3.5 Stars but I'll bump up to 4. This is the place to go if you're in mid-beach and looking for some place to stroll to for a light dinner (not worth driving to imho, as parking is a real pain (street only) and the food isn't THAT spectacular that you would go out of your way to drive here), wanting something casual, pizza and pasta, not break the bank and open late (11PM on weeknights which is still considered late down at the beach as places are still on "covid-time"...so annoying lol).
We were staying literally across the street at the Marriott Cadillac Hotel and Beach Club (highly recommend!!). It was a Thu night, fairly late to still be wondering where to go for dinner. We had observed Piola's patio dining over and over again during our frequent drive-by's but just dismissed it off hand as we had our list of other places that were our go-to's while visiting Miami Beach but this night, we were desperate to find a place close by to grab a bite.
So, I perused the Yelp reviews for this place - they were pretty favorable - so we decided to give it a try. Walked across the street, the patio area was filled with diners but there was no wait - so we scored a patio table. My recommendation is - sit outside, not inside - though you're overlooking Collins Ave street traffic (not exactly picturesque Ocean Drive lol), there iS still good people watching action to be had, you have the fresh ocean breeze and at night, it's pretty quiet and chill AND - BIG BONUS - we got lucky and came when they had live music on the patio so we really scored! The singing duo was FANTASTIC. VERY FUN, entertaining and not too in-your-face loud. What a treat. (Piola, KEEP BOOKING THAT ACT! See my pic and vid!)
The food is decent - wait, let me clarify - the pizza we had (with one minor fixable complaint) was SO GOOD. I WOULD DEFINITELY GO FOR THE PIZZAS.
Party of 2 - we split a Caesar Salad plain (no protein add in) (definitely big enough to split) $10 and one of their hand tossed wood burning fire pizzas (the Canareggio). I had a Peroni in a chilled glass (nice touch!) and we called it a day (night).
The salad was just meh. Not bad, not great. Like something you might get at McD's frankly. Wish it had been served much more cold than it was - it was cold but I love romaine hearts when they're super cold and crunchy - totally makes the salad.
The Canareggio pizza was DEEEEELISH. SO GOOD. THE ONLY CRITICISM I HAVE about the pizza was the dollops of ricotta cheese were cold! Not even room temp. Cold. Like they had been put on the pizza as an afterthought straight from the fridge lol. We had a Spis pizza with ricotta dollops a few nights earlier at the Lincoln Road shopping area and the ricotta was melted into the pizza (delicious as well! See my review) - that's what I was expecting here.
The night happened to be a lovely evening to sit outside with a nice breeze blowing, not too warm (another reason to come in the evenings during the summer), fun relaxing dining, and AMAZING LIVE MUSIC!
Pro Tip - call and find out when they do their live music and definitely time your meal around that! Worth it! I would also generally stay away from Fridays and weekend nights to avoid waits, lines and crowds since their patio seating is super limited. Not as fun sitting inside. And best to dine-in vs carry out because any pizza, but especially fire roasted specialty pies like Piola's, are just not as good eaten out of a cardboard box. Truth.
This was the perfect late night dinner spot for us. Check it out! read more