Olio Trattoria

It is heart breaking to see this establishment, a native Pittsburgh fixture and memory home to many, close. The food was always good, the service on par and the atmosphere a welcome familiarity and sincere respite for many Pittsburgh natives, out of town visitors and resident students alike. I can only hope whatever takes the place of this restaurant be equal in quality and even more in heart as to carry a tradition of even better memories.

Weekly roommate bonding always involves three things: a goofy game of charades, the Beyoncé soundtrack, and Joe Mama’s take out. So, as expected, when my three roommates and I heard the news of Joe Mama’s imminent death (RIP), we were devastated. We loved Joe Mama’s (in the words of Beyoncé) like XOXO. Some may have thought we were overreacting to the news, but really our silly roommate games became a little less fun without a delicious half-​pound meatball on the side. Although Beyoncé still sounded amazing as usual.
But, not to worry, good news shortly followed the bad. Olio Trattoria: a replacement Italian restaurant would open just one week later. Just in time for roommate bonding Friday. Our weekly game night would not be the same without delicious Italian take out.
So when Olio opened, we were first in line to try out the new eatery. We even decided to eat in the restaurant for a change. Immediately, we realized this was a mistake, as it became evident that the entire staff had forgotten their morning coffee (apparently they had not woken up flawless that morning). Not only were they slow moving, they were also very crabby. Nevertheless, we got comfortable in the red vinyl booths and opened our menus to take a look.
Immediately, I was very unimpressed. The atmosphere of the restaurant detracted, majorly, from the classiness of the menu. The intricate design and fancy menu font did not distract me from noticing the ridiculously high prices. If I’m going to pay 15 dollars for spaghetti, why am I sitting in a ripped vinyl booth listening to weird elevator music? Strike one for Olio.
Our waiter came over shortly after, informing us that the pasta dishes and sauces could not be modified or substituted. Everything on the menu had to be made exactly as listed. In other words, I could not get my spaghetti with vodka sauce. Tomato sauce or no sauce. Nicole could not substitute rigatoni for penne. Rigatoni or nothing. To soften the blow from this disappointing news, he brought us a basket of dry, stale bread. Strike two for Olio.
Shortly after our order was taken, the waiter brought out our side salads. I use the term side salad very loosely. This ‘salad’ consisted of a few pieces of wilted lettuce surrounded by the vast whiteness of an extremely large plate.
About 20 minutes later, the meals came out piping hot, smelling delicious. Except mine. Where was my overpriced spaghetti? I was not only waiting for it, I was waiting for it to blow me away since I was going to pay 15 dollars. «It will be out in a minute,» I was told. My friends all began to eat, leaving me to a growling stomach. However, we quickly concluded that I wasn’t missing anything as Sarah’s gnocchi was mushy and Erin’s spaghetti tasted of an unidentified spice. 5 minutes went by… Then 10 minutes… 15 minutes later the waiter brought my plate of spaghetti. Cold. Strike three for Olio.
Nobody finished his or her meal, definitely on account of the bland sauces used on these overly priced, yet simple, pasta dishes. Next, the waiter brought boxes for us to take home the leftovers. We, then, paid our bill and swiftly left the restaurant, feeling very underwhelmed by the 17 dollar dinner. Walking out the door, we all promptly threw out our «doggy bags» in the nearest trashcan. The next roommate bonding night would not and did not consist of dinner at Olio Trattoria (although the Beyoncé soundtrack was definitely in the cards).

For Oakland if give it 5 stars. Had a special beef ravioli for six bucks. Awesome. Why go to fast food when you can come here

Went last week with two other couples at a 8pm Friday night reservation. Had a few drinks and shared an antipasto app (large and delicious) before ordering entrees. The service and food were great and the meal was very affordable for 6 adults. Would come back again for lunch/​brunch/​dinner. Half off wednesdays and their new late night menu are terrific deals.

Eaten here a few times. Always been pleased with the food… not so much the service at the bar. Not very crowded.

