Restaurant Recommendations

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:13 am

Inquiring minds dodint…

Postby **dodint** » Tue Sep 05, 2017 5:01 pm

BLUF; they gave my food away and were shitty about replacing it.

So here's the deal. I was driving home from Chicago that day. Reading the recommendations here I knew their service was slow and was prepared for that. I called the order in with extra time to spare, it should've taken 45 minutes which is totally reasonable and I gave them a full hour from when I expected to be there, I called a little bit after I drove past Akron. This is how it went down, I actually watched the times because I was curious how long it would take relative to the expectations set by this thread:

1600: Call the order in; promise time 45 minutes.
1700: Enter restaurant, stand at counter.
1704: Greeted, finally, lots of walking by but no acknowledgement.
1706: Greeter comes back without food, answers phone, tells person on phone they can't take a reservation past 4pm but the restaurant is not busy. (Ok?)
1706: Greeter charges me for my check; $54 for two plates of pasta and some stuffed banana peppers. This better be good (it wasn't).
1707: Greeter leaves. Comes back momentarily, places phone call to patron. "Hey, we gave you somebody else's food, do you want to come get yours or just a refund?"
1707: Greeter goes back to kitchen (I'm standing at the counter still, 18" from phone, hearing both of these conversations)
1708: Greeter returns, announces that she gave my food to someone else (no ****, the customer IN THE RESTAURANT was standing right there but you took care of a customer over the phone instead).
1709: Greeter offers a drink while I wait for new food; promises 15 minutes. I tell her fine and I'll go run an errand and be back.
1730: I return from buying beer. STILL NO FOOD.
1734: Food comes, I go.

So, on a night when they weren't busy they were late with my food twice after ruining two families dinners. Their parking lot is garbage, scraped my undercarriage leaving because their inlet is basically still a curb. Their building is tiny and in a shitty part of Rt. 8 with zero aesthetic whatsoever. The food was above average at best, my wife puts it below DiPietro's; the soup was too salty to taste the ingredients and the sauce was underwhelming.
It's basically an okay place if you want to put up with the wait. No way that I'll drive 8 miles up Rt.8 to have to stand around there for a half hour to maybe get my food and then drive 8 miles back. There are several Google reviews echo my experience.

For such a 'humble' setting the service there is absolutely horrible. I have no idea where they get off being that dismissive and shitty to people when their building looks like a burned out shack and the food isn't close to outstanding. No chance I drive past any of the other Italian restaurants within 8 miles of here to go to that place again. I told my wife she's welcome to pick up food there after work and I'll happily eat it, but I doubt that will happen. The service turned me off and the food was mediocre to her and she's actually knowledgeable on the nuance that goes into Italian dining.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Tue Sep 05, 2017 10:48 pm

Sorry to laugh dodint, but that sums up my experiences going there as well. I'm Except it's maybe 1.5 miles from my house, so every month or so I'll be suckered back in to ordering from there again. Mainly because the restaurant situation in this area can't beat what you just described.

I've ordered from Emiliano's dozens of times and they've messed up my order at least 3 of those times. Yet I still go back.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:02 pm

We really liked Emiliano's, but we dined in.

Postby **Silentom** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:34 am

Huh. Only thing I've ever taken out from O&P is pizza. Dine-in has always been good.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:00 am

Olives and Peppers is a mom and pop operation. There are maybe 5 tables in the entire restaurant, and they staff a bunch of teenager/20-somethings plus the owners and maybe a couple older waiters/waitresses. The food is decent, but being in the Gibsonia area it gets a higher rating due to limited competition.

If you're expecting excellent service and excellent Italian food, try Cenacolo in Irwin. They started out as a company making pasta for the local Italian restaurants (read: Pittsburgh area). They became a restaurant maybe 5 years ago and it's pretty darn good. I don't know if they do it anymore, but they used to top off the meal with a free limoncello at the end. It's also the only restaurant I know in the greater metro area that serves rabbit meat.

The best restaurant in the Gibsonia area is probably the one attached to Narcisi winery. It's more about the ambiance, but the food is pretty good too. It's usually hella-packed during the warmer months of the year. They allow you to bring your own picnic food and eat outside as long as you buy wine from them. The wine isn't top notch, but it's a nice novelty for the area.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:02 am

5af needs one of these types of rants every couple months. Much appreciated, @dodint

Postby **dodint** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:18 am

Source of the post If you're expecting excellent service

I wasn't though. I was expecting poor service (15 minutes) and it was a 34 minute wait for take out.

