Piola

Food is great. Service can be great or distracted, it’s a toss up. Wine list is nice, a good selection of Italian wines, allowing you to experience great Italian wines other than Chianti. Try a barbera or montepulciana both are great grape varietals.
My issue other than uneven service (a very Houston problem) is how hard it is to make a reservation. It used to be easy, opentable — done. Now you have to call and hope someone answers the phone, and hope they can hear you, as the phone there is in the worst location, and hope you aren’t catching the person who drew the short straw and had to answer the phone at a bad time, and after all that you might get a table. The last three times I’ve called, «were booked solid, nothing’s available,» yet each time I’ve gone at the time I wanted and the place is between 60−70% full and we get seated within 5 minutes.
I’d give 4.5 stars if I could but I can’t nor can I bring myself to give 5 stars. Let’s just say it’s a good thing for them that Pizaro’s was so astonishingly underwhelming

Simply the most authentic pizza place in Houston. This is an Italian saying it, trust me and go!

I came here with my coworkers for lunch and we were very impressed by their gnocchi! My Italian coworker brought us here and she highly recommended their gnocchi. Every 29^th of the month, they have all you can eat gnocchi day! You get a plate and servers come to your table with a bowl of gnocchi. They bring gnocchi with at least 10 different types of sauces and they serve you a scoop of whichever ones you want to try. My favorite ones were three cheeses, spicy tomato, salmon, mushroom, and mozzarella tomato. The gnocchi itself was very fluffy and chewy! We were all in food coma from gnocchi that we had a hard time going back to work. I would like to come back here to try their other dishes!

Love this place! Super casual and open for lunch & dinner :) great lunch specials! They serve beer & wine too! Came here for the first time to «Lucky Gnocchi Night» which is the 29^th of every month. For $ 15.95 you can stay here as long as you want and try unlimited gnocchi all night until midnight when they close. Tonight they had 10 different flavors that they will pass around spoonfuls to each person with a plate and as many as you want. If you’ve never had gnocchi, it is like a potato dumpling served with a variation of sauces = deliciousness of pillow texture goodness. Will was our server and was super informative and attentive, AWESOME!!! Highly recommend for everyone!

Stopped by with a friend last Tuesday on her recommendation (hi Nicole G!!) and I’m glad I did. Since Jinya is right next door, I’ve never given Piola much thought in the past, but that’s my mistake. We came for happy hour and drink prices were reasonable, $ 5 for a glass of wine and $ 4 for beers I believe. They also have daily specials and I believe Tuesday was ladies’ night (although I don’t remember what that entails…) but we were just there too early for it.
We split the Pompei (spicy salami, mozzarella, and oregano) with extra basil on top and it was honestly more than enough food for the two of us. The pizza was full of flavor and the crust was a little thinner than I would have liked, but still held up decently against the ingredients. Service was on point as well, although the restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived around 6, we sat at the bar and the bartender took good care of us without being too hover-​y. They also passed around free food samples to the folks sitting at the bar — penne, bruschetta, etc. so if you can swing a seat at the bar, do it!
Only real drawback is that because it’s in the same building as Jinya, 24 Hour Fitness, etc., good luck finding parking. I managed to find a spot in a far corner on the top floor of the garage (which took me a 57 point turn to back out of) but the usual Midtown street parking (as much as I hate it) is also available.

It’s an okay Italian place — if you’re looking for something unique and hip, with good Italian food then this is the place to go! But if you’re looking for something truly authentic and something mindblowing, maybe this isn’t the place to go so much.
I’ve only been here twice, and I’ve gotten the pasta and pizza both times I’ve been here. OVerall, the food and the service were both good, but nothing spectacular. It’s in midtown right next to Jinya. There is plenty of seating, both indoors and outdoors with some interesting bright color choices.
I think there is so much on the menu that it can overwhelm you, so I just always stick with simple and classic whenever I come by here. Overall, it’s not my first choice in Italian palce, but it will satisfy an Italian craving for a decent price!

