Chiapparellis Restaurant

Personal Review {13 April 2005} :
Chiapparelli's is, according to Chiapparelli's own brochure, one of Little Italy's best known and most loved restaurants. They have been in business since 1940. We have heard people mention Chiapparelli's name for several years and have wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Well, we finally were able to give them a try recently on our way to a musical performance in the area. All we can say is, the attraction must be related to the Little Italy mistique and night life, because it certainly didn't, in our case, have anything to do with the quality of food or service!

Little Italy is a very popular area, so parking will be an issue. We got lucky and were able to park within 1/2 a block of the restaurant. If there was handicapped access to the restaurant (wheelchair access), I didn't see it. The front door is up a few steps, but once inside, most of the area is accessible (unless you need a bathroom...those are upstairs).

We called in for reservations for our group of 3 on this dinner outing. One would think you'd get good seating under the circumstances, wouldn't you? Though there was hardly anyone in the main dining room, we got placed all the way back by the food prep area. We figured this would be ok since it was as far away from smoke as we could get...a major distraction for us. As it turns out, near the end of our meal, someone opened a throughway between the dining room and bar flooding the place with smoke. I immediately got sick (I'm allergic and was recovering from walking pnuemonia) and had to leave the room. Our friend and my wife asked to have the door/vent closed so, when I came back in, it was ok for awhile...but we were overwhelmed with smoke once again during desert [what a way to ruin a good meal...let alone ones health] and had to rapidly finish and get out of the building.

As far as the restaurant, food and service... The decor was quite nice with wood tones throughout. The service? Well, we waited at least 10-15 minutes for the waitress to take our order even though she was standing at the very next table...visiting with her friends the whole time! Eventually she noticed we were ready and came over to take our order. Admittedly, she was paying close attention as we ate our soup/salad in order to bring the next course right over. But, the visiting continued and she even sat down at the table and talked for long periods of time...I hope nobody else was anxiously waiting for anything. The first course we ordered was the Italian Wedding Soup ($5.00). Other than a few spicy odds and ends, this was mostly just flavored water which was not very enticing. Then came the salad. This was a very large (overly so) pile of lettuce soaked in oil to the point that the lettuce was limp and lifeless and smothered with fetta cheese (the cheese was good). We did not have a good feeling about the rest of the evening at this point. The 'homemade' bread was nothing to write home about either. The entree's we ordered were about the only saving grace. We had the Rigatoni con Vodka (pasta in a cream, Parmigiana cheese, tomato and vodka sauce) and the Tortelini Alfredo (Ricotta cheese filled pasta in a cream and Parmigiana cheese sauce with diced prosciutto ham and peas). Both entree's were good, not spectacular as we expected for Little Italy and the hype, just good. We topped the meal off with a canolli for each of us. The filling was tasty, but the shell was thick and hard...not at all like the authentic conolli's made by my wife's former Italian family members. Prices for this mediocre Italian meal ran about $15-17 for the entrees (nearly $75, including tip for everything).

Our friend dining with us this evening, who is very familiar with Little Italy and quality restaurants in the area, referred to Chiapparelli's as 'run-of-the mill' Italian. We would definitely agree. We gave Chiapparelli's our long awaited try. It is highly unlikely we will return. There has to be something better in Little Italy than this.