Illiano’s J & P Restaurant

I have never been disappointed with their service or food. So good! I eat lunch here several times a month as well as carry out dinners. Great salads, soups and bread!

Everything I’ve eaten here has been mediocre at best. 3 visits and we’ve been greatly underwhelmed each time. This is a small local chain and we’ve eaten in two of their other locations (Westminster and Hampstead) with great results. But the food in McSherrystown doesn’t match up. The pizza sauce tastes like it’s straight out of a can. The ¾ oz. bag of chips given with a sub is a complete joke, why even bother. I can detect no herbs, spices, or flavors at all, it tastes very canned and bland. I hope the owners can bring McSherrystown up to par with their other locations. They clearly know how to run successful restaurants but something is just not right here.

This restaurant is a great alternative to the plethora of soulless chain restaurants in Hanover. The food is outstanding and absolutely wonderful. You can tell everything is fresh made and authentic. My family has been several times. The gnocchi sorrentini is my favorite– delicious sauce with big gooey chunks of Buffalo mozzarella. The crab cakes are great, as well as the veal sambotica. I’ve also had some of their specialty pizza, which was good but paled to the gnocchi. Now the con– the service definitely stinks. It took twenty minutes tonight just to have a waitress visit our table and make first contact. All of their young waitresses seemed very skilled at avoiding eye contact. Also, most entrees come with bread but you have to all for it. Tonight I had to ask four times before she remembered. If you can brave the service, the food is worth it.

I’ve been here several times since the new management took over and they have much improved. Food is great and the service is good.

What a disaster. I wanted so badly for this establishment to be good and while it may have potential, it has a LONG way to go.
When we arrived it was utter chaos and it was clear that the staff was not equipped to handle such a crowd. I was finally able to place my order while listening to a carry out customer complain that his order was wrong. I immediately had a terrible feeling. I ordered 3 dinners that came with bread and a salad. I specifically asked for the sauce to be left off the one order. Simple enough, I thought.
About 20 min later our order number was shouted out from the front. I was told it would be brought out, so I waited a minute. Expecting our salads, I walked up front to a large tray with all 3 hot meals. No salads. Sauce on all 3 meals. I stood there for 2 – 3 minutes before someone even acknowledged me. No apology. Nothing. They took the meal back and brought a new one out 10 minutes later with our «after» dinner salad.
I have to say the food was decent, but the service will keep me from coming back to this establishment. Hope they get it together.

My wife and I went there last night for the first time since opening under the new ownership and from the first moments in there we were very impressed, first with the maturity of the staff, the attention to customer service to the new look of the place (added coffee bar and 2 separate rooms on each side of the bldg) Once we were sat down the super friendly waitress was at our table within a minute and took our drink orders and gave us great recommendation on dishes and desserts. Our food came in a timely manner and it was to notch, great taste and cooked perfectly and the temperature was even through out. I highly recommend this place to anyone that wants a casual Italian meal or even just s quick pizza and subs night!!! One last think, get the Cannoli, well worth it!!!

I would love to rate their food. However, we weren’t served any. At first, it was ok. A young hostess seated us quickly. She gave us menus. And we sat… and sat… and waited. Nothing. In the meantime, several blatantly immature employees were fluttering around, talking to tables that obviously were filled with several of their high school cliques. We were never given any waters and a server never visited our table. A pair of ladies were seated five minutes after we arrived and a server promptly greeted them at their table. Two separate servers, a young blonde and a young guy with long hair walked by our table and did not acknowledge us. I would overlook all of this if we were in a corner table or booth. However, we were seated in the middle booth against the wall, in the center of the action.
I will say this. There needs to be a mature presence in this establishment. Everyone appears to be under the age of 20 and there isn’t a professional person among them. This particular site has changed hands several times in the last few years. Many of the previous owners had good food and service and they didn’t make it. I have to think this place is on the fast track to Doomsville if they don’t do a better job managing, or at the very least, hiring professional-​acting employees.
The exclamation point on a dismal experience came after we got up from our table and started to walk out. The hostess said, «have a great night» as we left.
Actually, we did have a great night. We went to Arooga’s and had much better service. I can’t say the food was better because I have nothing to compare it to. Remember? The servers at J & P didn’t acknowledge us.