Piola

PLEASE COME BACK!!! The replacement isn’t the same!
I love the pizza here!!!

This place deserves ZERO stars — solely for the way that we were treated (went with a group of 12 girls on a Wednesday night in January). I am so happy to see that it is closed and hope that they do NOT re-​open. Horrible!
Price: Reasonable.
Food: Ok.
Drink: Okay.
Location: Union Square, busy-​ness but on a nice side street.
Ambiance: Okay.
Staff: LIKE HELL!!! We were in the middle of our dinner, did not get to finish our wine or order desert when we got the bill and were told that we have to hurry up, pay and leave because they have another party reserved for this table. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! We were livid. We paid, we didn’t tip and we left. It was horrible to be ushered off of our table in the middle of dinner. We too, had a reservation BUT apparently that did not matter. This place is ridiculous. This is no way to treat your customers and I will NEVER (nor my 12 friends) be going back to this place or any of their locations, EVER! HORRIBLE!!!

So Piola fans, sory to tell you this but Piola is closed :(
But I just spoke to one of the managers and he said that they will be re-​opening in mid March (same owners, new place but same pizza!!!)
Iv’e never had anything but pizza here but that’s ok, its so damn good that is all that you’ll want. Plus the brad and olive oil is yummy.
Also they have an amazing happy hour until 7 which offers great drinks and free food!
Hopefully the new place will have the same great deals.

First off, I will say the thin crust style pizza was really pretty good — nice softer crust like I love. Not great, but better than I thought it would be. Only went for the happy hour I have heard so much about and yes the bartender sure does keep pouring out food! It was fun. The other dishes — pasta with tuna fish in some sort of creamy sauce, reminded me of the cheap and weird dishes I used to make during my unemployment days. The other dishes– not too good. But hey, it’s free. I can’t complain here!
Might return for the all-​you-​can-​eat-​pizza night, but wouldn’t try their regular food.
Wasn’t crazy about the shared style plates and the germs. But as I got buzzed, sadly from 1 glass of wine, I got hungrier and kept digging into the dishes. Their B Health rating made me think this certainly isn’t the cleanest of places.
But free food gets me all the time…
All that food for only 1 glass of $ 7 wine. A great place to drink and fill up for cheap!

I had the Lipsia, which was the perfect white pizza combination of shrimp, tomatoes, and broccoli, and deliciously accented with garlic. The crust was also really good and the ingredients were fresh. If you like to try different kinds of pizza, definitely check this place out!

First of all, Piola == fresh mozzarella, sun-​dried tomatoes, basil, tomato sauce pizza. Delicious!
This Italian chain restaurant is fun to visit once.
Coloful lights hanging on the ceiling everywhere; the walls are covered with paintings.
And guess what, on Sunday nights for $ 13.95, you get to have unlimited amount of ten kinds of Italian thin crust pizza. (Check out my menu photo)
My favorite pizza apart from Piola would be Capricciosa (tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, artichokes) .
I didn’t really like Quattro formaggi (four cheese: mozzarella, brie, parmesan cheese and googonzola) that much; I hated Ortomisto (too many tasteless vegetables, taste weird on the pizza), and other pizzas with Catupiry cheese.
With all the comments on food being said, here’s the comments on the downside:1) place does need renovation 2) server at the door (the check-​in guy) has a poor and very unfriendly attitude; our waitor was nice though.

Great place! Great pizza!
We ordered the «Pompei» Neapolitan style & the «Buenos Aires» white pizza. They were both delicious. Tons of flavor! Quite cheesy too!
Service were pretty good. Our pizza came pretty quickly. Our waitress were pretty polite.
We saw their $ 13.95 all you can eat pizza deal. We might come back again for that…

This place has been my friend’s recent obsession, after she discovered a deal that is to die for: FREE apps with your drinks from 5pm-​7pm. That’s right, my friends!
While you drink at the bar area, you are handed out appetizers such as pizza, various pasta dishes like gnocchi, and much much more. The quality and taste of the dishes were surprisingly good! I was impressed. The dishes come in a timely fashion so you’re not bombarded with dishes. Slowly but surely, you will get to taste everything!
I only had one problem with this place. To get your free apps, you have to sit at the bar area and well… this is a rather tight spot. So don’t come to get this deal with a large group because you just won’t fit comfortably. So come with a date, a significant other or a friend or two to partake in the deal!
Courteous and attentive staff… big restaurant with a casual feel… clean bathrooms…
Overall, a great drinking/​dining experience that I will return for.

