Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Is Pizzaiolo losing it?

For a long time, Pizzaiolo has been what I consider one my favorite Bay Area restaurants. The price points are right, and the quality of the ingredients and perfection of some dishes assures that any disappointment in other dishes can be forgiven. Even the bad service can be ignored.

However, our most recent visit, which came nearly nine months after our last, made me wonder if things are on a downhill trend at Charlie Hallowell's popular Oakland spot. Service was as bad as usual, but this time, they managed to bring us our pizze at the same as our primi. The waiter seemed completely unphased when we looked suprise at the pizze's arrival. By the time we got to the pizze, our artichoke and mint, already underseasoned, was tough to eat and kind of bland. As for our primi, they seemed to lack the execution of previous ones we've had there. Only the dish of a poached duck egg with chick peas, olives, rapini and harissa was truly excellent (well, that and the desserts, which are always fantastic). Everything else had too many flaws, and combined with the service and the fact that it was a particularly slow night, I'm not pressed to return there.

Here's some crappy pics:





3 comments:

ChuckEats said...

I had a decent meal there a few weeks ago. The fried Hoffman chicken was probably the highlight. The pizza was good, but having just returned from Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, it wouldn't be fair to judge it.

I think it's good enough for the price point.

Anonymous said...

pizziolo has always been overrated. and pretentious wait staff is never a selling point.

mattatouille said...

too bad it seems like its on the downward trend. I hadn't been here before but my cousin really enjoyed all of his visits there. Pretentious staff is just stupid.