Piazzetta Marketplace and Restaurant

Wow! Sat out on the back patio for hours, the wait staff was incredibly professional and friendly, the wine amazing, and the pizza (and I“m picky) was mouth-​watering. Get the blue margarita. Highly, highly recommend. You don’t need to be a hotel guest to eat there.

I was running out of time to use a discount I had on Gilt City, so I bought a certificate on there for Piazzetta. $ 15 for $ 30 worth of food.
So, with my coupon in hand, I arranged lunch with Tiffany T. and made a reservation. Here are the positives: The Aqualina resort is GORGEOUS. The surroundings, view of the beach, décor, and friendly valet staff is what made this review receive stars from me. If our dining experience had been better, it would’ve been a rave review. Ambiance alone is 5 stars.
Sadly, our dining experience did not match the beautiful surroundings. We ordered a few things to share: the blue margherita pizza with gorgonzola, ricotta crostini, and the mac & cheese. The pizza was probably the best thing we ate, but it fell apart because it was so flimsy. The flavor saved it– mostly just because gorgonzola on pizza is awesome. The mac & cheese was dry and not very flavorful. The ricotta crostini was actually kind of gross. Terrible aftertaste and the bread was overly toasted. We each had a glass of their Sauvignon Blanc, and the wine was the highlight of the meal.
To top it off, service was not good. When we asked our waitress for suggestions from the menu, she just started reading the menu to us. The menu has lots of pizzas, sandwiches, salads, etc. It should not have been difficult for her to name the top 2 or 3 most popular dishes. Also, she asked us if we wanted sparkling or flat water. We responded ‘flat, tap water is fine”. She brought out water in a clear glass bottle and poured it for us. We didn’t question it since some places use bottles instead of pitchers, but when the bill came, we saw $ 8 charged for water. I asked her about it, but she just kind of stared at me, so we ended up paying an extra 8 bucks just to have water.
With the discount, my friend and I ended up paying around $ 20 each. The bill before the discount was $ 72. I can’t look back at that meal and feel good about spending that kind of money for what we had.

Piazzetta is the pool side restaurant inside the Aqualina Resort. We came here for a 7 PM dinner on a Saturday evening and had a wonderful time. Both of our waiters Stefan and Stefano went out of their way to make us feel welcome. The service couldn’t have been better.
The inside of Piazzetta is beautiful with a huge bar and dining room with a tree in the center. They also have a little counter where one can pick up gelato or pastries to go. There is plenty of outdoor seating overlooking the pool and ocean. The furniture is comfy and you could easily sit there for a few hours and just nosh on some antipasti and a bottle of wine.
Typically, restaurants inside 5 star resorts are overpriced while the food is mediocre at best. We were pleasantly surprised. Pizze are $ 15 and so are the salads and paninis. We shared the strawberry walnut salad with goat cheese. The salad was fresh and loaded with creamy goat cheese and walnuts. Yummy.
Pizza comes with an organic whole wheat dough option. Unfortunately, they run out of the dough quite often, as told by our waiter. Note to manager– it’s obviously popular, so make the adjustment. Each pizza is quite large and designed to share. Two people can easily get full sharing one. The Primavera pizza was very nice. The dough was crispy and loaded with veggies. The marinara sauce to cheese ratio was just right and it was non-​greasy. The Melanzane pizza with eggplant and olives was also good but a bit bland. It needed a touch of tomato or a saltier cheese, such as Pecorino.
They don’t have a dessert menu, so Stefan hooked us up by plating some of the café’s pastries along with a delicious dessert wine. The wine was excellent. The eclairs were so so. Then there was a mystery dessert that was quite good, sort of a white chocolate raspberry napoleon, light, moist and fluffy.
Piazzetta would have received 5 stars rather than four if they fixed the following:
!) Don’t run out of whole wheat pizza dough. Ever. This is Miami.
2) Add one or two desserts to the menu. Any chef can whip up a bread pudding, a pie or a cheese cake.