Not impressed. The authentic food was way less than authentic. It was way too noisy. There does not seem to be any place to go for a quiet dinner anymore. The menu was on copy,paper,not my idea of a good place. I won't go back. read more

Naaah, this business facilitated a young girl In spending a lot of cash on a gift card. Immediately tried to resolve the error but Perlos has lots of reasons why "the system" has to keep all the cash. Won't help resolve the honest error of a child. Disappointing ethics for a family business... read more

I wish I could say something positive about my experience at Perlo's. The last thing I want to do as an Elite Yelper is to leave one star review to any business. However, I don't even think it's worth my time mentioning all the details here. In general, the food was nothing special at all, I recommend going to Charlie Brown or Limoncello instead, where you get treated nicely and enjoy quality food. I must mention that I have never seen a rude, arrogant and disrespectful bartender like (Sam) the one at Perlo's. I even saw her disrespectfully yelling at one of the food delivery drivers (in front of everyone) while he was picking up his order. I have to say, I will never come back to this place nor recommend it to anyone. The owner/manager was there next to me, I whispered to him and said "she could've been nicer", he said "you know what, we all could've been nicer" read more

Perlos used to be my favorite restaurant. Ive came here by myself, with friends, brought people here to enjoy the food and just the ambiance. My bf made reservations for us and we walked in and was guided to a table in the back by the door, it was so congested in that area. I immediately asked for another table as we walked by 10 open tables. I pointed over to a quiet one, and the host stated it was reserved. "WE MADE RESERVATIONS" so she says we have a place outside in another room. I guess we were too dark to be seen inside. she placed us in another area with sun and light and quiet. we liked it but we immediately were rubbed the wrong way. we waited ten minutes for our server, and she came, she was amazing, I think her name was Samantha, she was nice, bubbly and attentive. I only gave this review 2 stars because we felt out of place and all the times I've been, never felt like this. we will never come back. the host was a bitch and should be ashamed to even think we'd enjoy that table. What an Idiot. :) read more

The best local Italian food you kind find. Stop, no the best hostess, Donna Perlo. Service, menu, cocktails, and atmosphere are memorable. Traveling through town or a local. Stop buy Perlos. Gourmet ! Italian style ! read more

Perlo's - Italian Near Me - East Rochester, New York

Food tasted wonderful especially the lamb shank. Service was very good as well. It was a good last minute find.

Had a Christmas dinner with a friend before the holidays - we had a salad and Lobster French plus turtle cheesecake !! Donna stopped by to make sure everything was delicious our server was definitely there for us! Thank you read more

Good food and service. We were seated quite close to the kitchen which was a little loud but the food and experience was good. We will likely come back read more

Way over rated. Noisy to the point of having to yell to the person next to you to be heard. So much for a relaxing dinner. And there is no "ambiance"; it's a room. The dishes served are "OK" but certainly nothing more than diner fare. Baked salmon buried in a dish of Spanish rice. No more, no less. Others in our party expressed the same disappointment in uninspired meals. Our waitress appeared annoyed if someone asked a question. read more

we had the most delicious dinner at Perlos tonight. not only was the food exceptional but so was the service. very attentive waiter and the place is beautiful and relaxing for dinner. read more

we took our family here on Easter and I must say it was top notch , to see the amount of business and hard working staff on a holiday was incredible. the owner even came to our table and said hello . food was delicious service great !! thank you for working on a holiday so we didn't have to read more

5 stars not because Perlo's is a Michelin style restaurant but because for what they do and how they compare to their peer group. Perlo's is just so good at delivering a consistent, quality experience at a reasonable price. Had another excellent dinner there last night and everything, from service at the bar to waitstaff to bussing was on point and excellent. As always the owners, Donna and Brian, are on the floor "working" the room to ensure things run smoothly and that their customers are happy. I think the bottom line for any restaurant is always the quality of the food served and this is where Perlo's shines. Sauce is always very subjective but I really like the traditional sauce here. It's as good as my grandmother's, (sorry Nana!). Running a restaurant successfully is a tough job. It's even tougher in the aftermath of Covid and most places are having a difficult time getting enough staff to run their operation the way they want. Perlo's is no different in this respect but I didn't notice any lapse in the service we received last night. We will be back soon. read more

Perlo's - Delicious lasagna! - Italian Near Me - East Rochester, New York

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Good food, good service, good people.. nice place too. Had the pork chop which was cooked perfectly. I'd go back. read more

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Although busy the service was great, the waitress was attentive and our food came out perfect and quickly. Portions were large we had left overs! Don't forget to ask for their bread, it was warm and fresh. read more