Magical appearing appetizers just started to appear out of thin air! Now, I love a good happy hour with cheap drink deals, but I love free food even better! Piola’s throws a terrific happy hour from 5 – 7 that also includes all types of free things to nosh on when you order a drink.
I ordered a Caipiroska and right after that the waiter brought over a plate full of pizza slices, bruschetta, and assorted pasta plates. It was ridiculous! I pretty much ate dinner for free while downing about three strong drinks.
The staff here is super nice and really attentive. The place itself has a fun and festive type of atmosphere. The high ceilings, colorful décor, and the fire burning pizza oven offer up an upbeat and relaxed ambiance. Looking over their website I would never have guessed that Piola is actually an international chain of restaurants located in the USA, South America, and Europe. It does not give off that «chain» shop kind of vibe.
By the end of happy hour the place was getting pretty crowded. It is actually a good sized location with a lot of seating, but the bar area is quite small and a bit cramped right in front of the entrance. If there is one mistake they made with the layout here that would be that they should have planned for a larger bar away from the front door.
Still, it’s a terrific place to come in for happy hour and not break the bank. I mean, free food! That is a winning combo in my book. If it’s free — it’s for me!

I’d give this place 3.5 stars if I could. We were back in our stomping grounds of Manhattan (we currently live in the DC area) and wanted some pizza near Union Square. Our wild sleep-​deprived 14 month old son was with us so we decided to go with Piola when we saw that there was basically no one else in the restaurants mid-​afternoon on Sunday.
The pizza is more of an Italian style pizza than a New York pizza. If you don’t know the difference and your idea of a great pizza is a cheap slice of greasy pizza, then you may be disappointed. The pizzas here are supposedly individual sized but it was a little larger than I expected. I think we got the margherita and it was pretty good. We also got a pasta dish which was decent. Pasta was cooked just right.
The restaurant is large and good for large groups. Our waitress was very accommodating to us and our son, so we were grateful for that.

Ok. Where has this place been all my life?
My coworkers wanted to take me out for a pre-​birthday drink and decided on Piola’s. The bar was crowded but we managed to nail a spot. We ordered wine and what happened next was nothing short of a miracle.
Appetizers. Hot and Cold, started to fly out of the kitchen and magically appear in front of me.
No, i did not order them.
No, They were not a mistake.
But they were FREE for anyone sitting at the bar between Monday and Friday from 5 – 7 who ordered a drink. Oh happy day.
I had to tap out after penne a la vodka, pizza, freshly sliced mortadella, bruschetta, cheese and OMG make it stop!
The staff were so nice here and when i decided i was ready to go home, i paid a mere $ 7 for a drink.
The Caipiroska was my absolute fave and I cannot wait to come back! with deals as good as those, my wallet wont suffer!

Waitress was new? or young? Not sure but she seemed frazzled — kept getting our order wrong :(- Forgot a ceviche and got someone a plain pizza instead of what they ordered. Also I think they gave us bread from another table that just left. However, the food we ordered was decent for the price and the wine was cheap. Good place for a birthday party as they take reservations for big groups + have a good amount of space + near the subway. They have a ton of deals during the week including:
— Monday — SPRITZ APEROL for $ 2, 12pm-​12am
— Wednesday — Ladies Night — Unlimited wine!
— Sunday — All you can eat pizza, 6 – 11 pm
— Get $ 3 off if you bring your movie ticket
— 20% off with student ID
— All you can eat gnocchi on 29^th of the month
Took a big group here for my bday last time I went and everyone had a good time. Not the best I’ve had but a good deal! Also it’s a decent place to bring your family. I hope to increase my rating after I go here on a deal day!

Wednesday night is Ladies night (and I mean it — wall to wall women)! After 8 PM they pour unlimited amounts of the house red and white wine into your glass. And the house wine isn’t too bad. Not the best customer service, we had a pretty rude waiter, but after a few glasses I was over it. :)
Loved the Beirut pizza = no tomato sauce, just olive oil, chives, tomatoes and cheese. SO GOOD! And 2x loved the gnocchi! Usually if a place does pizza good the pasta suffers, or vice verse but not this time around. Both dishes were great!

Piola is a nice spot. Nothing spectacular, certainly not bad, but just right. They have an excellent selection of pizzas that are affordable, yummy, and good for sharing.
Don’t come here if you are looking for a classic NY slice.

