Formichelli’s Pizzeria e Ristorante

This is my first time eating here. Overall, the food was decent. I had shrimp Marsala and my children had pasta meals off the kids menu. Unfortunately the customer service was awful! First, they mixed up my pasta as part of my meal. Then they brought my daughter the wrong order. I can understand if it was a busy night. However, it was a Fri and only 7 people were in the small restaurant. That should have been a sign something was wrong. However the final straw was when I received the bill. I was charged for drinks for my children. Drinks as stated on the kids menu, came with the meal. When I questioned the waitress regarding the charge, she said she would take care of it. My mistake, I gave her my charge card. When she came back with my receipt, all she did was charge less and not take the drink charges off the bill. Unfortunately the poor service outweighs going there again. This was my only and last time at Formicellis.

My first time being there they got good food and good pizza and the people r nice and its low cost I would recommend coming here all the time

I was surprised by how much I liked this place! Although it seems to be mostly takeout, we ate in and had wonderful service from the waitress. We shared the cheesy garlic bread and it was giant and yummy. I had the chicken florentine and it was delicious — the creamy lemon sauce tasted freshly homemade. I don’t eat shellfish, but my dining companions enjoyed the mussels. Chicken Parm sub looked great. The only thing that fell a little short was the Italian Wedding soup — it wasn’t bad, just not great. We had starters, entrees, and a few of us had wine and the bill was about $ 25 per person with tip. Love it!

Dinner at Formichelli’s tonight was a pleasant surprise, everyone enjoyed their meal. It was late and the family was talking about pizza. And though there is several good pizza places around the seacoast, I wanted to try something new. Found this place during a search, had too dig as its not one of the first listings, nor in the first 10, 20, etc. The restaurant is located not too far from Route 1 Hampton, North Hampton, and Rye.
The restaurant is small, quaint, almost intimate, six tables, seats 20. Nicely decorated without being too elegant. I felt comfortable there. There is a TV, but it was off. They were playing Sinatra/​Armstrong/​Nat King Cole, and other similar music in the background (fun, perfect).
We had two glasses wine and water, no cocktails, which is fine. We ordered two salads (caprese and house), two pizzas (margherita and pepperoni), fettuccine alfredo, and chicken piccata. The salads were fresh and nicely presented (the pictures in Unilocal are indicative of their presentation style). I tried a slice of both pizzas, they were delicious. The margherita used roasted tomatoes, it was tasty. The fettuccine was very good, and the chicken piccata was very well done. I enjoyed the meal, one of my better experiences in a while.
What was surprising, everyone liked their meal, and they all enjoyed the restaurant (this is a uncommon situation in our family, so to get unanimous agreement was good). We’ll be going back. Thank you, it was a good dinner and dinner experience.

Just had for the first time via delivery. Pizza, Caesar salad and calamari were delicious!

Went to Formichelli’s on Saturday night. It was very good. We went early (around 5:30) and there was a young family in addition to us. Our server was very nice and helpful. She brought over our drinks and some yummy, crusty, warm, italian bread. Then we ordered the calamari, which was also very good. It was a pretty huge plate of calamari, but we managed to eat it all! I had the chicken picatta, which was very good. It was different than some other ones I’ve had before, but not in a bad way. The pasta was a little bit over cooked for my liking. In fact, I felt that maybe they could invest in a little better quality pasta since they’re an italian restaurant, but it was still very good. My boyfriend had the meat lasagna which he said was delicious. He said it was pretty meaty and very cheesy. Other than the pasta i was really turned off by the XL TV in the dining room. We will definitely be back soon.

4 stars for quality of the food…
2.5−3 stars for service.
The salads are large and all the plates looked delicious coming out of the kitchen.
I ordered the margharita pizza and it was fantastic. Not what I expected, with an even amount of cheese and large tomato chunks but the flavor was there.
I’ll visit again and try a pasta dish the next time.