I have driven by numerous times and finally decided to stop in. The restaurant is classic Italian done right, and they take reservations. A lot of the menu is named after people who are regulars which I love the idea of. Their menu is large, with anything you can imagine. I ordered the chicken Asiago with linguine. The sauce was divine, and not too heavy. The chicken was stuffed with prosciutto, spinach and sun dried tomatoes, breaded on the outside which added a salty and more savory aspect. The chicken was a little dry, but after adding the surrounding sauce, was great. With every entree you get salad or soup, for which I got the chicken noodle soup, which on a cold winter night, hits the spot. We also got served fresh warm bread which I'm a sucker for. Overall had a great evening of food and friends. read more

Perlo's - Stuffed shells - Italian Near Me - East Rochester, New York

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Took 2 of my friends from out of town. It was fabulous & they both love the service & the food. Matt was outstanding.! They both can't wait to come back again! read more

I've lived right down the road from Perlo's for six years, and I'm kicking myself for not trying this place sooner. Perlo's is old school Italian food, in the best way. Everything on the menu sounds delicious so it was hard to make a decision. Ended up with the Chicken Asiago which was excellent. Stuffed chicken wasn't dry at all and the cream sauce was rich but not too much so. I recommend the Utica Greens appetizer. Best Utica greens I've had outside of Utica. The service was great. We had a really enjoyable evening, and I'll definitely be returning. read more

wonderful experience great food and service owner stopped by just to make sure all was well

Excellent service , outstanding food . Highly recommend . Probably one of the best places I have ever eaten at in all of Rochester

We came here for a nightcap the other night and the bartender couldn't have been less helpful. We are very easy going people, and he made us feel like he didn't want us there. What made it even worse, when we got the bill, we were charged $4.00 for a club soda from the bar. $4 for a club soda? The bill never had any tax calculated on it, which seemed incredibly odd to me also. I have heard their food is great, but I will not go back based off of the bartender's attitude and how he treated us. Not to mention- who charges $4 for a club soda? I guess this place does. Good thing ya can't mess up a decent Chardonnay snd bottled beer- that's what saved us. Ya win some, ya lose some! Cheers By the way, the photo below is the rude bartender's comments in reply to my review. read more

Last minute decision to have a group dinner for New Years Eve. We had called a few days ago to ask for a table and they were able to accommodate our table of 8. A little earlier than we would have liked, but nonetheless, we were able to get a table for 4:30 reservations. Larissa was our server. She was amazing and very attentive. Our drinks came out very quickly and correctly. Even the refills came out quickly... and the house was packed! The food here was exquisite! I wish I had taken a picture of it for this post. I had the Lobster French special over linguine. Delicious! The turtle cheesecake was out of this world delicious as well. I will definitely go back to Perlos for another meal. read more

Dinner with a good friend at Perlo's last night. The place was packed! Service as wonderful. Our waitress Nikki was on her game! She was attentive, did NOT rush us, was pleasant, personable and we even had a few laughs together. Thank you Nikki for being so kind. We will be sure to ask for your section again. from: The two blonde co-workers. read more

Had a wonderful meal and an amazing server the other night. Must have been a fluke the last time I went. Great food, best service, and looking forward to going again. read more

The Pizza appetizer was quite scrumptious. But than about 2 hours later are main course came and it tasted like plain air in a jar. The fries were nice and salty though, but for an italian restaurant the fries shouldn't be the best part of the restaurant. Considering the time waited for some pasta that was a solid 2/10, it was quite disappointing. But we had a gift card so it wasn't a total loss. read more

Staff was so friendly and the customer service was amazing. Great service. Food was amazing. Can't wait to come back. Thank you for a great night. Friendly staff and great food makes such a difference for a fun night. read more

Drinks, bread and appetizers, the Utica bean and the sautéed calamari were outstanding and HOT. On my husband's fish fry, the fish was outstanding but his French fries were stone cold. The chicken Asiago I ordered was dried out pieces of chicken and cold Asiago sauce. We informed Michael, our wonderful server and replacements were given to us. Such a shame food can't always cooked perfectly and HOT! read more

