Pia's - Taylor, Michigan

3/12/2010
Pia's is a solid three. I think the pizza is probably the way to go and I have a feeling if we go back that is indeed what we will get.

This time, however, we both had pasta dinners. They came with garlic rolls and butter and your choice of soup or salad. The garlic rolls are good, next time we may opt for a cup of sauce to dip into though. The minestrone my husband had was canned flavored and utterly forgettable. The plain salad I had with the house made Italian dressing was a much better choice.

It was a bit of a wait for the entrees but they kept us in bread and pop so I was totally fine. The waitress was uber apologetic and generally on the ball so it was hard to be annoyed at all.

I opted for the chicken piccata. It had a lovely brothy lemon butter sauce, lots of my fave artichokes, plenty of capers and quarters of button mushrooms. The chicken was in huge chunks and had very nice flavor. The fettuccine it was served on top of was flavorless and past al dente and the sauce was not really working with it. If I got it again I would either ask for angel hair or a different side altogether.

My husband had the fettuccine alfredo with shrimp. Again he really enjoyed the sauce and the shrimp part but found the pasta itself a bit underwhelming. Of course he thought they should have doled out more shrimp too but he needs to wrap his head around the fact that five is pretty much a standard with pasta really. I wish he would just order chicken instead.

The atmosphere is nothing to rave about, a bit old and run down feeling. It is very family friendly even in the smoking section bar area so if you do not like kids you might want to avoid Pia's altogether.

We each finished all of our entrees except for the meh pasta. Usually we have leftovers when we go Italian but not here.

We also decided we had enough room for dessert. I highly recommend the cannoli, it was fresh and crisp, richly stuffed with a thick vanilla filling and garnished with lots of chocolate chips.

Like I said, we will be back I think, but we will be getting pizza and of course more cannoli.