Caffe Piazza

We found the Caffe Piazza at the tail end of a long and rainy road trip. The food and service was excellent; custom seems to be bring your own bottle of wine. if passing by again, we will seek this place out!

Tuesday night dinner, the place was not crowded, so we had very attentive service. They had no problem doing substitutions for us (with extra charge). I can’t eat raw vegetables, so I got a plate of cooked veggies instead of a salad (peppers, zuchini, onions, etc). I ordered one of the specials, rissoto with scallops and shrimp. It was well prepared and tasty. They bring all the desserts out on a tray for you to drool over. We got a hazelnut gelato (with three spoons), which was lucious, and came with a surprise chocolate covered strawberry. Everything was delicious.

Enjoyed a lovely dinner there. Had chicken special — nicely done, tasty sauce, lots of lightly sauté veggies. Wife had ravioli, also nicely done. Bring your own wine.

Best restaurant in Hillsborough; excellent salad dressing; fresh entrees. love their Veal Amaretto. Getting pricey but we’ll worth it; nice décor, BYOW.
Nice specials.

If you like the Olive Garden, then you will probably think that this place is amazing. Otherwise I don’t understand why anyone would eat here. We came in with a large party where we were put in a back room, which was fine because my family does tend to be loud. However, we were promptly forgotten about after that. The service here is horrendous. My uncle had to find someone to take our order, bring us more water, etc. No one came to check on us after our dinner was served, otherwise I would have told them how horrendous the food was. They didn’t rush us out at the end of the night, which is about the only good thing I can say about the place.
The only decent thing I ate last night was a burrata special and the garlic oil served with their stale bread that was warmed to try to mask how stale it was. They bring you a free salad which is a plate of lettuce with one grape tomato. I guess people won’t complain because it’s free.
I ordered the stuffed rigatoni, which was clearly frozen, and probably something they bought from the freezer case at Shoprite and put some «sauce» on it. It was tomato flavored water, which lacked the consistency or flavor of a tomato sauce. I could have eaten it like a soup if I had wanted to because it was a watery mess on my plate. Had anyone bothered to check on us I would have told them that. I couldn’t even eat it, it was so bad.
My husband ordered their sausage dish which is apparently the specialty of the house. The sausage tasted like three day old fish stuffed with cheese in a casing. The gnocchi was clearly frozen. The «jalepenos», as described on the menu, were actually cherry peppers, which was fine because we were wondering what jalepenos were doing in an Italian dish. My husband and make our own pasta, sauce, and ravioli at home, so we know the difference between fresh and frozen. When we both had to come home and make dinner for ourselves, that goes to show you how good the food is. The chef here has clearly gotten away with serving sub par food judging by the amount of people there, and will most likely continue to do so. Do yourself a favor and stay away.

Very pleasant Italian restaurant with excellent food; my wife particularly likes the chicken amoretto. I don’t understand many of the comments unless they are trying to keep this restaurant to themselves.
The owner/​chef frequently interacts with the customers and if he feels that your meal is not up to expectations sees that it is corrected immediately. The meal prices are reasonable especially if you take advantage of the many special nights.

This has been a favorite of ours for several years. Good selection, fair prices and great atmosphere. Watch for the mid-​week pasta specials as these are very good values.
Their salad dressing is authentic European style and starts the meal out right. Portion size is correct for a good meal and unlike other establishments serves quality vs. overly large portions. You will finish what’s served, as it is that good, but won’t have any to take home. Quality vs. quantity.