Ate dinner here last night and left happy! My family has been going to Perlo's for years and years, and when we don't feel like cooking, but want Italian comfort food, we usually go here. Last night all 5 of us enjoyed our meals. While I will admit this is not always the case (we've been here literally dozens of times over the past 10 yrs or so and some meals have not satisfied), the people at Perlo's keep us coming back, and what we've found is that one 'bad' meal or less-than-stellar experience usually means someone didn't show up for work or something happened in the kitchen. Next time around it's usually all better! Last night we ordered: --the spaghetti carbonara - named after my family since we are regulars - delicious! The sauce was the perfect combination of creamy-bacon-y goodness over what looked like an entire box of spaghetti - definitely plenty to share and a bargain at only $12! --the pasta with peas and ricotta - served with bowtie pasta and I added shrimp. The sauce was fresh with lots of peas, slightly garlicky, really good. Exactly what I wanted. --the lingine with red clam sauce - you get whole clams in the shell with this one, and the amount of clams and light tomato broth/sauce were really well done. My dad had this one, and it's saying something that he enjoyed it since clam sauce is sort of a specialty in our house! --the pepperoni pizza - well-done crust, tangy sauce, melted cheese and plenty of pepperoni - this definitely satisfied the pizza-lover at our table. --the tenderloin filet with asparagus and roasted potatoes - my husband got this since there was plenty of pasta on the table and he was able to eat little portions of the carbonara and bowties along with his steak. Afterward we had tiramisu - easily one of the best in the entire city if you like tiramisu - and a cannoli. The perfect ending to our dinner. One more thing to note - the service last night was excellent. If you look around when you get seated, you'll notice most of the servers are kids - probably local kids, cycling in and out of waitressing/server jobs while juggling school or college. I think this is the key to the poor service that other yelpers have reported - a constantly rotating cadre of untrained servers. But our guy last night, Troy, was excellent. He was able to answer questions about the menu, was attentive, made sure we had everything - water, drinks, salt/pepper, etc - multiple times, and also, and this is a biggie with me, explained the specials, in detail WITH the pricing for each. And he identified himself. Hopefully he sticks around a while - sit in his section and you won't be disappointed. read more

Four of us went to Perlos for dinner last night. Our friends ordered a bottle of wine. Our server placed it in a bucket on our small table. They asked for a stand but we're told none were available so they placed the bucket on a chair. We asked for olive oil as none came out with the bread. Our server said she would bring some however it did not out until mid meal. Our friends shared an appetizer but when it came out there was not a serving spoon. The asked our server but she never brought one. I needed a steak knife to cut my veal however I did not get one. We asked for separate checks (2 couples). She brought one check. My meal was not the best. We were all very disappointed in the food and poor service. I'm crossing Perlo's off my list of go to restaurants. read more

This was my first eating experience at Perlo's and it did not disappoint. I had the orecchiette with artichokes, and shrimp. Delicious all the way. I loved the "little ears" which were done to perfection...al dente of course. The shrimp were huge and were cooked perfectly. I was surprised to find the tails on the shrimp...don't ask me why as shrimp do come with tails.... but it made for messy fingers or leaving a bit of the shrimp in the tail (which I don't do). The gal that provided service was amazing. She was an exceptional listener, for one thing. I made a joke about bringing a straw for the wine bottle and voila...a straw arrived. More to the point, she knew every item on the menu which, given they are all people's names rather than key ingredients, is remarkable. On top of that, she was a joyful person and shared that personal trait in her service to our table. If you haven't tried Perlo's... please do. You won't be disappointed. read more

Just another crappy Italian-American (NOT to be confused with real Italian) restaurant. Lame iceberg lettuce salad (damn, even Wendy's serves a better lettuce mix).....tasteless chicken French on way undercooked pasta....eggplant parm, mediocre at best (could you spare the cheese?). I'm done with the Rochester cookie cutter "Italian" restaurants. From now on, I'm sticking with Mama G's---the only REAL Italian restaurant in Rochester. (I only went to Perlo's because I was invited.) read more

Went with large group and were sorely disappointed in the food. Service was good, at least, but it did not make up for food quality. Veal entrees were worse than shoe leather--flavorless and tough. Chicken was the same way. read more

An 80th birthday celebration for a group of 15 was a disappointment. we may be out of touch, but cannot understand why there were upcharges of $1.00 EACH for requesting a change of spirits in a Manhattan, request for drink served up, and also for ice. the reservation was made well in advance the assignment of our seating location was one tucked in a corner making food and drink delivery difficult there was a full house and we were at a prime time for dinner: 6:00 o'clock. no attempt to utilize spaced table assignment was in effect, as stated above it was a full house pre ordering for table pre dinner treats: calamari and artichokes was a request for 4 platters 4 were served our bill charged for 6 platters cocktail orders were not met " yes that's the one I forgot" response from waiter after 2nd request the request for dessert platters apparently was not entered by Donna, the owner and the wait staff tried to cover for her but the wait for dessert was just another foul up as the prep was started from zero the and of course COVID causing lack of staff so why book service as though there were going to be staff to excuse was Donna is now out of town .As always, in over 30 years I've never had a bad meal there and most likely will return or maybe just go across the street to the Northside. read more

