La Piazza Italian Bakery

06/08/09

Food is good; service is terrible

by Jamison9192 at Citysearch

If you've got 2 hours for lunch and don't mind being ignored by your waitstaff, this place has great food. Just don't expect a normal experience service-wise. You will have to get up and go into the kitchen to get the employees to come out into the dining room; it's that bad. **UPDATE*** To the person who suggested I "go to Fazoli's" if I want my food in 30 minutes - I went on a weekday for lunch. There were 4 - FOUR - customers in the place. The waitstaff stood around yakking in the kitchen ignoring us. On another visit, some businessmen were seated nearby. After waiting 15 minutes for their drinks, they finally went elsewhere. The waitress didn't care; made a smart comment. Again, this was a weekday lunch- maybe 5 tables were seated. I don't care if the owner sits around drinking beer with you and remembers you - in fact that's pretty pathetic. He needs to leave the booze alone and focus on running his business if he expects to be open in a year - starting with hiring waitstaff that have a clue!!

• Pros: Food
• Cons: Everything else

03/21/09

Great place

by jbrown1332 at Citysearch

I have eaten here many times and the food is delicious, not overpowering, but just right on flavor. Their pizza is absolutely the best in Denver. They have an amazing stone oven that crisps the pizza perfectly. All the ingredients are fresh which makes the experience even better. The service is wonderful. They have their own house name brand beer that is as good as any. The atmosphere is cozy as well. Their new lunch buffet is just awesome and the price is just right. No where else can you get an all you can eat home cooked lunch buffet. What a perfect idea. I highly recommend this restaurant.

• Pros: Best pizza. Best Chicken Parm. Great Service
• Cons: None

10/02/08

Degrades Italian Food

by carver23 at Citysearch

I am Italian myself and I ate at this place in Wheat Ridge last week. I was extremely let down by this restaurant. The food was like gringo italian food if you will and the service was awful. The place was dead, so I should've known the minute I walked in since there were no other customers. It will make you never want to eat italian food again. DONT GO HERE!

• Pros: none
• Cons: everything

09/08/08

Terrible Ownership Example

by sensor33 at Citysearch

My wife and I decided to go to a neighborhood place we had never tried before. We went to La Piazza a local place that just moved into a new location. Everything had gone smoothly as we were seated by a young lady and we placed our order. We were one of the only few tables in the restaurant along with two gentlemen at the bar. As we ate our food we watched the olympics on the big tv behind the bar. One of the men at the bar continuously got louder throughout our stay and we began to wonder how many drinks he had consumed. At this point, we began to get a little annoyed that this man was completely affecting our experience in the restaurant; we made a joke with our waitress when she returned about the guests at the bar and she told us it was in fact the owner of the restaurant and his "navy" friend. We were stunned that this man was the owner of the restaurant because of the way he had been carrying himself. At this point, we began chuckling with the couple at the table next to ours about the behavior of the owner in his own restaurant. We got our check and paid just in time, because the next thing we knew, we could hear him yelling from the back of the restaurant at an employee. I was embarassed for him at this point. It made the entire integrity of the restaurant in our opinion, as well as the guests next to us, completely plummet. He did not seem like the type of man that should ever be allowed to own any type of establishment with a liquor license, unless it was one that did not need customers. He completely drove us away and the guests next to us followed us out the door. Unfortunately, it was nothing short of pathetic for a business owner.

• Pros: no pros
• Cons: terrible ownership

09/04/08

AWFUL FOOD!!!

by sniagrab at Citysearch

La Piazza Italian Restaurant was hands down the WORST experience I have ever had in a restaurant. We waited at the door for about four minutes to be seated. The restaurant was empty, we weren't sure if all employees were in the back or outside, they were no where to be found. After sitting in the west side of the restaurant we ordered our food and noticed the decor. It was a nice atmosphere until we looked down to the floor of our table. There were ants flowing in and out of a half wall right next to our table carrying crumbs all over the floor. We tried to ignore the problem and notify the waitress and enjoy our food when it came out. As I bit into my chicken it was cold and still half frozen and covered with watered down marinara. The waitress came back with a ratted broom and swept up the ants as if it were a regular occurance in the restaurant. I notified her of the problems with our food and she simply took it back and brought us a discounted check. We were so disgusted we paid for the food that we did not even eat and left. There could not have been a better combination of AWFUL service and disgusting conditions in a restaurant setting. I will NEVER eat there again and plan to tell all colleagues not to as well.

• Pros: no pros AT ALL
• Cons: everything from the service to the food to the ant problem were awful

03/10/07

Authentic Italian

by rcauchi at Citysearch

This little "pizza shop" really is a whole lot more. Their authentic Sicilian-style bakery goods and 4-6 dinner style entrees are all homemade and tasty. Portions are generous and prices moderate - example: Chicken parmesan at $12.95 for dinner. Italian wine from $4.50-$6. up. The decor is a bit spare - but service is attentive and the kitchen is pretty efficient.. The location is very convenient, yet easy to miss. Their Kipling St. building is just a block and a half north of the I-70 Kipling exit., but hidden behind trees in a small strip mall - it is the same block as Luke's Steak. Enjoy!

- a Wheat Ridge resident

• Pros: authentic, affordable