Great specials. Everything is always good but it is overpriced for Italian. BYOB. Staff is friendly. Desserts are delicious

Overpriced pasta, owner has this ego about his food thinking it deserves to be sold at these outrages prices. Décor is nice but the food is really okay in my opinion

Went here on a whim on a Sunday night with a friend. Very polished and cozy looking place with some typical Italian themed décor, veering a bit on the side of kitschy. Really quaint dinnerware, though, with rustic looking bowls and plates. Judging by the menu and the look of the place, it seems like it would be on the pretentiously fancy side, but there was a friendly and casual laid-​back feel to the place.
My friend and I shared everything, we both got a bowl of chicken and wild rice soup, a side salad, the special scallop appetizer, and butternut squash ravioli, also on the special menu. The bread was fresh and warm. The soup was very nice, a good generous portion. The chicken was organic and was served with fresh basil. The side salad was a basic tossed greens salad but their homemade dressing was a nice touch. I didn’t care too much for the scallop appetizer mostly because I prefer scallops seared with a nice caramelization, so that’s partially my own fault. It was «graham crusted» (?), but it seemed more like a paste sitting on top of the scallops, but it wasn’t bad. The ravioli was very good, it was a butternut squash ravioli with a brown-​butter garlic cream sauce with shrimp. Very nice comforting and warm dish for the fall season. We also ordered espressos and split a tiramisu. The tiramisu was very good, the kind with soaked lady fingers and not the cake kind you’ll see at some Italian restaurants.
The service was excellent, our waiter was very attentive and helpful. One thing I liked, having worked as a server myself, was that he gave us the option of having our appetizer and entrée come together or separately, letting us know that he would have to give us a split charge if it came separately. I hated charging my tables splitting fees if I knew they were ordering a sufficient amount of food for two and not just trying to be cheapskates. We anticipated a split charge and would have paid for it, but really appreciated the heads up. Even though we asked to bring the appetizer and entrée at once, he still split the salad for us. I’m holding back on mentioning the waiter’s name because I wouldn’t want him to get into trouble with the manager for skirting policy or something, but I think it’s to be commended. It’s little things like that that show they’re taking care of their customers and trying to optimize their dinner experience. I understand why there’s split charges, but as someone who’s worked in my share of family and corporate restaurants, catering to customers like that is what will create loyalty and keep them coming back.
The bill came out to around $ 63, which I think was reasonable considering we had a 5 course meal and were sufficiently full and satisfied in the end.

For a local pizza place the restaurant next door is OK but nothing special. I would not take a date but OK for the wife and the kids. Considering the other local places in Hillsborough, this place is worth a try, but it is not worth a long drive.
Moderate size room, maybe 12 four tops and 8 two tops. Décor is nothing special, maybe a little tacky. Italian-​American standards playing as background music; no Sinatra. Our waiter was efficient but did not impress. BYOB is a plus. The many wine bottles on display are only for decoration.
I started with the clams casino which were OK but nothing special. My wife had the mixed antipasto platter which was fine, nice mozzarella. She had a chicken dish with a demi-​glacé sauce which was OK but rather ordinary. I ordered the chicken parm which was good, not special. So good food overall, moderate prices, but at the same time nothing which stands out.

For my 2^nd night in Hillsborough, my friend and his wife definitely recommended Caffe Piazza for take out. I am very rarely one to second guess my friends, although I probably should on more occasions, especially when drinking and/​or women are involved. But this was not one of those occasions.
Caffe Piazza has a great take-​out menu with tons of options, we pretty much focused on pasta. I didn’t really know what to choose, it got to the point where I asked everyone else to pick what they wanted and I would decide completely in the moment, and I went with the shrimp and scallops fra diavolo. Spicy is always a solid option for me. This time, I probably could have done better. I like the heat, but this meal was black and crushed red pepper to the point that you couldn’t taste much of anything else. It was decent, and the pasta itself was great, but I can’t go above three stars.
Everyone else, however, loved their stuff and pretty much demolished their dinners. Plus each meal came with decent salad and they gave us a loaf of made on the premises bread that was excellent. So even though my meal wasn’t the best, based on everyone else’s empty plates, I definitely recommend this place. Although, to be clear, I can tell you absolutely nothing about the restaurant itself or the service or the décor. But the food is good, so what else matters?