A Touch of Italy

One of my favorite places to stop by before work! Really chill place for lunch food is really really good and bartenders are chill

The waitress/​bartender had more attitude than necessary and I could swear she ignored me on purpose, making me beg her for a Guinness. And let’s be honest the food is mediocre, certainly not the wonderful flavorful pizza I remember from my misspent youth roaming the greenery of sunny Shaker Heights. Time to utilize my righteous and well deserved Shaker status and vacate da hood. I’ll not be back.

One if the best pizzas in town !!!
Good neighborhood and a good place to get a drink

My co-​workers dragged me here for lunch one day – otherwise I would probably never have stopped by and discovered this hidden gem. Upon arrival at this hole in the wall mom and pop shop, I was hit with a somewhat unappetizing smell. The lighting was dark and most of the tables were lit from above giving customers the cinematic effect of marlon brando in the Godfather. This didn’t seem to bode well… The wait seemed long and I was just about to throw a fit of «hangryness» when our food arrived.
my Sante Fe salad was finely chopped with crispy chicken and honey mustard on the side. My friend got a sandwich and a basket of fries crispy and glistening from the frier (which I proceeded to steal). The breadsticks are addicting and garlicky, and my other friend got a huge portion of spaghetti with soft meatballs slathered in freshly made tomato sauce – this is probably what I would get next time. It was delicious and all under $ 10. Overall, an unexpectedly good lunch experience.

The pizza actually taste better than average, but I placed an order at 7:05 they said 25 minutes OK not bad for the dinner hour. When I arrived at 7:35 They said 5 minutes. It took them an additional 25 minutes for my pizza. This is unacceptable, why have a call in carryout if you do not honor the call in.

This place is straight up ghetto. Yeah, I’ll say it. We walked in to the Kayne/​Jay-​Z cd BLARING over the speakers, sit at our table and right next to us the ceiling starts to leak to the point they have to put buckets all around us… such a weird atmosphere… but I have to say, the pizza was fabulous and the wings are the best I’ve had since moving to Cleveland in May (and I’m a HUGE wing lover!) Our waitress was so sweet — we all liked her, but my advice? This is a take-​out only kind of place — great food to be enjoyed at your own home!

The food is a little rich for me, and a little salty.
But I had a chicken salad there that was great. And a veal
parmasan that was great.
I rate ok because of the atmosphere and that they don’t take traveler’s
checks (but they do take credit cards). Also, my wife thought we got
ripped off a little bit on the coupon we used.
The service is good, but they don’t take traveler’s checks (I think people
see those commercials and they have the opposite effect. Scares them
instead of showing that they are more secure than cash). My
business takes traveler’s checks. NEVER had a problem.

Okay so I wasn’t that impressed with the environment or the food. I decided to check this place out for an early dinner (let’s say 4 o’clock). Long wait time for food to come out and it definitely wasn’t worth it. I tried the white bread pizza… way too much pepper, it brought me to tears. Then we ordered the stuffed shells which included a small salad. How exactly can you screw up a salad? Lol, it was not good at all and not only that but when I pushed back a piece of lettuce… I saw a hair! Didn’t even say anything just decided not to eat it anymore. I was a little scared to eat the stuffed shells but what the heck. It didn’t even looked good. It was drowned with disgusting sauce… I basically just picked over the whole meal, pushing the shells around. The sauce was way too sweet for my liking. It definitely wasn’t a good dinner. I will admit, our waiter was super duper cool and nice… the food was just horrible.

If this place is A Touch of Italy, then it’s the creeper kind of touch your mom warned you about.
There are two sides to the place, a loud, crowded bar and a restaurant with only a few booths. The server we had was very professional and friendly, but overall I’d have to agree with Jon H. that it’s a dump. They seemed to be doing a brisk takeout business and I can’t vouch for their pizza, but the entrees were atrocious. The salad was iceberg and boring and the pasta with meat sauce was literally floating in oil. I wrote a review on another site and got a response back from the owner that was basically making excuses, saying that the bar was where their business was heading, and that’s what they were concentrating on, maybe the chef had a bad night, blah blah blah. To be fair to the chef, I don’t think anyone could have made a very tasty dish with the cheap ingredients they were using. Save your money — just stay home and open a can of Chef Boyardee, and you’ll have the level of quality about right.

