Piesanos

5200 Northwest 43rd Street
(in the Hunters Crossing Publix Plaza)

2.5 thumbs up (the quality ranges from not bad to pretty good, but not great)

Price Range: Entrees are in the 12 dollar range, while fancier salads are around 8. Pizzas range from 6 dollars for a personal 8 inch to 22 dollars for the 24 inch.

A constant theme of this blog is my disdain for restaurants with a play on words for their name. I strongly believe a cheeky name correlates directly with a sub par restaurant. If they called the place Paisanos, I'd have no problem whatsoever, but alas, it's PIEsanos.

So, what's my take on the place? Well, it's kinda hard to say. When they first opened, I was very skeptical, as this town has the highest concentration of terrible Italian restaurants and pizza places of anywhere I've been. To me, Gainesville is like an ancient society that was cut off from other civilizations by impassable, mile high mountains and shark infested bodies of water. As a result, the technology for the wheel and aqueducts and fire and Italian cooking were never shared with us. The closest we have is Blue Highway Pizza in Micanopy, but for whatever reason, the culinary secrets couldn't make it across Payne's Prairie.

My first visit here was very positive, I loved the pizza and the gorgonzola salad (mixed greens, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, walnuts, and gorgonzola with the house vinaigrette).I thought the pizza was the most accurate New York style pizza we've seen yet. I also liked the dinner rolls that were covered in a drizzle of the salad dressing (they seem to add a touch of sugar for a slightly sweet balsamic vinegar and olive oil blend).

Over future visits, however, I became less impressed with their food. I tried multiple items on the menu, including the Penne Piesano (peppers, onions, sweet cherry peppers, mushrooms, sliced chicken, kalamata olives, and potatoes, sauteed in a garlic white wine sauce). At best, it was all just pretty good. Now, that's nothing to complain about, but after 4-5 visits, we kinda gave up on it. For me, the pasta dishes weren't seasoned enough. All it takes is the right combination of salt, pepper, and garlic to knock an Italian dish out of the park, but they just couldn't get it exactly right. I also lost interest in the pizza after a take out experience (it was soggy when I got it home).

So, today, after many months away, I ventured back to see if it was any good.

I ordered the lunch special, which was a personal pizza with mushrooms and onions. They actually sautee the onions first, which is a nice treat. I found a similar presentation in Italy when we ordered onions on our pizza, so this seems like an authentic boost to their credibility. The size of the pizza is perfect for one sitting, so you won't have any leftovers. The crust was great, crispy, and tasty, but the rest of the pie was kinda soggy. It wasn't bad, but not great. In fact, I'd say it was pretty good.

I also ordered the gorgonzola salad and ate it later the same day for dinner. Maybe it was the cheese, but I feel a little nauseous after eating it.

All in all, today's experience with Piesanos reinforced what I already believed. It's not bad and pretty good. But it ain't great.