Everything at Perlo's is a bit dated or nostalgic--the menu, decor--depending on how you view it. Our waiter was friendly and the owner, Donna, is welcoming. The dining room was packed, mostly with older clientele, so it is clearly a popular local spot and has been for awhile. The food was not spectacular but not bad either, akin to something one might find at a chain Italian restaurant. The house salad could use some work as it is very lettuce heavy and doesn't have much else going on. The Pasta Bella was better and tastier than the sausage pasta. The menu is huge and classic, with regional specialties like Chicken French and Chicken Riggies as well as popular Italian American dishes like Chicken Parmigiana. Nothing inventive or seasonal here, but seemingly reliable. For the area, which in my limited experience, doesn't have a lot of spectacular restaurants, it is above average. read more

I was skeptical at first to eat for for a company dinner. We're a small office so only 5 of us. The food is amazing! I loved the ambiance, our waitress Stephanie was wonderful. The lemon drop martinis are made to perfection. I had the Arancini for an appetizer and was impressed. I had the filet for my main course with green beans and a side of pasta with Alfredo sauce. My filet was grilled to a perfect medium rare as requested and was so tender and delicious. My coworkers said the veal and chicken riggies were yummy too. I will be coming back here in the future for sure. The crowd is a bit older and the bar is on the smaller side; lots of tables packed in the small space but I loved it none the less. To top it off Steve Hausmann was at the table adjacent to ours. Local celebrities eat here too. read more

Our server was not friendly. Negative attitude. My entree was eggplant and it was a mushy mess. Dinner salad was fresh. Not the friendly place they advertise. read more

First experience will be last. Family Easter dinner was disappointing. The room is not appointed or equipped to absorb any noise. You could not hear the person beside you talking. There is a dangerous lip/small step on the ground as you walk into the room and exit that you can barely see but definitely trip and fall from. I had to ask for bread almost twenty minutes after being seated. We were never offered any additional bread. The offering was straight off the regular menu except there were no salads with entrees. The eggplant parmesan was oily and lacking flavor. The sauce was too sweet with very little flavor. The pasta and parmesan were fairly dry not having sufficient sauce. A twenty percent tip was tacked on to an already expensive bill. This is a long-time, Italian establishment in East Rochester. A true disappointment. read more

I came here with my fiancé and his family. We werr a large party and it was very refreshing because they were completely ready for us when we arrived. This is a classic family Italian restaurant! Low lite room with tables nice and close together. There was warm bread and butter served to start. Every meal comes with a soup or salad. I ordered the eggplant parm and it was cooked perfectly. It came with four slices and a lovely pile of pasta. There was also a perfect amount of cheese. My fiancé got one of the specials which was some kind of chicken parm dish. He said it was great. Everyone at the table was extremely satisified! read more

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Consistently delicious food and a lovely server. We used the enclosed porch and it was very comfortable.. not quite inside and not quite outside. The food is plentiful too. We really enjoy going to Perlos. read more

Fantastic experience! We sat on the patio for a large family gathering. food was amazing and service was well done! kids served first and well taken care of while adults were able to relax. Heat portions and very tasty! Great time! We loved it! read more

Our server and everybody else we interacted with was great. That was appreciated but it can't cover the issues with the food. I imagine Perlo's is in a classic trap. The menu they have gets them the customers they have (older). Changing the menu would risk the existing diners and may or may not attract new ones. That said, your existing dining room is full of people who might be having their last supper soon. You need to take some calculated risks. I had the Pasta Peas and Ricotta which does have its fans to be sure. I added chicken to mine. To me it reminded me of a baked tuna noodle casserole with chicken instead of tuna. A little gloppy and thick, very heavy. It didn't remind me of Ricotta (as I typically experience it in Lasagna for example) in any way. It was hot and had toasted crumbs etc. It had a certain mom quality to it but it wasn't fresh or flavorful or interesting to me. I really truly strive to not waste food but I couldn't see any point in bringing it home or eating more than 1/3 of it. Partner had Penne vodka, also with chicken. I think they did get the essence of the vodka sauce right. It wasn't particularly vibrant or memorable, the chicken was the same squishy soft chunk chicken you might get on a salad from a deli but it did check the boxes for a penne vodka adequately. I have a few suggestions for Perlo's... First, update or at least provide an updated option for your sad side salad. As others have mentioned, the salad seems 100% like bagged iceberg lettuce mix with a single half cherry tomato added for humor's sake. The croutons were good though. Second, take the chicken (and if it they are as sad, the shrimp) add-on proteins and make them tasty enough to eat on their own. If the chicken that was added to both our pasta dishes was wood grilled, marinated and had a bit of char on it, that would have carried the whole dish along. If you need to recoup some cost to cover better ingredients, the pasta portions could go down by 25% easily and if the chicken was actually good it would be worth more than the 2 dollar up charge you currently ask. read more