If I was rating the salad bar alone I'd give this place at least one more star. The remaining choices leave a little to be desired. The food is Italian in the since that every other restaurant in the area is Italian...pasta with bland sauce. It's not bad per se but I wouldn't categorize it as good either. Perhaps it's because I became accustomed to putting jalapenos and hot sauce on everything once I left the east coast that it seems everything here is spiceless. And it doesn't even have to be peppery spicy...there are a million different ways to use the spice world. Ambience is nice and the service is good. This a solid 3 star place...unless we're talking about the salad bar. You will not be disappointed with the salad bar.
(3)
Marks S.
We use too frequent this establishment very often, just about every Sunday. But slowly as time went on the food and service went down hill. It resulted in me just ordering the salad bar over and over and over and over. (review starts here) Just went here yesterday with huge reluctance, my girlfriend likes to eat the same things all the time. Which makes sense b/c of growing up in the area with almost 0 verity. We get seated and the waitress asks us about drinks and if were ready to order....My girlfriend gets the chicken chicken piccata with no mushrooms and a side of rice. I of course order the salad bar b/c of my past experiences of being let down time after time. This time the salad bar let me down. The cottage cheese was warm like warm, like festering on the heater warm, all the mayo salads looked like they were crusted over like ear wax color. peppercinis were out of the cooler(salad bar cooling area) The onions were bad like bad ..they were mush and slimy..it was absolutely appalling!. I made the mistake getting black olives, chopped green bell peppers and some cheese. The croutons are deep fried but its always been that way..so i never get them. I get oil and vinegar. I look up above the salad bar they have these little pitchers with oil and 2 types of vinegar in them..Honestly they have never been clean. I complained about this 4 years ago to them, and they cleaned them..but im sure that was the last time. I go to my seat and i was like "what kinda soup do they have?"...BIGGER MISTAKE! It's like the cycle of shit soup at this place..Italian Sausage and peppers soup....ill pass! then the cream soup...its always so thick...i mean thick...Thicker then gravy thick. It's always "cream of something" from some other time...Cream of Potato...turns into Cream of potato and ham turns into cream of potato with chicken...so what ur saying is??...Cream of potato with ham and chicken? with shredded carrots?...Get the fuck outta here! I think we all know what they are doing..they have a "famous bread bar". Bread with meat and cheese sitting out in the open air all day and night is not a good idea..i got a piece of the pepperoni and cheese...it tasted like yeast and chewy bread. i spit it out. my g/f sdinner arrives and its 2 pieces of deep fried chicken in "butter and lemon sauce" yea no...you mean drowned in fake butter "whirl" lemon and dried parsley!! no capers, no garnish of lemons? JUst so everyone knows--- "Chicken Piccata ,A chicken breast is butterflied or sliced along its width. It is flattened with a tenderizer between two pieces of wax paper. It is seasoned and dredged in flour before being browned in butter or olive oil. The sauce is made using the pan drippings. Lemon juice and white wine are added and reduced. Shallots or garlic can be added with capers and slices of lemon. After reduction, butter is stirred in to finish the sauce."--- The rice was grey...GREY!! So i say "oh please let me taste that"..IT TASTED LIKE NOTHING!...I was amazed it did not taste bad...it honestly tasted like nothing..So i go back to my salad and get a nice helping of black olives...SPOILED!! like fermented like a soda..Bubbles...I spit it right out on to the table.."IM done" i say..Now u may ask "why did u not talk to ur waitress?"..b/c she was not existent I mean ghost town ...tumble weeds rolling on through..i had zero water btw as well we took our lemons out of our water to make the chicken taste better...lol. (now to the good part) I have had acid shits for more then 12 hours..NO JOKE..spraying lava from my corn hole since 10pm last-night and it continued..I was up every 2hours blasting till about now which is 2;40pm THE FOLLOWING DAY!!..i MEAN CRYING ON THE THUDERPOT!!...i'm so gassy i could sell my farts to a hot air balloon company and fly over Plaza's Italian Bistro and unleash my mud flaps on the front door... ..I have some crap/shit meals in my day..but nothing this bad..I'm ashamed to know this resturant/family serves food and robs people of their cash in this already ailing community. But the fact remains. There are only a few choice besides fast food in this area. when a business has unlimited amounts of money and a huge delivery area, the food quality does not matter. They cut corners big time...huge kitchen and staff cutting corners makes my sick. Just so everyone is clear..I cooked professionally for 7 years and was a line cook out of the state for 2 years and have been an novice butcher for 4 years and been in the restaurant business for well over 14 years..and im cooking now at home and in a restaurant.