Great spot for pizza, salad, and tiramisu!
Enjoyed the ambiance with our large party of ten.

Not a fan. I’ve wanted to try this place for a long time and I was disappointed.
Pros
–location
–service
Cons
Food
I was looking for the brick oven pizza and this place did not hit the spot. I ordered pepperoni pizza and a Cesar salad. Salad as overpriced and super basic. Pizza was blah.
I will not recommend or return to this place.

My sister wanted to try this place and since the place I wanted to eat at had a really long line, I decided to follow her on a whim. As we entered, the hostess greeted us right away and seated us immediately. Score! No wait.
We looked over the menu and waited for our waiter. He was nowhere in sight. It took awhile for him to get our order and he kept disappearing.
LIPARI– homemade bread sliced and topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and oregano
I was expecting a crispy crust, but the bread was too soft. Not only that, but some parts of the bread were burnt! The mozzarella melted on top of the bread, but it wasn’t hot. more like luke warm. The flavors were nothing special. It was a flat note in taste.
LASAGNA RINA– meat «pasticcio» with bechamel
The lasagna was very simple. No bold flavors present and very cheesy. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t worth the price.
SPAGHETTI ALL’ANTONIA– Rina’s meatballs and tomato sauce
It was a basic spaghetti and meatball dish. The spaghetti was undercooked and was a bit hard and the meatballs weren’t even hot. This dish wasn’t seasoned very well because it was bland.
Overall, everything tasted very simple, but pricey because of the area. It definitely wasn’t worth the try. I wasn’t expecting much, but this was below my expectations. If you’re looking for bold flavors then this is not the place to go. I noticed other Unilocalers giving high reviews, but they mostly ordered pizzas. After trying their pasta dishes, I’m even more reluctant to come back to try pizza.
For future reference, my sister has lost all her rights to choosing where we eat in the future for all eternity.

Saw this place and loved how quaint it looked from outside… made a mental note to try this restaurant out whenever we had the chance. Saw the Ramen joint was too crowded. I persuaded my sister to give this place a try. She was reluctant… wish I listened :(
Expensive Food. Mediocre Service. They took forever just to take our order. The server probably overheard what I said because he came over to us. I was missing utensils and napkin. Didn’t even get that until the guy who was bringing out the food. Only great thing the waiter did was refilling my water on point. Kudos to him.
Lipari — «Our homemade bread sliced and topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and oregano, and baked to a perfect crust.»
It was definitely not to a perfect crust. more like warm bread with cheese on top… burnt on the sides.
Lasagne Rina– Probably my favorite dish out of all three, but not much of a choice. By default because it was the only one that was actually hot.
Spaghetti All’Antonia– Meatballs were cold. I had to bury them into my noodles to warm up. The meatballs had a garlic taste which was pleasant. The noodles were a bit hard and the sauce was very light.
Everything seemed to be really cold… or room temperature. besides the spaghetti noodles and the lasagne Rina.
Won’t be going back. ever.

Friends took me here a while back and I was surprised by how amazing the pizza was.
The place does get crowded quickly so make reservations if you can.

Hands DOWN for the pizza! Recommended by my lovely Italian friend and she said this is the place where she comes when she misses home.
It was busy at Sat night but we didn’t wait for a long time. The service is good but we didn’t ask for the bread though. Had appetizer and two different pizza plus tiramisu. BEST EVER!!!

The Speghetti All’Antonia is De– Li– Cious!
It kind of brings me back to my High School road trip to Virginia (lived in NY then) and one of my girlfriend (Italian) made tomato sauce from scratch 0_​o Had never seen that before!
As a Dominican my tomato knowledge ranged from tomato to canned tomato-​paste.
Please don’t have my confession discourage you or take away from my initial statement. My knowledge and PALATE for and of Italian dishes has improved over the years: D
EKS

Made a reservation here at 6:30 on a Friday and was promptly seated. Highly recommend as place fills up quickly!
Papparedelle with Bolognese ⁵⁄₅ — this pasta was delicious! Very light and cooked perfectly al dente.
Profiteroles ⁴⁄₅ — ice cream inside cream puffs drizzled with chocolate; pastry puff is a bit dry
Pizza ⁴⁄₅ — got the ham and mushroom; nice chewy thin crust but just got a bit soggy
Good service! Parking can be a bit tricky. There’s valet parking available at the garage entrances on both Stuart and Elgin. There’s also parking on levels above but it fills up easily as 24 hr fitness patrons park there also.

