Petruccelli’s Italian Eatery

I love Italian and have been dying to find a great traditional Italian eatery in the Bham area. I bought two Groupons for Café Lazio and Petruccelli’s. If you haven’t been to Café Lazio, go! I’ll send out my review on it sometime soon.

As for Petruccelli’s Italian Eatery, our first visit didn’t turn out so well. They are currently closed on Sundays for remodeling. No big deal, we made it about a week and a half later. They have a great Happy Hour that lasts until 7 every day. It’s $2 off glasses of wine and martinis. Monday through Wednesday they have half off bottles of wine. You really can’t beat that deal!

Again, we ordered water and a bottle of Greg Norman Shiraz, one of my husband’s personal favorites. The prices looked fantastic, but I ordered soup and my husband got salad instead of an appetizer.

The bread came first and left much to be desired. They were giant rolls that seemed more like flavorless, stale cinnamon rolls. I was not a big fan, but bread is my weakness, so obviously I ate the whole thing.

My Tomato Gouda soup was wonderful. The tomato flavor was not too strong and the little pieces of Gouda made it even better. They only offer two salad dressings, but my husband’s vinaigrette was very good.  

For my entrée I order the Chicken Florentine and my husband got the Chicken Parmigiana. I had already chosen the Florentine, but it was recommended by our server as well. It was one of those dishes that starts out sort of “ok,” but then turns into something great. I am a huge fan of Chicken Florentine, so my standards were set high. By the time I had finished, I was completely satisfied.  

When our server brought our check, it seemed a little high for the great prices we had seen earlier on the menu. We both remembered our entrees being around $9, not $15, so we asked our server about it. It turns out we were given the lunch menu. She spoke to the manager and we were charged the lunch price for our dinner portions, no questions asked.

Gettin’ Grubby: Weird bread, but awesome Happy Hour to make up for it. Our server was good, but a little spacey. She also wouldn’t let up cork our bottle to take our leftover wine home, so we just finished it there.

Service: 7

Food: 7

Atmosphere: 7