Outstanding Pizza and More in a Fun, Eclectic Atmosphere
The Facts:
CUISINE: Italian – Casual, Pizza plus outstanding pasta
LOCATION: 1250 S Miami Ave, Corner of SW 13 St, Miami, Florida
WEBSITE: Piola
Piola was around the corner from our hotel, the Hampton Inn Miami-Brickell, so we strolled over there after reading some of the reviews here on TA. It’s a pretty fun and eclectic space, we loved it so much we ate here twice during our stay. The first experience was definitely better than the second, but both times we had good meals.
The first visit, we had to try the pizza because it just looks so amazing in the photos and I have to say, it’s a pretty unique pizza experience. They use a super thin crust, even thinner than a Neopolitan crust. We went with the Burrata pizza and the crust was extremely good and the sauce was amazing. The burrata was more like ricotta cheese though and didn’t have any of the mozzarella skin that’s usual with burrata. The cheese was also cold which was odd, it should have at least been heated a little in the oven so it wasn’t a cold bite on a hot pizza. But the flavor was still outstanding.
We also shared the D’Annunzio salad which was Mixed greens, tomatoes, sweet corn, fresh bean sprouts, hearts of palm, mozzarella fior di latte, avocado, boiled eggs, Dijon mustard dressing.
Then we topped it off with the profiteroles for dessert. The combination of the pizza, the salad and the shared dessert was a perfect meal for two people.
Our second visit we opted to try some pasta because we saw some awesome plates of it during our first visit. We started again wtih a D’Annunzio salad and went with the Gnocchi Pompei for the entree. Now the pasta was extremely good, however it wasn’t as hot as it should have been. The sauce was hot, but the pasta was warm. Unfortunately we had a terrible waitress during the second visit and never saw her again until the very end of the meal. So we just ate the pasta anyway because both the pasta itself and the sauce were full of flavor.
If I return to Miami, I’ll stick with the pizza at Piola. That second experience knocked Piola from a 5 to 4 stars.
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