During our recent visit to the Hershey area for a family vacation, we found and stopped by Piazza Sorrento for a quick lunch. Because it's attached to a minimart, we probably would have never stopped here driving by, but we found it on Yelp with good reviews before we actually saw it. Once there, it's surprisingly attractive from the outside, despite being attached to the Turkey Hill minimart. Inside, it's even nicer. When you walk in, it's a little confusing. You walk into a room with a host stand and bar. We waited at the host stand and were asked if we wanted the full-service restaurant or the quick pizza/sandwich place. We just wanted the quicker version, so we were pointed to the entryway on the left at the back of the room toward the kitchen. It would have taken some time to figure that out on our own without any signage.
Once we passed through the entryway -- BOOM! -- there was the counter to order soups, sandwiches, salads, and pizza. You couldn't read the full menu (and it's a BIG one) unless you were standing right in front of the counter, so we did (all 9 of us), taking up a lot of space. Perhaps some advance menus for newbies would be appropriate?
Our party of 9 ordered and paid in two separate groups. I paid for my part of the group and there was a place for gratuity on the receipt. First, I don't like leaving a tip in advance of service. Second, I don't like leaving a tip for non-full-service dining experiences unless someone's going to go out of their way to do something exceptional for us. Nevertheless, I left a decent gratuity on the receipt before anyone even had the chance to "service" us.
In the dining room, we put two tables together that were side by side for our group. Most tables were dirty in the dining area, including these, so someone in our party asked back at the counter for something to clean the tables with ourselves. One of the employees said they'd be right out. Well, they never came. So we went out to the bar area and found a bar rag which, when we tried to use it, reeked. Seeing us do this, FINALLY someone came out with a spray bottle and clean rag to wipe down our tables and other tables in the lobby. It wasn't *that* busy where someone couldn't have come out and cleaned this tables regularly. Hello, management?
As our orders were ready, they called our names from the counter to pick up our food. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich/Sub with blue cheese. It was truly amazing. While the filling was delicious and jam-packed, the bread was exceptional, too. It definitely wasn't from a typical pack of sub rolls. It was like cut French bread. The teenage boys ordered the meatball parm sandwiches (their third this trip) and said it was the best one yet.
At the end of our meal, when we had to bring our dishes up to the dirty dish bin and garbage can, that's when I felt totally gypped on the gratuity I left and wondered why I left it. I had to clean my own table, pick up my own food, and then dispose of my own dishes and garbage. What did the employees do for me besides write down my order and take my money?
In summary, the casual dining side of Piazza Sorrento was fantastic food-wise. I highly recommend it and would return if in the area again. I just wouldn't leave gratuity when I received zero service in return (hence the four-star review instead of five). read more