(1)
Courtney S.
We had tried the pizza from Plaza and were not impressed at all. But, looking for something Italian and yummy for dinner, decided to give in-house dining and their full menu a chance. The decor and atmosphere are very warm and comfortable. The staff is friendly, but not very welcoming. Our waitress did not even smile. The soup, salad and bread bar is a nice little bar. The salad was fresh and crisp. We did not try to the soup. The assortment of stuffed breads was a nice touch. A bread basket of toasted, seasoned breads were delivered to our table with a vinaigrette dip and sliced tomatoes. My husband enjoyed this, but I was less than impressed. The vinaigrette dip was too tart, and not at all like an olive oil bread dip you would expect. The seasoned breads tasted like their pizza crust - which I do not enjoy. We ordered the calamari as an appetizer. This is a staple when we try some place new and we judge the establishment greatly on the quality of this dish. Plaza's calamari was not good. You would never know there was a rubbery piece of seafood below the excessive breading. I ordered the vodka tortellini for an entree and my husband ordered the chicken vodka penne. We both ate silently for a few minutes. Finally, my husband looked up and said "all I taste is Chef Boyardee" He could not have been more correct. That is exactly what our dishes tasted like. I will never believe for a second that this restaurant's sauces are homemade. It clearly came from a (bad) package. The 2 stars I awarded this restaurant are for ambiance only.
(2)
Danielle D.
Distrusting I wouldn't feed there food to my dog, they can't even make a roast beef wrap they put no mayo on it when on the menu it says mayo they brought out old bread and the salad bar was old like it was sitting all day the soup was like they threw a bunch of old food into a pot gross gross gross!!!!!!! Wish I could give negative stars
(1)
Emily H.
This place is a MUST GO for my family and I when we come "home". The bread, salad, and soup bar is wonderful. I love the bread stuffed with ham and cheese. The food is HUGE but cheap, and delicious. There are also several deals that come with the soup, salad, and bread bar & dessert! Their gelato sundaes are amazing. I always have a meal and a half left over, and have lunch for the next day. It's beautiful inside as well. Gorgeous copper ceilings and decor. I've also had excellent service each time. All around, this place is top notch.... and I don't even "like" Italian food.
(5)
Alyssia L.
Felt a little duped by all of the good reviews I'd read about this place. Maybe we hit it on a bad day? I don't know. But that bread basket that folks say is so good- ours was drowning in bad quality "olive oil" and it made my stomach hurt later. I have to tell you, I think the pizza hut nearby is the better situation. The salad bar must be good, because people were lining up for it. Kinda strange at an Italian place, and I think it's because the rest of the food is bad. Too bad, because this place looks cool. The pizza we got was awful. It was supposed to be a veggie pizza, and I think it had three pieces of veggies on it, a crust that was not homemade. For that kind of pizza, I can get it at the Hanniford's for 99cents. Don't recommend.
(1)
Chad F.
Family and I have been ordering pizza and wings from here for some time. It's usually good except for tonight. Half way through the second piece of pizza there was a pretty good size medium length black hair baked in the cheese and to one piece of pepperoni, it was definitely baked in. Goes to say grossed everyone out. All this time I was under the impression food service workers wear hair nets and hats while preparing food. I guess one should not assume! Definitely not going to be ordering from here anytime soon thanks to hair in my pizza.
(2)
Michele K.
Went to a luncheon with a group of 25-20. One not friendly server. Silverware was dirty, the side room we were in had dozens of dead flies by the window. The window curtains were dirty. The buffet was ALL pasta dishes which tasted basically the same. The salad was drowned in dressing and grated cheese, totally inedible. The only good thing was the stuffed bread. The water pitcher had dirt at the bottom. Whatever they paid they got robbed.
Jen V.
If I was rating the salad bar alone I'd give this place at least one more star. The remaining choices leave a little to be desired. The food is Italian in the since that every other restaurant in the area is Italian...pasta with bland sauce. It's not bad per se but I wouldn't categorize it as good either. Perhaps it's because I became accustomed to putting jalapenos and hot sauce on everything once I left the east coast that it seems everything here is spiceless. And it doesn't even have to be peppery spicy...there are a million different ways to use the spice world. Ambience is nice and the service is good. This a solid 3 star place...unless we're talking about the salad bar. You will not be disappointed with the salad bar.