Popped in here on my way home from shopping in Stratham hoping to get a pizza to go. There were a few tables seated but the place was not packed at all. I walked up to the counter and waited for a bit. Then the waitress came over and started typing in an order to computer saying she’ll be with me in a minute. No worries — take your time I say. She was clearly a little overwhelmed.
She continues typing away and someone else comes in to pick up a to go order. She finishes what she is doing and helps him out — completely ignoring me. Ok fine. He leaves and she continues to ignore me — after a few minutes she says that she just has to do something else. No thanks — I left.
I get that she was busy but how about taking care of people in the order they come in? Won’t be going back here. Note — there were two other people standing around in the open kitchen area while she was clearly running around. They did not offer to help.

Have been a few times and food has always been excellent! Check out their nightly specials too! Had their chix carbonara tonight and it was amazing! So glad to have some great food in Stratham!

Great authentic Italian food, friendly staff and excellent value!

My husband really enjoyed his meatball sub. The sauce and the bread was tasty. There aren’t any other Italian restaurants in Stratham so I hope they do well.

Best Italian in the area. We had caprise salad that had fresh pinenuts then veggie lasgne that was grand — couldn’t tell it was veggie, the eggplant was meaty and chicken marsala. my favorite.the best I’ve had at a restaurant– not too sweet or salty. I like rosemary in mine but did not miss it and it was very buttery. Yum. Debated if it might be our new go to place. Go go go!

Young, first-​time owners who posess established food-​service resumes but are still finding their feet in this new enterprise. We found several of the entrees quite good and the service very sincere. Dining area is very small, dominated by the walk-​up service counter that is the one-​room establishment’s focus. We’ve only experienced takeout selections. Why not hope for a good hometown restaurant in the culinary desert of Stratham?
Menu round-​up. Really only three submarine sandwich choices. Eggplant, chicken or meatball parms, plus an Italian sub and a chicken cutlet. That’s it. But not a bad thing necessarily because all are very good. Eggplant parm sub recommended. The arancini (rice balls) appetizer is good old-​school Sicilian fare, filling and nicely prepared. Salads were chilled and fresh with a nice take on a spinach salad with cranberries, nuts and stinky cheese. Caeser salad was nicely composed with the appropriate dressing and accoutrements. Nothing to blow you away but no losers in the salad department. Pizza is Neapolitan style with a moderately thin crust and the usual pizza joint toppings and sauces. Pizza can take a gourmet flair though if you choose a topping like goat cheese, gorgonzola, caramelized onions, arugula or house-​roasted mushrooms. I like the crust crispy and suggest asking for yours well-​done if you like it that way too. One visit produced an underdone pie.
Chef’s focus is plainly on the entrees and here they are all pasta-​based. Lasagna was a good basic recipe, well-​executed — both veggie and meat versions. Three sautéed chicken selections (piccata, marsala or alfredo,) the requisite meatballs or sausage with red sauce, and chicken, veal or eggplant baked-​parmesan-​style dishes are the menu’s heart. I liked the simple dish of cappellini with ricotta plus fresh tomatoes and melted mozarella.
With a very plain facility, the success of Formichelli’s is going to have to be food quality and take-​out service. Let’s hope both continue to develop. Some more distinctive entrees will help. Prices are reasonable with $ 7 subs, $ 8 salads, large plain cheese pie at $ 16, and entrees centered around the $ 14 price point. The house special pizzas are the comparative bargains at $ 16 to $ 18 because they carry toppings that if chosen separately would total upwards of $ 20.

2^nd visit was better than the first! They’ve really got it down!

We will likely give this another chance because the location is so close to us however our first try wasn’t great. We had a few different pizzas and overall there was way to much oregano (or some sort of Italian seasoning) on one of them. I thought the style was similar to Papa Gino’s (which I love) so perhaps it could improve as the business grows. The crust tasted like nothing and that was also disappointing. We did not try any of the other dishes or desserts.

Really wanted this place to be good because it’s so convenient for us but sadly very disappointed. Over-​priced for what it is (a fancy sub shop) and food was average at best, served on plastic ware! la Bella in Portsmouth is totally a better value with hands-​down better food, and BYOB to boot!