Bizzotto’s Gallery-Caffe

We had a lovely lunch here at Bizzoto’s and will definitely return. The atmosphere is quite pleasant and the food is very nice. I especially enjoyed tomato basil soup. My son and daughter had beautifully prepared pastas. This is definitely worth a visit.

This restaurant was highly touted by the locals so we, my wife and 2 kids (8 – 10), gave it a try. The décor was very nice with a bit of an upscale appearance. We were the second table seated on a Thursday night. We like the ambiance. I would probably rate this experience more accurately as a 3.5 for the reasons below.
Service (3 star): initially, the server was all over it. She was very attentive and accommodating. They were more than happy to prepare items not on the menu (chicken strips) for our son who can be a tad finicky. The owner/​chef also made us fresh tuna seared rare as an appetizer — also not on the menu.
However, unbeknownst to us, the dining experience here does take a little while. If you in a hurry, don’t go here. Our dining time took a good 1.5 hours total. We did find out later that that wasn’t entirely unusual for this place. The server was nice… but she was the bartender and server. Her tables went for 2, when we arrived up to 8, within a short period of time. She didn’t have much help. Drinks took awhile to get as well.
Food (~4 star): we had the mussels, seared tuna, grilled duck, scallops, chicken strips and a salad for my daughter.
All the food was great. The mussels were very good for tomato based even though we usually prefer the white wine based. The seared tuna was very good as well and the portion was huge. Unfortunately, my duck, which was supposed to be medium rare, was mostly raw. Because it took so long to get our main course, I just ate it anyway. fortunately, it was really tender and the flavor was very good. The mashed potatoes and asparagus were very good. The scallops were great as well.
However, by now we were ready to finish eating and get moving so it was difficult to just savior the moment with good food and drink. Thank goodness the duck was eatable… but it made for a less than desirable eating experience.
In summary, the dining experience was a little long (90 mins plus) and my duck was raw. Fix that and our experience would be about a 4.5.

An excellent meal shared by three hungry friends. We sat at the bar and were well taken care of by the bartender and a waitress, including some good advice on wine. We ended up with two bottles at fair prices (a French pinot noir — not a Burgundy — and an Argentinian Malbec). It was late on a Monday night so the place was not crowded and we were the last customers by the time we finished. Nevertheless, the kitchen turned out winners. The fried oysters were incredible — fat and meaty with just a light breading. I wish I had ordered an entrée portion of them. The Caprese salad was well executed. The showstopper for me was the southeast asian-​style mussels. Definitely would order these all for myself next time. The bacon avocado burger was massive and quite tasty. The beef well seasoned and rich. Bonus for the sautéed onions. One friend was not impressed with his soft-​shell crab sandwich, but he typically doesn’t order them. Not sure why he did during our visit. The other friend ordered the Thai-​style shrimp. He loved it. Note, the menu listed on the website is completely out of date. In addition to the entrees, they offer a bar menu, if you sit at the bar, natch. That’s where you’ll find the soft shell crab sandwich and the burgers at dinner time.

Firstly, a few general observations about the restaurant. We picked Bizzotto’s to have dinner because it was directly across the street from the theater. Inside of the front door is a tall screen which makes it very difficult to actually enter the restaurant, as you can barely get the door open. The interior is nice and cozily lit, though a bit loud for such a small place. The layout is strangely designed so that the waiters have no room to walk around tables and we repeatedly observed them serving by having one waiter on each side of the table, passing plates across to each other, over the patrons heads (one can imagine how this could go badly should an accident occur).
Now, to our personal experience. We were told the place was booked for the night (though there were 3 empty tables that never were filled in the 50 minutes that we were there), but that we could sit at the bar. The bar was a bit high for eating, but we decided to make do, as it was so convenient being across the street from the theater. We had an hour until our show started, so we decided to keep it simple and ordered burgers from the bar menu. It took 40 minutes to get the burgers! The waitress did bring us bread and kept our Cokes refilled, so the wait wasn’t too bad. When the burgers came, I had never seen such enormous burgers; they were at least 8″ in diameter, maybe more. I immediately asked the waitress to bring us boxes, because I knew neither of us would be able to finish, we were not only short on time, but it was so huge. I was annoyed at only have 10 minutes to eat, but decided to make the best of it.
Until my mother cut into her burger, which she had ordered medium. The interior was RAW. Not rare, not bloody, but literally cold and mushy — raw. The waitress came back and I told her to forget it, we were leaving. We had already waited 40 minutes for two cheeseburgers, we didn’t have time to wait for a re-​fire. I asked her to just bring us the bill for the drinks. She went to get the bill, and the chef (I think he’s also owner, I’m not sure) came over and started talking to us about the burgers. The first thing out of his mouth was, «These are not McDonald’s burgers. I make them with my hands, it takes time.»
That was when my mother noticed that the bun of my burger (which I had never even had a chance to cut into) was bloody. I had ordered mine well done. And she said to him, «Look, there is blood coming out of her burger,» and she pointed to the bun. His response was, «But these are 1lb burgers!» In fairness, I do believe they were 1lb burgers, they were huge. I replied to him that it doesn’t matter if they are 1lb burgers, medium is supposed to be medium and well done is supposed to be well done. He waved his hand in my face and made some disgusted sounding commentary, which I didn’t really understand, and walked away.
We were still waiting for the waitress to bring us the bill for our drinks, and he came back and waved his arm in our faces again, and said, «Go! Go! I don’t want people like you here!» My mother again replied that we wanted to pay for our drinks, and he said, «No! Don’t pay for the drinks! I don’t want people like you in my place.» My mother said we at least wanted to give the waitress her tip, but he just kept waving at us and making disgusted noises about not wanting «people like us» in his place (I guess he means people who want their food cooked?). Finally, we had to literally reach over him to pass the waitress her tip.
Luckily, the theater had popcorn, so we were able to eat something, anyway. I still feel bad for that waitress who was so clearly embarrassed by the behavior of the chef. I hope he didn’t steal her tip.

