Pranzo! — Restaurant in Willoughby

Wow. Where to start? Went here with a party of 4 last night, a Thursday and sat on the patio in back. Wasn't that busy. Three other tables taken, 2 with 2 people and 1 with 3. One table tuned over once.Two servers for the patio. A blonde and a brunette; we had the brunette. She didn't say her name. Maybe a new staff after just reopening from CV closure? Not sure. 157 reviews with only 21 of them in the last 6 months, but most with 4-5 stars. Not this review though, for sure. Most of the low reviews concern the service. I have to agree. It was horrible! Its probably been 30 years since I've only left a 15% tip, but it happened last night. We arrived and were asked pretty quickly if we wanted a drink. Asked if they had NA beer. Server not sure. Went to check. Returned about 10 min later. No NA beer. No suggestions. Fine. I'll have tonic and lime. No lime, only lemon. Fine. Ordered three apps, bruschetta, antipasto piatta, meatballs. They came in a reasonable amount of time and we asked what the cheeses were? Server didn't know, but would check. She never came back. Fine. A little aggregating but the cheeses were good, especially the soft one (roasted peppers were the only other thing on the plate by the way. Not very antipasto-y) Bruschetta was good. Mostly roasted cherry tomatoes on the toast with some fresh herbs. Nothing exciting but the bread was good and well toasted. The meatballs were phenomenal though, as was the bread that came with them. Finished the apps (and never saw the server again the entire time), waited about 10 more minutes and finally flagged down our server down to order dinner when she reappeared. Ordered 1 baked penne and meatballs, 2 pappardelle caprese and 1 veal marsala. The last 3 arrived in a reasonable amount of time, but had to wait at least 5 min for the baked penne. Getting a little aggregated again. Baked penne finally arrived and we started. Daughter's boyfriend loved his baked penne. My veal was very good but salty. Cavatellis with it were very good, as was the sauce. My wife and daughter said the pappardelle was good and served with a nice amount of tomatoes and basil, but both thought it was very oily and too salty. After flagging down the other server (ours was MIA again) to ask for boxes our server arrived and we asked for 3 cappuccinos. Says she's not sure if the machine is working. Ok, maybe she'll check that and ask if we want dessert (she just left...). She came back and said they're working to get the cappuccinos. Since she didn't ask us about dessert, I asked her if they had any. Yes. Chocolate torte, tiramisu and cannolis. Ordered one of each. They came in only about 5 minutes. Although no word on the cappuccinos, desserts were very good. We finished dessert and asked for the check saying to just forgot about the cappuccinos at this point since we're done with dessert. Oh, the server stammered, "she has them ready in the back" and just turned and rushed off. Back she comes in minutes, slops them down on the table and says, "cappuccinos aren't really our specialty". Seriously? Why are they on the menu? The picture is exactly how my wife's was served. She didn't even want it at this point and couldn't drink it looking like that anyway; the other 2 didn't look much different, but I drank mine as she still charged us 5 bucks a piece for them. Really trying to be understanding with everything going on in the world right now, but having just moving to Willoughby and making this our first restaurant to visit since March 16th (and then getting the $200+ bill for this experience?), makes me really think something big had to have changed here recently to go from all the 5-stars to what we received. We certainly didn't order anything out of left field or particularly challenging. Pretty simple menu, just not well executed. Will give them another chance at some point, but it's gonna be a while to hopefully let them get their groove back in...

I posted this review a while ago on Yelp, but I think more people are reading reviews via Google now. Please read as everything still holds true.

Where do I start? My Wife and I including our families have been coming to Pranzo since we moved to Lake County. We have enjoyed Birthdays, Graduations, Anniversaries, Celebrations, Date Nights, Long Nights and Special Days. In the summer we love to dine outside on beautiful patio and in the cooler months we enjoy the cozy inside by the fireplace. Every time we go it's always the best food and wonderful service. Every time! Regardless if my wife and I go on a Friday evening after a long tough work week or a Saturday celebration with the whole family. Pranzo never disappoints. This is our "go to place".

Food: Excellent food and HUGE portions.Quality matches Quantity here which is extremely hard to do in today's world. Most menu items and dishes are cooked in their outside wood fire oven. Please get a wood fire pizza, even if it's just an appetizer. The pizza is so good, so fresh, so amazing. Most of their pasta is homemade and extremely delicious. They pair the pastas with an array of marinara and cream sauces. Try the cavatteli with cream sauce. This is a fan favorite with our whole family. You will leave with a smile on your face as the homemade pasta is cooked perfectly swimming in a big bowl of creamy sauce. Me? I always order the fabulous veal parmesan that comes with penne pasta. I can write a whole review just on this dish it's that good, but I am going to be short, sweet and simple: Order it!!! All dinners come with a tasty salad as well. Even the complimentary bread is wonderful and could probably be a $5-6 dollar app on other places menus.

Drinks: Good drink menu, but what we love about Pranzo is that it's BYOWine for a small fee. Tip- bring a big bottle! :)

Service: Service is always great! Fast friendly and always going above and beyond. I feel like we have had every server in the establishment and never had an issue. Great people.

All around...

We came for a Christmas dinner with six ladies. That is considered a large group here. We had reservations for six at 7:00pm. We arrived on time but the table was not open. They said to come back in fifteen minutes. We walked around outside in the cold and we came back still no table. They said they would call us when the table was free. Walked around outside for another forty minutes and a table was being cleared. Still no phone call so they said we could sit at that table. They brought water and wine orders to us. They didn’t take our food order for another half an hour. We all ordered pizza to keep it simple. Side salad for $9.00 was a handful of bagged arugula with three slim pieces of white cheese and one cherry tomato. For this price they could have at least added one black olive. Took another hour to get our food which was cold and toppings not cooked. I left two pieces of pizza on the pan and the waiter threw it out. Never asked if I wanted a box. While we were eating they dimmed the lights. Apparently that was a hint they were closing. The waiter comes back and hands one person the check. We asked for separate checks. He says “we don’t separate checks for groups of six or more. It’s on the menu”. Well if we could read the small print in the dark but this was not anywhere where it was obvious. After some debate he says “I will do it this time. But I won’t do it again”. He charged me an additional $2.00 for the cold pizza. Added a 20% gratuity because we had a group of six. I don’t mind paying for good service. But the servers were rude and wanted to end their day. They offered us two apps for having to wait. It was enough for two people. The cheese on the board was cut so small a mouse could have picked it up and ate it. I am sorry after reading the great reviews. Very...