I went to Olio with my mom for lunch while I was home visiting for the holidays. We loved the cozy and comfortable atmosphere. The staff was attentive and friendly. We liked Dale, the bartender. He had such a great attitude, very refreshing from some other bartenders around Pit that aren’t as kind and welcoming. I loved their drink selection, including the wine list and specialty cocktails. The bar menu was very affordable. I heard that they do ½ price wine on Wednesday, I would definitely bring my girlfriends here for a causal night out.
We enjoyed the Antipasto for an appetizer. It was delicious! The bean dip was killer! And the bread served was soft and yummy. We split a chicken salad and prosciutto arugula pizza. The salad was fresh, the dressing was perfect and chicken was grilled to perfection. The pizza was yummy, it’s crust was soft and doughy. It was a delicious spin off a traditional non-​brick oven style pizza. Next time I want to try a pasta dish because it all looked so good and great portions too. This is definitely a restaurant that values using fresh and simple ingredients with nice traditional touches.
I really enjoyed everything during my visit to Olio. I would definitely recommend it to my family and friends. It’s finally nice to find a causal and comfortable restaurant with friendly people, good service and great food at an affordable price.

My husband and I took both sets of our parents to Olio, prior to a Pitt Basketball game. Our reservation was at 5:30 and we barely made it out for the 7:30 tip off! The service was THAT slow. Our server was very sweet, but she was clearly overwhelmed and didn’t have the support to handle her tables effectively.
As for the food… we started with a few pizzas. They were good, but I can’t help but compare to local Neapolitan-​style titan il pizzaiolo. And honestly, there is no comparison. Olio’s crust was slightly undercooked leaving it very doughy. The toppings were average quality and the sauce had a ‘tomatoes-​from-​a-​can’ flavor.
Most of our party enjoyed the entrees. I thought my husband’s chicken Marsala had odd proportions of the (tiny) chicken entrée to the side of pasta. All of us agreed that the pastas were overcooked. Al dente pasta is the simplest aspect of Italian cooking and should be a given, whether dining at a national chain or on the Amalfi coast. Again, the canned flavor wasn’t cooked out of the tomato sauces, and my meatballs were hard as rocks and completely lacking seasoning. The best thing I had all evening was the Casa salad. That’s a start, I guess.
We had to leave for the game, so no time for dessert. Something tells me we didn’t miss much.
At least Olio’s predecessor (Joe Mama’s) didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t!

Don’t be fooled. This is NOT some upgrade in quality of food compared with Joe Mama’s. It’s a pig with some lipstick on.
The pasta is very obviously from the same frozen packages they use at your run of the mill Italian places around the country. I thought, maybe my ravioli will have some nice homemade touch to it? Nope. Straight from the freezer– sauce was from a can.
My friend’s pasta dish with chicken was extremely light on chicken– there were 5 small pieces on the dish. Sauce was meh as well. Also-​both of our pasta portions were decidedly small.
They haven’t really done much with the décor– they took down all the fake celebrity pictures, redid the menu in Italian, and changed the name. I liked that Joe Mamas despite having mediocre food could take a joke.
Though– no complaints about the service which was excellent. Our waitress was extremely friendly and proactive. Also– half off wine bottles on Wednesday from 6-?(can’t remember). And since most of them are $ 30-​$ 40 normally that’s very good.
Bottom line– these weak $ 14 pasta dishes aren’t worth your time. They need a chef if they want to charge the prices they do. In fact– I think Noodles across the street is significantly better and cheaper. And for a nice dinner in Oakland The Porch has slightly better food and a dramatically better atmosphere.
It’s too bad– I thought we might have a Piccolo Forno in Oakland but that is not the case.

I realize I’m a 1 or 5 kind of poster, but I really do enjoy the places that have some heart to them. Plus, I work in Oakland and love the non-​chain places we have here. I’ve been to this place three times now and for three different kind of occasions: one was a recruitment lunch, one was a girls’ night out, and the third was a family dinner with a young kid present. All three times, I’ve enjoyed the servers and the food. The people who work here are attentive and enthusiastic. The food has been great all three times. My only suggestion to them would be to switch the music to something other than AT40 in the evenings. Otherwise, it’s a nice place for all occasions!

