Palazzo Ristorante (Pittsburgh)

Onwards to our dinner plans… after our little snack at Seviche, we walked over to Palazzo, which had been mentioned by a few of the blogs I’d printed out as research for our trip.  It looked alright, but I warned BF not to expect really good Italian food; I just am always wary/cautious of trying Italian places.  I don’t know.  That’s me.  Plus his standards are pretty high for Italian food – as are mine – though where I tend to avoid Italian food out, thinking it will disappoint me, he throws a wide net and just is happy when it doesn’t disappoint. 

The restaurant screwed up our reservation that we’d made an hour earlier by walking in and asking for it.  They insisted we’d said 7:30 when we knew we’d said 7, but in the end, it was fine, and they gave us a table near the door.  Our friends (collectively TCC) were in town for the same reason we were (which, again, I’ll be posting about shortly!), so we spent dinner discussing happily and talking about all sorts of things related…

My meal happened to come with a salad… ranch dressing… it was okay.  Nothing interesting or whatever, but a little too heavy handed with the thin dressing. 

ToCC ordered a mozzarella and tomato salad, which came as the above.  I was a little surprised, though I don’t know if she was as well – I’d expected big, fat slices of mozzarella layered with hearty slices of tomatoes, maybe a basil leaf or two, but not the above.  She seemed to enjoy it, and I can’t say it didn’t look good, just surprised that it didn’t come the way I usually see it. 

BF and ToCC both ordered the ravioli.  Neither were blown away nor disappointed.  It was… okay.  BF has been on a real ravioli kick lately, but said these were nothing outstanding. 

KoCC ordered the sausage and penne dish; he said he was surprised when it turned out to be pretty spicy.  That’s also a HUGE portion, if they’d had a fridge in the hotel room, I’m sure they would have taken this home.  As it was, I believe barely half of it was eaten… just so much pasta.  It kind of looks like a whole pound, no? 

I decided to order the chicken piccatta, which came also as a lot of food.  To be honest… it wasn’t bad, though the overwhelming flavor here was tanginess/vinegariness.  One dimensional flavoring. 

Instead of pasta, I opted for a side of escarole, which came looking like the above.  As in, grossly overcooked, mushy, unappealing, unappetizing, and untasty.  I ate it anyway to get some veggies into my meal, but really?  That was pretty pitiful. 

Another point to note: it appears that this is the theater district, as we noted a lot of patrons dressed up, discussing theater, and leaving shortly for their respective shows.  Strangely, we received very off service – we were not given a bread basket until we requested one, and the waitress was slightly cold to us all evening until we’d paid the bill – then she cooed over the baby (TCC’s youngest member is just over 2 years old). 

Yvo says: I would probably pass the next time I’m in Pittsburgh; nothing stood out enough and there’s too many other places I’d like to try to waste my time on this one.  The prices were reasonable though – for the above food plus two sodas and a beer, it came to $50/couple.  Not bad at all, really. 
not recommended