Soooo last night I met up with 16 of my closest friends for a double birthday dinner at Pa Pa Pia’s, the new Italian restaurant on Union between Front and Main, in the space that used to be Meditrina and before that Cafe Samovar. They did an outstanding job and I was completely impressed with the place.
First of all, I’ll start with the food. Check out their menu to get an idea of what they have. I ordered the Chicken Saltimbocca, which consisted of two large pieces of thinly sliced chicken topped with proscuitto, mushrooms and Marsala sauce. It was absolutely delicious. It came with a side order of Spagettini Bolognese, their spaghetti with meat sauce, which several people at the table agreed was among the best they’d ever had (although there were also some votes for the spaghetti with meatless tomato sauce).
Some of my friends got the Family Dinner, which consists of two entrees and two pasta dishes for $40, a really good value considering it’s enough food to feed 4 (maybe even 5 or 6). The independent only child in me resisted – I want total say in what I order, not 1/4 say, and if there’s a dish I really want I want it all, not 1/4 of it. Besides, with the Nuh-Uh Girl sitting across from me, I knew I’d be sharing my food anyway. The people to my left and right, however, went family style. They ordered a variety of dishes – chicken alfredo, lasagna, salmon sherry piccata, formaggio manicotti – and I did not hear a bad word about any of the food from any of them.
I was too full for dessert, but I saw tiramisu, canneloni, and some flavor of cheesecake (can’t recall) come out for other people at the table. Looked delicious, and again, I didn’t hear a bad word about it.
So that was the food. Now let me talk about the service, which was also top-notch. We called them in advance and told them we had a large double birthday party coming in, and as soon as we sat down they brought out two complimentary appetizer samplers consisting of bruschetta, toasted ravioli, and mozzarella parmesan. That made a great first impression. Our drink glasses stayed full all evening, and the food came out as quickly as could be expected given the large size of our group.
When it was time to pay our tab, our server was happy to split our check up, even though with a party of 17 she would’ve had every right to complain or to refuse to do it altogether. With people splitting family dinners and bottles of wine multiple ways, there was a lot of dividing of tabs, and our server handled it quickly and professionally. Also, when we got our tickets no automatic gratuity had been added, even though with a party our size she would’ve been completely justified tacking on 20%.
Pa Pa Pia’s exceeded my expectations by miles and I’ll be back. Since I work in the Falls Building, only 3 blocks away, I’ll make sure my co-workers know about it too.