I discovered the all you can eat gnocchi nights at Piola when I lived in Washington, DC. I figured that even if there was a Piola in NYC that they wouldn’t have the same deals. When I realized my mistake I immediately made a reservation! With glee! And by that I mean joy, not the tv show. I wasn’t sure if they might skip gnocchi night since this past month it was on a Saturday but when I called they said it was absolutely happening.
I convinced two friends to go with us on a double date for gnocchi night. I was a bit apprehensive because they aren’t super eaters. They proved me wrong though! Or at least the female half of the couple did!
I was nervous from reading the reviews that the waiters would barely come around with gnocchi and we would be left flagging down waiters to bring us food. That is the opposite of what happened. The waiters came by so often with gnocchi that we had to beg them to slow down. Also, the waiters seemed to not speak English too well so asking them to slow down often resulted in them wiggling between our hands that covered our plates to slop on more gnocchi.
This location offered a much wider variety of gnocchi than the one in DC. When I went in DC they limited the selection to four types but this one seemed to be walking around with every gnocchi on the menu. The four cheese one is still one of my favorites but I also liked the cheesy one with broccoli. I love gnocchi in general and this meal certainly made me happy.
I continue to be confused by people who go here on monthly gnocchi night and don’t order gnocchi. I just don’t get it. We also ordered a bottle of wine and the bill came to about $ 50 per couple. Really a great price, especially considering how full and happy we all were.
I definitely want to go back for a subsequent gnocchi night!

Deceptively cheap if you get the $ 2 drinks (lots of ice, small glass) but then move on. Sit at bar area (you get more food if at actual bartop), freeze (spar with waiter about shutting the front door), be served very few free appetizers, order enough food so you don’t starve, then realize you could have gone somewhere more quality for the end price. Not bad, just not sure worth seeking out unless on «gimmick nights». House red better than white.

A breath of fresh air in this area of town! This place has been saved in my «bookmarks» forever and finally stopped in. Glad we did.
— Something like 60 different pizzas to choose from, so what I’m saying is that you WON’T be able to choose
— Small beer and wine selection, but just enough to please you
— Questionable service, not bad, but you may go a while without a refill.
— The advertised «Happy Hour» online consists of free snacks available at the bar (on the bar) — no reduced drink prices. So if you snag a seat at the bar (there are six or seven) you can pretty much get a free dinner
— Really decent prices
— Other cool special things like «all you can eat pizza» on Sundays and all you can eat gnocci on a certain day of the month.

Piola is the perfect girls night out place. With so many pizza and salad options, it’s easy to share. While there’s a loud buzz, you can still hear your friends at the same table, which I think is a difficult balance to achieve. Plus, on Wednesdays, after 8pm, there’s unlimited wine. Yes, I said unlimited wine.
I say make reservations if you can, and make sure your whole party is there or else it might be hard to be seated.
And don’t hesitate to ask for more wine.

Seriously don’t understand why you would come to this place when you’re in NYC. There are so many better and cheaper hole-​in-​the-​wall pizzerias. The pizza and pasta wasn’t even average in my opinion, it was worse than boxed pasta you make at home. They should spend more time and money on the food than the nice big cloth napkins they have.
Food: 4
Décor: 7
Service: 7
*ratings out of 10

Holy BFF pigout friendly! This was the perfect place for a casual weeknight catch-​up girls date. My friend and I decided to try Piola for wine and pizza, and we were really happy with our decision. The quiet corner booth atmosphere was perfect, service was friendly and fast, the pizza was good (not great, but good), and the wine was delicious and bottles were very affordable (we got a great red for $ 19).
By far the best thing about this place, which we did not know in advance, is that if you order drinks you get unlimited tapas during happy hour — every weekday! Our waitor literally kept bringing us plates of food, including mini pizzas, to the point that we were full before the pizza we ordered even came out. The tapas were tasty and seriously, it was like too much food. Splitting a salad after tapas would have been more than enough. (And of course, we still ate most of the two pizzas we ordered.) We are 100% coming back for the wine and free tapas!
P. S. The only thing that I did NOT like about this place was that one of the tapas, this proscuitto and sundried tomato rollup thing, had surprise mayonnaise in it, and I was not prepared. It definitely reinforced my hatred of that vile stuff. I’ll just avoid that tapa next time, but be warned if you’re in the hate mayonnaise category like me.