A Touch of Italy is pretty much a dump. I walked in there with my father-​in-​law on a Saturday afternoon for a quick snack and almost immediately regretted going in. Something more than a little unnerving about being the ONLY customers in the place except for some nearly passed out or argumentative dudes at the bar.
The décor gave me the feeling of walking into a shoddy motel room. Carpets gnarly, plastic tablecloths sticky, and seemingly no chairs without a leg slightly shorter than the rest. I must say that when the hostess/​waitress/​only employee we saw finally ambled over to our table, she was very pleasant. However, not in the least bit of any hurry to actually do her job. I ordered the «Santa Fe» chicken fingers, and thought to question what that was since I’d never heard that term before and it wasn’t described on the menu, but figured how unique can these be? My f-​i-​l got a simple burger. 25 minutes later (a shockingly long time considering what we ordered and how we were the only people in there not downing adult beverages), I got some strange looking fried items that were the ‘Santa Fe’ chicken fingers. I took a couple bites and thought something tasted a bit odd. All of a sudden I started to fear that perhaps ‘Santa Fe’ chicken fingers was code for something else — sorta like Rocky Mountain oysters are actually bull testicles. Took me a while before I realized the chicken was wrapped in bacon and then deep fried. It tasted like homemade batter, so I’ll give them that, but the meats themselves tasted a tad undercooked and generally off. My f-i-l’s burger, on the other hand, dry and overcooked.
If you’re in Shaker and needing a place to hide from people in a dark corner but need a beer while doing so, maybe check out a Touch of Italy. Otherwise, don’t bother.

I love this place, they pizza is very good. They salad is to die for, when my bookclub wants to go out to eat some meetings, we always go there.

This is a place I ordinarily wouldn’t walk into. It just doesn’t look like a place I would.
So, let’s set the scene.
Sunday evening, and I’m hungry. I figure it’s time for me to check out a couple more of the restaurants immediately next to my home, or at least within walking distance. A Touch of Italy beckons, for if it’s good, I’d best be frequenting it repeatedly.
The main entrance is closed, and it reads that for Sundays, please enter via the bar entrance in the back. Looking inside, all was dark.
I’d decided to go in, so around I went. The back was just as dark, but I opened the door, and heard the voices of the patrons.
Inside, there was one Italian-​American looking gentleman behind the bar, and one seated. Everyone else was African American. There were maybe 25 people there.
The guy at the counter motioned over to me and told me that they only served pizza and wings on Sundays, and that they served the full menu the rest of the week. He also mentioned that the Pizzas were really good.
I was committed, so I asked for a Pizza and a beer, and Mark motioned for me to sit next to him at the bar. I was then introduced to every single person in the restaurant. They all said hi, then the group consensus was that I needed a shorter name.
I told them to have at it!
While I waited for the Pizza, Mark left, telling me that he’d call the restaurant to see how I liked the Pizza.
I definitely liked the Guinness.
The décor is very much of a working class bar. Price point is quite reasonable, without anything about about 17 dollars (for a sirloin). After two beers and a Pizza, I was just over 20 bucks. The Pizza itself was hand made. The crust and the cheese were all quite fresh. I had sausage and pepperoni on the rich bed of tomato sauce and mozzarella. It was good.
I suspect that I won’t be bringing many guests here, but I think I’ll go back again. Next I’ll try out the pasta selection; just not on Sunday.
It’s difficult to score, because I’m not really a patron of this sort of restaurant, but I feel a little like it’s like that bar in Cheers!, where everyone knows your name. :)