(3)Marks S.
We use too frequent this establishment very often, just about every Sunday. But slowly as time went on the food and service went down hill. It resulted in me just ordering the salad bar over and over and over and over. (review starts here) Just went here yesterday with huge reluctance, my girlfriend likes to eat the same things all the time. Which makes sense b/c of growing up in the area with almost 0 verity. We get seated and the waitress asks us about drinks and if were ready to order....My girlfriend gets the chicken chicken piccata with no mushrooms and a side of rice. I of course order the salad bar b/c of my past experiences of being let down time after time. This time the salad bar let me down. The cottage cheese was warm like warm, like festering on the heater warm, all the mayo salads looked like they were crusted over like ear wax color. peppercinis were out of the cooler(salad bar cooling area) The onions were bad like bad ..they were mush and slimy..it was absolutely appalling!. I made the mistake getting black olives, chopped green bell peppers and some cheese. The croutons are deep fried but its always been that way..so i never get them. I get oil and vinegar. I look up above the salad bar they have these little pitchers with oil and 2 types of vinegar in them..Honestly they have never been clean. I complained about this 4 years ago to them, and they cleaned them..but im sure that was the last time. I go to my seat and i was like "what kinda soup do they have?"...BIGGER MISTAKE! It's like the cycle of shit soup at this place..Italian Sausage and peppers soup....ill pass! then the cream soup...its always so thick...i mean thick...Thicker then gravy thick. It's always "cream of something" from some other time...Cream of Potato...turns into Cream of potato and ham turns into cream of potato with chicken...so what ur saying is??...Cream of potato with ham and chicken? with shredded carrots?...Get the fuck outta here! I think we all know what they are doing..they have a "famous bread bar". Bread with meat and cheese sitting out in the open air all day and night is not a good idea..i got a piece of the pepperoni and cheese...it tasted like yeast and chewy bread. i spit it out. my g/f sdinner arrives and its 2 pieces of deep fried chicken in "butter and lemon sauce" yea no...you mean drowned in fake butter "whirl" lemon and dried parsley!! no capers, no garnish of lemons? JUst so everyone knows--- "Chicken Piccata ,A chicken breast is butterflied or sliced along its width. It is flattened with a tenderizer between two pieces of wax paper. It is seasoned and dredged in flour before being browned in butter or olive oil. The sauce is made using the pan drippings. Lemon juice and white wine are added and reduced. Shallots or garlic can be added with capers and slices of lemon. After reduction, butter is stirred in to finish the sauce."--- The rice was grey...GREY!! So i say "oh please let me taste that"..IT TASTED LIKE NOTHING!...I was amazed it did not taste bad...it honestly tasted like nothing..So i go back to my salad and get a nice helping of black olives...SPOILED!! like fermented like a soda..Bubbles...I spit it right out on to the table.."IM done" i say..Now u may ask "why did u not talk to ur waitress?"..b/c she was not existent I mean ghost town ...tumble weeds rolling on through..i had zero water btw as well we took our lemons out of our water to make the chicken taste better...lol. (now to the good part) I have had acid shits for more then 12 hours..NO JOKE..spraying lava from my corn hole since 10pm last-night and it continued..I was up every 2hours blasting till about now which is 2;40pm THE FOLLOWING DAY!!..i MEAN CRYING ON THE THUDERPOT!!...i'm so gassy i could sell my farts to a hot air balloon company and fly over Plaza's Italian Bistro and unleash my mud flaps on the front door... ..I have some crap/shit meals in my day..but nothing this bad..I'm ashamed to know this resturant/family serves food and robs people of their cash in this already ailing community. But the fact remains. There are only a few choice besides fast food in this area. when a business has unlimited amounts of money and a huge delivery area, the food quality does not matter. They cut corners big time...huge kitchen and staff cutting corners makes my sick. Just so everyone is clear..I cooked professionally for 7 years and was a line cook out of the state for 2 years and have been an novice butcher for 4 years and been in the restaurant business for well over 14 years..and im cooking now at home and in a restaurant.
(1)Courtney S.