Piola is not easy to find for an out of towner. But make the effort. I just had time for a beer and a pizza so I sat at the bar and talked with Paul.
Draft beer was cold and refreshing but the pizza was freaking amazing!
I ordered the Pompei … Mozzarella fiore de latte, oregano and spicy salami. I cannot say more than this was absolute perfection. The Neopolitan pizzas are the only way to go. It took only 5 minutes before I was served and I did not leave a crumb.
Pizza is a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. This was exceptional.

The fact that i’ve been here 3 times in less than a month, should be a good indication of how AMAZING Piola is. The food here is top notch and points for them never having a wait. seems like a bit of a low key gem. Interesting art scattered along the walls and the waiters here are all really friendly.
Food: So far I’ve really only tried one pizza, since I loved it the first time I got it, I keep on ordering it. The Como pizza is DELICOUS! Proscuitto with Porcini mushrooms on a lightly sauced, thin crusted pizza. They’re baked in a stone oven and are «individual» sized 12″ pizzas. I definitely would recommend ordering a few if you’re with a group to sample all the yumminess. The Bella Napoli is their baked breaded eggplant with tomato sauce and mozzarella appetizer. HUGE portion, piping hot and also tasty. The Penne Cividale pasta is creamy, decadent and everything I could’ve ever hoped for in a pasta. Substituted spaghetti noodles for the Penne since I’m not a huge fan and at the suggestion of the waiter, way better.
I think the only downside here is the price of the drinks. Their specialty cocktails are WAY overpriced for what you’re getting. It’s about 4oz. per drink for ~$ 7.00+ Not worth it in my opinion.

Man we ate next door but decided to have drinks here and may I say. I’m so happy I did! I love the ceviche here it was the best I have ever tried! The flavor was a there and I wanted more after I finished! People here was friendly. I didn’t know what kind of place it was at first but it’s Italian. And I will come again.
No regrets here. Well worth it.

Last month (on July 29 to be exact), I met up with a few lady friends for dinner.
I arrived heinously early because I still can’t appropriately gauge Houston traffic, so I parked myself at the bar where I enjoyed a glass of rosé and some complimentary bread sticks. The rosé was light and refreshing, and the bread sticks were a welcoming little nosh.
They also handed me a free, fragrent, juicy bruschetta appetizer, which I’m never gonna pass up.
Wait, I SEE WHAT YOU’RE DOING HERE PIOLA.
Must. save. room. for gnocchi.
Apparently it is an Italian tradition to eat gnocchi on the 29^th of the month for good luck. So on the 29^th of every month, Piola has unlimited gnocchi night, where you can eat as much gnocchi as you want (in 10 different sauces!) for around $ 15. If that doesn’t get you through the summer, I don’t know what will!
To make it healthy (let me dream.), I ordered the Aristotele side salad to start. Mixed greens are combined with goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, black pitted olives, cucumbers, and a red wine vinaigrette. It was light and enjoyable, though nothing cutting-​edge or earth-​shattering in the world of salads. But definitely a nice starter salad.
Okay, now onto the reason we are all here.
I believe in total I tried 5 of the 10 different gnocchis that made their way to our table, due to eating only the vegetarian offerings. The four cheese gnocchi was creamy, naughty, and indulgent. This was my second favorite of the five. Then I had 2 or 3 different tomato-​based gnocchis (one basil tomato, one garlic tomato, and possibly one other that was just a regular marinara), which were fine, but not as exciting.
My favorite of the five though, was the pesto gnocchi.
Oh wo/​man.
The herby pesto was smooth, incredibly garlicky, and wonderful. If I go back to gnocchi night (please, if?) I may just have the pesto gnocchi all night, I loved it so much!
The gnocchi dumplings (dumplings? dough-​balls? help.) in all of the dishes were soft and doughy, but not at all undercooked. While the gnocchi wasn’t the best gnocchi in the world, for a $ 15 unlimited supply, and for gnocchi that’s being made for the masses, they were pretty darn good.
(And full disclosure, the best gnocchi in the world is served from from a tiny castle above the town of Conegliano, Italy, which is easily the most quaint, picturesque place on planet earth, and the gnocchi there is PUMPKIN GNOCCHI, so.)
The entire meal was lovely. From the welcoming service, to the delicious and affordable food, to the fun, vibrant environment, Piola has a great thing going. It made dining with the friendly, intelligent, interesting, and inspiring group of women I was with all the more enjoyable!
Gno’ kidding.

