Laiola

01/09/2008 Posted by sfbw

My girlfriends and I were enjoying a wonderful dinner at Laiola, and right as they took our dessert away, before we had finished our wine, the host came over and politely asked us to leave since there was another table of hungry people waiting. Now, all of us at the table have served at restaurants before and we know how quickly you need to turn around tables, however, we had not been there for more than 90 minutes and were drinking wine and ordering lots of food and were in no way overstaying our welcome by any restaurants standards. To be asked to leave the table, before we were even finished, after not having been there for that long, felt totally inappropriate and is a major faux pas in the restaurant industry. I have dined here 4 other times before and each time remarked about the incredible service, fun and friendly staff and wonderful ambience...after this experience, i don't know what to think.

Pros: great food and atmosphere

Cons: asked us to leave our table before we were finished

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

01/03/2008 Posted by mak8hot

We stumble across this little trendy restaurant on a Friday night. From beginning we had good feeling about the whole ambiance. It's a wonderful place to have a great dinner and be able to talk at the same time. I love it because although it located on Chestnut but it doesn't feel like a meat market like other places.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

12/06/2007 Posted by geofnorman

Great new restaurant in chic Chestnut Street area. Ambience and service are terrific, as are the food and wine selections. Plus, they now take reservations, so you don't have to wait to get a table. If, like us, you love tapa-style food, this is the place!

Pros: Ambience, food, service and location

09/17/2007 Posted by sugargirlj

Wow, they did a beautiful job of renovating the former Pizza My Heart space. The bar is a great central focus and the bar tables at the open windows allow for passersby to not be staring down at you (and your food). I was quite impressed by the very true-to-their-claimed-cuisine Spanish wine selection (I might be stopping here for a glass or two of wine instead of CA Wine Merchant at times). However, I was a bit disappointed by the food. The menu sounded delicious... definitely had a difficult time choosing. Price, eh, not bad, not great, but not bad for the Marina (portions are very small though, but we were prepared as our server warned us). A couple examples of how it fell short of expectations: Bacon-wrapped medjool dates stuffed with chorizo. Bacon-wrapped anything is awesome, and yes, the bacon was delicous. Dates were extremely sweet and completely overpowered the entire dish. We ended up trying to scrape some of the dates out and low and behold found that one reason we couldn't taste the chorizo was because there really wasn't much chorizo. One piece (out of four) seemed void of any chorizo, another seemed to have less than a pine nut size of chorizo. Grill pancetta-wrapped peaches - peaches were big and beautiful, sweet and true to the season. The pancetta worked, but one piece seemed to be overcooked and mushy, the other was pretty hard and undercooked; inconsistent. That said, they are still quite new so probably just need some time to work out the kinks. Service was a bit disappointing - slow, impersonal, and the staff seemed a bit lacking in product knowledge (the server and the bartender could not tell us with certainty the difference between two wines). But again, new restaurant, I'd give them time to work out the kinks. I'll definitely be back for a drink soon, but I'll probably give them a few months before returning for a meal. The crowd that night seemed more there for drinks than food, understandable now.

Pros: Ambiance, Wine, the Scene

Cons: Food, Service, Parking

08/26/2007 Posted by boosf

This is a great addition to Chestnut Street! The food was great...everything we ordered was fantastic. I cant wait to go back and try some of the other items on the menu. Also, they are extrely genourous on the wine by the glass portions and are offered at an affordable price.

Cons: No reservations