For my wife, the bar is Rizzo's and/or Carbones. She grew up a few miles from there at Twin Lakes Park and it's been the standard for their family. Some places are better, most don't quite live up.

I'm glad you guys have good interactions with O&P. I don't wish them any specific harm. I do think their attitude is grossly misaligned to the experience they provide and being that it's out of the way for me I'd just rather not go any more.

Never heard of Cenacolo, I'll have to give it a go next time I'm up that way.

Postby **LITT** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 12:26 pm

in the hopes of stopping the talks about a stupid place called olives and peppers

went to alexanders in the casino for the first time for some thursday night thing they had in august with a three course meal, live music outside

not very good

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:01 pm

in the hopes of stopping the talks about a stupid place called olives and peppers

went to alexanders in the casino for the first time for some thursday night thing they had in august with a three course meal, live music outside

not very good

was the trip to alexanders in conjunction with a trip to the casino, or did you go to the restaurant just for the hell of it. this gentleman always wondered about who (if anyone) just went to casino restaurants for the hell of it

Postby **LITT** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:03 pm

just for the hell of it. their targeted marketing worked + we had some food credits.

Postby **slappybrown** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:04 pm

in the hopes of stopping the talks about a stupid place called olives and peppers

went to alexanders in the casino for the first time for some thursday night thing they had in august with a three course meal, live music outside

not very good
was the trip to alexanders in conjunction with a trip to the casino, or did you go to the restaurant just for the hell of it. this gentleman always wondered about who (if anyone) just went to casino restaurants for the hell of it

Ive gone to Andrews just for the hell of it (once)

I feel like we had this discussoin at LGP ages ago and everyone got mad about it

Postby **Silentom** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:09 pm

there was a place on rt 8 in Richland that had good eyetalian food. think it was called italian oven or something.

primo.

Postby **large garlic** » Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:59 pm

I went to a couple new seafood places downtown recently...

The first was Pittsburgh Poke, which I really like. It's not exactly a cheap lunch place, as it's $10-12 for a poke bowl or burrito (with seaweed used instead of a tortilla for the wrapper), but it's super tasty and not that expensive for downtown.

The second was Or the Whale in that new Distrikt hotel. We got a wide variety of stuff--mussels, clams, octopus, crab mac and cheese, and while the food was good, entrees were in the $30-40 range, and that seemed about $10 too high to me.

Postby **skullman80** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:38 pm

Just ate some Shelly pie for the first time in a few months. Soooooo good but so heavy and greasy. Pepperoni pizza fries for the win.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:50 pm

Shelly pie is good yinzer food. Self loathers take note

Postby **columbia** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:59 pm

I guess it's cool to hate on Vincent's, but their sausage pie was the joint.

Postby **slappybrown** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:46 pm

Shelly pie is good yinzer food. Self loathers take note

"Turtle creek"

Postby **skullman80** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 9:20 pm

Shelly pie is good yinzer food. Self loathers take note
"Turtle creek"

I live in turtle Creek if you go by my address. Wilkins twp doesn't have a zip so even though I live there my address is turtle Creek.

I'm 5 min drive from Shelly pie it's both s blessing and a curse lol.

I need to hit up Vincent's again one of these days.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:20 am

Not sure if it's on the 5AF approved list or not, but I'm meeting the wife for dinner at Piccolo Forno tonight before I head out of town. Hope its decent. Everything else down there looked like Industry or copies of Industry.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:25 am

I enjoy Piccolo Forno. If it's too crowded you can always pick up Penn and head down to August Henry's.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:31 am

Yes!

Trying to get there before 4 so I can hit the road, should be good I hope.

Postby **slappybrown** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:38 am

Not sure if it's on the 5AF approved list or not, but I'm meeting the wife for dinner at Piccolo Forno tonight before I head out of town. Hope its decent. Everything else down there looked like Industry or copies of Industry.

yep its decent, nice casual date spot. There are a lot of other good places on butler but Piccolo Forno is a nice sweet spot in terms of cost and ease for larryville

Postby **dodint** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:41 am

I picked it because it has it's own parking lot.

Postby **eddy** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:42 am

Anyone ever eat at Avenue B?