I visited on Wed. for a lunch with my lab group, per the suggestion of my lab manager. Although this was a lab lunch, the occasion that prompted it was my birthday last week. It’s a good thing that my boss wasn’t available on my actual birthday, because based on my experience here, I would have felt seriously shortchanged.
Despite having a not-​so-​great experience at Joe Mama’s (the previous instantiation of this restaurant; see my previous review) in the month before it changed hands, I was eager to give this place a second chance, in light of the updated menu and new ownership. Upon entering, the space seemed cleaner than before, which was encouraging. Unfortunately, however, my optimism was short-​lived, since this turned out to be the most positive thing I could say about my visit.
In terms of the food, I suspected from the point that our table received the slightly-​stale bread with its overly sweet oil and vinegar accompaniment that I was in for a disappointment, even though I (foolishly) continued to hold out hope. My boss ordered the bruschetta for our table to share, which was served on the same slightly-​stale bread, and was dressed with pale, tasteless tomatoes and bland pesto. For my entrée, I ordered the rigatoni al pesto, which comes dressed with a basil cream sauce with tomatoes, grilled chicken, and parmesan. Although I love all of these ingredients, most of which are very flavorful, this dish turned out to be extremely flavorless. Adding grated parmesan, salt, and pepper helped a bit, but unfortunately was unable to redeem it. Moreover, the rigatoni were overcooked and overly soft, to the point that they fell apart upon the slightest touch of my fork. The dish came with an unmemorable side salad instead of the huge shared salad bowl of Joe Mama’s. It was very clear that the ingredients used in all of the food were low quality.
To add insult onto injury, service was extremely slow. From the time that we sat down to the time that we left, an hour and a half elapsed, despite that we only ordered appetizers and entrees. Even my boss became frustrated with the slowness of the service, since he had to go to a meeting after lunch – he offered to reimburse the lab manager and got up to leave. At last, our waitress must have sensed my boss’s urgency, since she came by as he was getting up, and ran his credit card promptly, so that the lab manager didn’t have to pay.
Needless to say, despite my initial optimism, I was disappointed with the quality of the food and service here. While I certainly wasn’t a fan of Joe Mama’s, at least it didn’t pretend to be upscale, so you didn’t go in with high expectations. If you’re looking for a sit-​down lunch in Oakland, I’d suggest The Porch, Spice Island Tea House, or even Winghart’s. If you’re looking for Italian food at a similar price point, I’d suggest trying Girasole in Shadyside. I’d even suggest the Olive Garden over this place, since I’ve had better meals there, and at least they give you unlimited salad and breadsticks!

I never went to the old restaurant that inhabited this building so I can’t make any comparisons with it, but regardless of this I would never go back after coming here recently.
The décor was mediocre and I would normally look past this if the food was up to par, but unfortunately it was not.
The first problem with my meal was that when the waitress brought out my water, the rim of the glass was covered with this black gunk that looked like dried mud which pretty gross and nearly ruined my appetite. How nobody saw this before it got to me is pretty confusing.
Moving on from this, the bread brought for the table was dry and stale tasting. The margherita pizza I ordered was extremely mediocre with bleh cheese, watery tomato sauce, and OK dough (not very airy).
If you’re looking to get a bite to eat for lunch or otherwise, I’d recommend any of the surrounding restaurants over this one.

So after being seated, we asked the hostess what appetizers we could get pretty quickly and she named 2 and that was great. Once our waitress arrived we ordered drinks, the waitress brought us water and our drinks and came back for our orders a minute or two later. We ordered the calamari and 4 dishes. The calamari came first about 10 minutes later, then bread. The calamari was pretty disappointing, the calamari itself was kind of watery tasting. After we were almost done with the app, the waitress brought some bread and oil, which was very tasty — we had a few servings! Then came the salads. I personally really liked the salad and the house Italian dressing, but it is very Rosemary based, which some may not like.
Then came our entrees. I got the scarpariello dish with a side of pasta — I really liked the sausage but the chicken was kind of meh. My friends had: bolognese, pesto, and puttanesca. It seems like the puttanesca was a win from the crowds reactions, but the others were also meh. It sounds fancy (naming) but I could’ve made the same thing at home easily.
My main complaint is the order of food. I’ve worked in an Italian restaurant before, you always bring the bread first! Especially if the waitress is busy the hostess should go grab some bread ASAP. Then salads, then apps, then entrée. To be fair it seemed like the hostess was new.
Doubtful I’d go again for $ 15/​entrée mediocre food and service.

Went here with a huge group of people and the wait staff were very friendly and on point with professionalism and timing (getting dishes out, refilling beverages, courtesy).
The romano carciofi (marinated artichoke hearts, batter dipped and deep fried, and wrapped in prosciutto) was delightful and presented on a mix of baby greens.
The seafood appetizers — mussels pomodoro, calamari fra diavolo — tasted fresh and the tomato sauces were nicely developed in flavor.
The bruschetta and casa salads were very nice. They give you a bread basket and olive oil dipping sauce drizzled in balsamic vinegar glaze– a nice, sweeter alternative to regular balsamic vinegar.
My friend had the gnocchi which had a nice chew. I got the four-​cheese pizza and the crust was thin with a combined texture of crispy and with little chew (love this type of texture). I saw other potential coworkers order their respective pasta dishes with the vodka sauce – looked delicious!
If all goes well with this job interview, I may be back to try out other fare.