Piola

Critic's Review

I guess I haven't checked this place for a while, because they opened on Dec 15h. I've driven by a few times since then, always looking for a "Now Open" sign, but I guess they didn't bother with one of those.

From the construction photos on the FB page, I thought this was going to be kind of a fancy place; they have nice italian suspension lamps in front by the bar. But the decor is actually borrowed from Chipotle; modern plywood. The normal step of finishing the edges is skipped, leaving sort of a half-finished look. The wood is stamped and covered with banners.

Piola Fort Lauderdale Interior

They have another section with bench seating along the wall, but it seemed more lonely over there.

Piola South Seating

With one table occupied at 2:30pm, I was offered a booth and given a menu. I asked for an iced tea with extra lemon; the tea was delivered in a short glass with no ice. Sometimes you get tea with "almost" melted ice, but I don't recall ever being served a glass with no ice at all (and for you out of towners, it was 80 degrees). "Can I get some ice in that", I half-quipped. "Oh, of course", as if this was something I needed to say. I didn't bother mentioning that a slice of lemon is not extra lemon, and no sweeteners were offered or asked for.

Piola Ice Tea, with Ice

Aside from pizza, the menu here isn't too impressive, with not many traditional dishes. A lot of pasta with tomato sauce variations, some with made-up names. Luckily the ingredients are included. I went with the "Bella Napoli", which means Beautiful Naples. It sounded a lot like Eggplant Parmesan to me. I wasn't sure what the portion would be like; I assumed that "side" just meant that it didn't include a side of pasta. I would have ordered a salad, but the caesar isn't offered as a side; the $6 side salad didn't sound to my liking.

A big basket of bread was delivered, along with oil and various ingredients to make a dip. It's better when they let you make your own, since I don't like balsamic vinegar in my bread dip.

Piola Bread

They make their bread in house, and this bread is superb. The private label olive oils are usually bad news , but in this case it was a nice, fruity oil. The bread is by far the highlight of the experience.

My iced tea glass was empty quickly, and my server came by with a carafe to refill it. "Just tell me if you need more ice", she said. How about if you just sort of notice when the ice is gone, I thought to myself.

While enjoying the bread, I endured bad 80s dance music: "Megafire" by Funkbox, "Magic", Stardust and Deee-Lite. It's inexplicable; yet another restaurant that plays music for it's employees rather than trying to create a dining atmosphere for their customers.

The eggplant came out, adorned with basil.

Piola

It looked unusual, because most places slice eggplant lengthwise to make larger "cutlets". I tasted it, and it was "ok". With further investigation I found that it was a bit cool towards the center.

Piola Eggplant

Prepared skin-on, I prefer peeled or partially peeled. A pretty small portion for $10.95. My glass was completely empty (no ice) and even putting it at the end of the table didn't elicit any action. I had to point to the glass. Meanwhile a group with a screaming baby came in, making me want to hasten my exit.

Conclusion

Their signature item is Pizza, but I rarely order pizza in a restaurant when I'm eating in. They have a limited menu if you're looking for italian food; if you can stand the music you might try splitting a pizza, the bread is good so the crust might be worth trying. They don't have a lunch menu, which creates a challenging competitive problem. I can get twice as much food at Il Mulino down the road for the same price.

One thing that's changed is that there are now 3 "cafes" in this little corner, with Q Bar a much more appealing venue than the smokey EastSide Pub. If Sage weren't such a bad venue this could be a nice little strip; although everything is a bit more expensive than it should be for this part of town.