We had tried the pizza from Plaza and were not impressed at all. But, looking for something Italian and yummy for dinner, decided to give in-house dining and their full menu a chance. The decor and atmosphere are very warm and comfortable. The staff is friendly, but not very welcoming. Our waitress did not even smile. The soup, salad and bread bar is a nice little bar. The salad was fresh and crisp. We did not try to the soup. The assortment of stuffed breads was a nice touch. A bread basket of toasted, seasoned breads were delivered to our table with a vinaigrette dip and sliced tomatoes. My husband enjoyed this, but I was less than impressed. The vinaigrette dip was too tart, and not at all like an olive oil bread dip you would expect. The seasoned breads tasted like their pizza crust - which I do not enjoy. We ordered the calamari as an appetizer. This is a staple when we try some place new and we judge the establishment greatly on the quality of this dish. Plaza's calamari was not good. You would never know there was a rubbery piece of seafood below the excessive breading. I ordered the vodka tortellini for an entree and my husband ordered the chicken vodka penne. We both ate silently for a few minutes. Finally, my husband looked up and said "all I taste is Chef Boyardee" He could not have been more correct. That is exactly what our dishes tasted like. I will never believe for a second that this restaurant's sauces are homemade. It clearly came from a (bad) package. The 2 stars I awarded this restaurant are for ambiance only.
(2)Danielle D.
Distrusting I wouldn't feed there food to my dog, they can't even make a roast beef wrap they put no mayo on it when on the menu it says mayo they brought out old bread and the salad bar was old like it was sitting all day the soup was like they threw a bunch of old food into a pot gross gross gross!!!!!!! Wish I could give negative stars
(1)Emily H.
This place is a MUST GO for my family and I when we come "home". The bread, salad, and soup bar is wonderful. I love the bread stuffed with ham and cheese. The food is HUGE but cheap, and delicious. There are also several deals that come with the soup, salad, and bread bar & dessert! Their gelato sundaes are amazing. I always have a meal and a half left over, and have lunch for the next day. It's beautiful inside as well. Gorgeous copper ceilings and decor. I've also had excellent service each time. All around, this place is top notch.... and I don't even "like" Italian food.
(5)Alyssia L.
Felt a little duped by all of the good reviews I'd read about this place. Maybe we hit it on a bad day? I don't know. But that bread basket that folks say is so good- ours was drowning in bad quality "olive oil" and it made my stomach hurt later. I have to tell you, I think the pizza hut nearby is the better situation. The salad bar must be good, because people were lining up for it. Kinda strange at an Italian place, and I think it's because the rest of the food is bad. Too bad, because this place looks cool. The pizza we got was awful. It was supposed to be a veggie pizza, and I think it had three pieces of veggies on it, a crust that was not homemade. For that kind of pizza, I can get it at the Hanniford's for 99cents. Don't recommend.
(1)Chad F.
Family and I have been ordering pizza and wings from here for some time. It's usually good except for tonight. Half way through the second piece of pizza there was a pretty good size medium length black hair baked in the cheese and to one piece of pepperoni, it was definitely baked in. Goes to say grossed everyone out. All this time I was under the impression food service workers wear hair nets and hats while preparing food. I guess one should not assume! Definitely not going to be ordering from here anytime soon thanks to hair in my pizza.
(2)Michele K.
Went to a luncheon with a group of 25-20. One not friendly server. Silverware was dirty, the side room we were in had dozens of dead flies by the window. The window curtains were dirty. The buffet was ALL pasta dishes which tasted basically the same. The salad was drowned in dressing and grated cheese, totally inedible. The only good thing was the stuffed bread. The water pitcher had dirt at the bottom. Whatever they paid they got robbed.
(1)Otis M.
It's been a couple years since I ate here but the Italian Bistro deserves to be on Yelp, so I'll go from memory. The best thing is definitely the bread basket which comes to the table as soon as you sit down at dinner: an assortment of savory breads and some tomato slices in a nice vinagrette: dip the bread in the dressing or make impromptu tomato sandwiches. From there we have a salad (generous, but nothing special), a pasta course (again, nothing special) and an entrée such as eggplant or veal parm. Thinking about it the meal gradually goes downhill from the bread course so you may as well fill up and take the leftovers home for another meal. The eggplant parm dinner is currently $10.99 with all the above... nothing wrong with that. This place tends to get packed at dinner time, so I am lucky that my mountain relatives who frequent the Bistro like to eat early. Also, there's a mini golf course next door which has some kind of loose relationship with the restaurant; you can play a round there if you have to wait.
(3)