Every time I’be come here, I’ve had the gnocchi. Once with red cream sauce, once with the four cheese sauce, and once on gnocchi night.
This isn’t my favorite gnocchi I’ve had, because, in my opinion, gnocchi that is pan-​toasted so it is crispy on the outside and fluffy/​chewy on the inside is the BEST. However, Piola’s is also pretty good.
What I like about it is that it’s pretty bland (similarly to how tofu is bland and takes on the flavor of whatever it is in) in a good way so it really makes the sauces shine. I wouldn’t get the four cheese sauce again because it wasn’t that unique/​exciting to me but I would definitely return for gnocchi night (this event is pretty packed, btw).
From my pictures, you’ll see that the sauces I had were: chicken and broccoli cream sauce, tomato cream sauce, tomato sauce, cream sauce with pancetta and mushroom, creamy pesto sauce, cream sauce with bacon and tomato, and four cheese sauce. I passed on the spicy tomato sauce and the tomato meat sauce because they seemed too similar to the plain tomato sauce. My favorite was the cream sauce with bacon and tomato (very similar to carbonara sauce), so next time I go to Piola’s I will ask for that one even if it’s not on gnocchi night.
The service was good too… nothing exceptional but the staff was nice and respectful and not overbearing. I can’t think of anything I wish they would’ve done better.

About-​average Italian food that benefits from being in a cool part of town, Piola is not nearly as good as Giacomo’s, or Damien’s, etc. Piola is the kind of place that makes you start to do the back-​of-​the-​envelope math on how much of each dollar is spent on atmosphere and ambience and how much is spent on cooking and ingredients. There’s enough vegetarian pizza, pasta, and salad: Piola covers those bases well enough.
I was catching up with a friend who is leaving Houston soon, and he suggested Piola. I ordered the caprese and the vegetarian lasagna (actual menu name is much harder to pronounce). I believe the vegetarian lasagna was #527 or something: Yes, this is the kind of Italian restaurant with more options than your hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese sweet spot, or at least lists its menu in teh same way. I appreciate that they look out for my inability to read Italian (sound all the vowels out, and use an accent has been the median advice). No, there are not #527 options, but there are many.
The free bread was okay. The tomatoes in the caprese were not very good. They weren’t rotten or anything, but they just tasted very plain. The basil wasn’t very incorporated. The cheese was wonderful, but I think I’m partial to cheese. The vegetarian lasagna reminded me of an Asian restaurant yet again: it tried to do to much. I think there were like 6 or 7 vegetables slammed in there, making each bite taste very «Happy Family”-esque (those quintessential Chinese dishes that manage to utilize every ingredient in the restaurant… like five meats, eight vegetables, stir fried and served with a side of fried rice) or burrito-​ish.
I should note that I spent a bit of the meal fighting off small flies (about the size of fruit flies) that were buzzing around inside near my bread. While doing so, I took a look around at the other diners enjoying their evening: mostly people laughing over drinks, or groups of girls getting dinner together. That’s got to be worth at least half a star on someone’s rubric, just not mine.