Honestly, the food was disgusting and not worth the price. My boyfriend and I both were very disappointed with our meals, and we’ll probably not be visiting again.

Very busy for a Monday evening and only one server. The owner just stood at the bar talking while she tried to take care of 8 tables by herself. Tomato Bisque was so salty I couldn’t eat it. It would have been perfect if only they hadn’t greatly over salted it. Crab soup was very good. Scallops were bland. Presentation was beautiful but the balsamic reduction was on the plate and not on the scallops. I believe the problem to be management. I think both the server and chef were very good, but the manager was incompetent.

The portions are massive and the food is really wonderful. The service was a bit slow on this visit, but I suspect they were just busier than usual because of the holiday. I would definitely go again. You should too.

We spent a week at the Eastern Shore, and had our best meal at Bizzotto’s. The food was excellent and the staff helpful, friendly, and competent.

After this restaurant was enthusiastically recommended, we looked at the Unilocal reviews and were a bit discouraged. We went anyway and we are happy to report that we disagree with the negative reviews! We were seated immediately, had warm rolls and drinks a few minutes later. We split an order of delicately seasoned clams as an appetizer, then split the very large summer salad. There was no charge for splitting and the citrus vinaigrette was wonderful. After our main courses of well prepared and presented sea scallops and soft shell crabs we were too full for anything but espresso and hot tea. Oh, and we enjoyed a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc from the Stellenbosch region of South Africa, one of our favorites. After 30 years of vacationing in the area, this is our best dining find!

The atmosphere in this restaurant is nice and the staff is polite. However, service was unbelievably slow. The food was expensive and pretty good, but not fantastic. I also don’t appreciate the disclaimer on the bottom of the memu «we are not responsible for overcooked meais.» Hunh? Finally, the servings are very generous, but if you want to split a serving with someone else, they charge you $ 7.50.

The food was good-​not-​great (overpriced for what it is), the ambience was nice, but my wife and I had a strange experience here that really counted against it.
We arrived at 7pm to be told that they were booked until 8pm. But the restaurant wasn’t even half full – we counted ten available tables. We agreed to sit at the bar. The bar, being a bar, is not sized to eat it – it’s at chest height. We ordered, the waitress said she’d bring bread, and that was the last that we saw of her for 40 minutes. Another waitress brought us bread after half an hour, but with no butter or bread plates. The food arrived all at once, including appetizers. We had neither salt nor pepper, rendering our unsalted potatoes inedible. It was tricky to eat with the food sitting so far up on the bar (and I’m 6’4″). We turned our wait for the check into a game, and I suspect that a good fifteen minutes went by until the waitress noticed our our abandoned plates and asked if we were finished. By the time we left, shortly after 8pm, five of those ten tables were still empty.
To be fair, we never waved the waitress down to ask for salt or pepper, we never asked if we could move to a table, we never asked for butter, etc. Not only because that doesn’t really suit either of our personalities, but also because it seemed embarrassing to all parties involved to have to ask for these rudiments.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a restaurant claim that they were full and not, in fact, be full, or even anywhere close to it. I was tempted to ask on the way out what the deal was, but it seemed like another question that would just be embarrassing to all parties involved.

Sesame seed dressing was wonderfully spicy. The ahi tuna good. In 3 nights I had tuna at 3 different places. This place came in second. The Thai shrimp was awesome. I would definitely recommend that.

i agree, the menu is a bit small, but with what they do, they get a 3.5 star-​rating. had dinner this last friday evening and loved everything we ordered.
tomato basil soup: big serving and they weren’t kidding about the portions of tomatoes in it. you won’t think that they just opened a carton and poured it into a bowl. it’s not pureed (which i love) and definite chunks of tomato and basil.
summer garden salad: again, large portion. the citrus vinaigrette was delightfully sweet yet tart!
hummus platter: definitely my favorite! not only is there homemade garlicky hummus, but a small bowl of chopped olives w/​olive oil and a bowl of chopped tomatoes, onions, and scallions as well (reminded me of pico w/​the spiciness).
the evening had a posh hometown kind-​of-​feeling and our waitress was a doll.

An interesting and eclectic eatery and store in beautiful downtown Onancock, Virginia. It’s a combination of restaurant, open for lunch and dinner, and gallery featuring pottery, glass works, and hand-​tooled leather pocketbooks designed by the owner-​chef Miguel Bizzotto.
Miguel is exceedingly capable not only at a cobbler’s bench but in the kitchen. The menu is relatively limited — 3 or 4 fish or shellfish dishes, a steak, a chicken or two and a pasta. The crab cakes are delicious, shaped in conical forms and deep-​fried — a different presentation and style for the eastern shore, the salads always interesting with surprising ingredients, and desserts away from the norm. Bizotto’s has hearty, warming soups, especially so on a cold afternoon. The wine list includes several yummy selections from Argentina, Chile and Italy. And if you find one you particularly like, Miguel offers a special ‘to go’ price on 3 bottle quantities.
All in all, Bizzotto’s is worth a visit. You’re not going to write a letter home, raving about the best this or that you’ve ever had, but you will enjoy a nice evening in a quaint yet sophisticated 18^th century town on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. If you visit during spring summer or fall, take a walk down to the town wharf for a post-​prandial libation at the historic Hopkin’s Brothers Store.