership in 2024. After a beer at the bar and fun conversation with some neighbors, I tried to order my favorite pepperoni deep dish pizza to go for dinner. The bar tender tried to put in the order and then consulted one of the waitresses who kindly shared with me that the new owners no longer wanted to make deep dish pizza and took it off the menu. Out of curiosity I asked why, and both said they had no idea why and were never told why. As I contemplated what else to order or whether to go to one of the other local favorite restaurants, a “Godfather” pizza which is a deep dish pizza was delivered to one of the high top tables behind me at the bar. Hmmmmm?! I ordered another beer from the bar tender, pointed to the Godfather pizza and asked, “Does that have pepperoni?” They responded yes and I said OK, I’ll have a Godfather with only pepperoni. She smiled, laughed and said sorry, we can’t do that because the new owners said no more deep dish pizzas. I again pointed to the deep dish Godfather pizza and the bar tender shrugged, smiled, and said it doesn’t make sense to me either. To the Brown family who made Zano’s a Truckee institution, we already miss you. To the new owners, I realize change is a constant, but it also needs to make sense. As new owners you owe no one, including me explanation… it ‘s yours, you are the owners, but reason and explanation for change, especially when shared with your employees why can in turn address customer questions as your representatives, may create good will with local regulars whose business will will help you all year long and especially in the shoulder seasons when tourists are sparse. Friends and neighbors…I will see you...

Overall not great food or service.

We went to dinner there and immediately felt "unwelcome". To be fair, we were a large party of 12 so maybe we overwhelmed our waitress with the size of the group, but still we were paying customers and are good tippers if merited!

The waitress seemed annoyed that we were there and was fairly curt the entire meal. She never once came to refill our drinks the entire meal. She did come once and say "I'll be out front if you need anything" which I could understand if the place was really busy but frankly we were the only large party there. There was one other family eating and that was about it.

The food was not good at all! I ordered a fettuccine Alfredo and the sauce was so bland I felt I was just eating noodles. I tried to add salt to add some flavor but still to no avail.

We had several small children with us and the kids sizes were the same size as the adults portions so needless to say we had a lot of extra food left over. Had we known the portions were that small would've only ordered maybe one or two and shared it amongst all the small kids. Typically this is something that you expect your waiter or waitress to advise you on but there was no advice given of that nature.

There were a few individuals in our party did enjoy their meal but for the most part the consensus was the food was very very bland and lacked any flavor!

The one positive thing I can say about the restaurant is that the food was out extremely quickly and there's a small little arcade there for kids to play in.

If anybody were to ask me personally whether I would recommend this restaurant or not I would...

Nice family casual dining. Staff was friendly and attentive. To drink I had the Coco Pazzo which is basically a Pina colada and was good but filling. For appetizers we tried and the fried pickles and wow! That was my favorite part of the meal! Pickles were cut into nice french fry-like strips and we're nice and crispy served with a tasty honey mustard dip. Definitely recommend! We also got bread sticks and they were so-so. If you're getting a pasta entree it comes with a tasty warm roll so bread sticks aren't really needed.

My mother had the steak fried calamari and really enjoyed it. My brother had spaghetti with marinara sauce, basic dish, good for kids though the marinara sauce is not bland (which I personally enjoyed) but is well seasoned for people who may be sensitive.

I originally ordered the Gnocchi dish but returned it because I was getting a seafood after taste and I'm not sure why. My taste buds may have been off that day but my Mom said she tasted it as well.

Staff was friendly and quick to let me order a replacement dish. I got fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms. Not bad but not great, I suppose I like more garlic in my fettuccine personally.

We didn't get to try any pizza but it looked really good, we plan on coming back to try next time. They have a couple desserts as well but we we're too full.

All in all, good service, nice casual atmosphere, decent food and large portions.

Would definitely recommend giving this...