Zingarella Pizzeria & Ice Cream Cafe

Great menu, nice ambience but very poor service from the evident head waitress. Commented on overdone appetizer and overcooked, burnt chicken parm and got no response from Chris (?). who also bitched at hostess within ear shot for seating us at booth of four when we were two in a near empty dining room.
Great wine menu and price, may try again and hope for a different server.

A disappointment… The restaurant inside is very cute. I love how it’s been decorated. The service was mediocre at best. The staff was friendly enough but not so interested in serving or getting the order right. I ordered the meatballs and asked for a side of broccoli. I never got the broccoli and the meatballs were just ok. My daughter got the mozzarella sticks and French fries. She was happy but we could have gotten the same quality from the frozen food aisle. My other daughter got a slice of pizza. That was a winner. I’d absolutely go back for the pizza… but not anything else.

Apparently sanitation is not a priority at Zingarellas. The cook was playing with his beard, wiping his nose without gloves on, eating food and licking his fingers. This was brought to the attention of the waitress and she went to tell him of the complaints. He just laughed and continued his unsanitary behavior. We will never return. And neither will anyone I know.

I’ve seen this place before and always thought it looked nice from the outside. We went there for dinner the other night since nearby beans & greens apparently had closed 40 min earlier than they were supposed to for whatever reason. I got the ravioli spinaci, even though I was hesitant because of the price (I always hate paying a lot for a meal composed of fairly cheap ingredients… but whatever) and it was excellent! 1 or 2 more raviolis would have been appreciated. Also, I searched high and low but the minestrone had no pasta in sight, which was a bit of a bummer. My husband got the eggplant parm dinner which he enjoyed. I also got crème brûlée… couldn’t resist… and that was great too. Our server was super friendly without being overbearing. Despite my very small criticisms definitely still worthy of 5 stars. It was an enjoyable dinner experience.

Eat there last night, service was extremely slow, melbec wine was poor, cab was better but not that good, chicken parmigiano was dry and tasted burnt. Three of us had veal parmigiano and all were so tough that you could only cut it with a knife, normally you should be able to use your fork. Pasta portions were small, come on guys pasta is cheap, give more and satisfy your customers. Maybe you should just be a pizza restaurant since the pizza is very good.
Won’t be going back unless we just get pizza.

What a great find! Was in Bristol for work & wanted to grab lunch close to my hotel & saw this place on Google Maps. Cute, homey atmosphere, very friendly staff. Cynthia was my server & she was awesome… always made sure my water glass was full, gave me her menu recommendations when I asked & didn’t seem annoyed that I was dining solo (as many servers do).
The whole menu looked fantastic (house made pasta, wood fired pizza, strombolis, grinders, soups, salads) & the smells coming from the kitchen were very enticing. Wish I could’ve stayed for more than a quick lunch! I had the pasta fagiole soup & it was served piping hot (nothing worse than being served lukewarm soup *gag*). Delicious & you could tell it was homemade. I also had a slice of NY style cheese pizza… yummy sauce, crispy wood fired crust.
I’d like to say I’d come back, but I doubt I’ll have another opportunity to visit the area. I definitely told my clients to check it out!

We stopped for lunch here on a Thursday afternoon while cycling on the bike path. Four of us had no complaints about the food; my burger with cheddar, mushrooms, and bacon was great, and they had no trouble substituting a side salad for the standard high-​carb side dishes. We sat outside, which was OK except for the traffic noise, which included a lot of trucks. The interior of the restaurant looked very nice. We did find service to be a little slow, but our waiter was friendly and accommodating. I would come here again.

My wife and I stopped in for lunch. We’ve been by it a few times and we’ve heard good things about it.
We were seated right away and our waiter Tom brought our waters right away. We were in no hurry to order and he gave us time to decide on our order. We had nothing planned for the day and wanted a slow lunch. I don’t mean to say he ignored us by any means. We ordered the antipasto and it was presented in a reasonable amount of time. We also ordered a large pizza, knowing we’d bring some home for our son to sample also. The antipasto was rather small for the price with a small about of salad, some roasted peppers under 4 slices of lunchmeat. There were two slices of mozzarella cheese and some very nice, very thin slices of hard Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. A handful of olives tossed on the corner of the plate and that was about it. The Parmigiano Reggiano cheese was the highlight.
After the table was cleaned off our pizza was brought out. It was huge. We ordered the «Godfather» which had red and green peppers, onions, mushrooms, pepperoni and sausage. The pizza was a redeeming factor. The crust was thin and crunchy but soft inside and flavorful. The tomato sauce was good and the toppings were plentiful. We were able to eat half, two slices each and had to pack the rest for home. We walked out $ 45.00 lighter which I thought was steep for a pizza lunch with no drinks.
I will go back again for the pizza but perhaps it will be «to go» next time.

Decided to stop in while on the road to NYC. Surprisingly there was only one other party seated at 8pm on a Sunday. We should have taken that as a warning for what was to come. It took over an hour for our food to come out, simple Italian grinders and salads. The food was sub par for the price. The night was topped off by waiting 30 minutes for the bill. Save your time and money.

I live very close by so I have been here over 20 times. The pizza here is pretty great. Not my absolute favorite in Southington but definitely in the top 3. The service here is either amazing OR horrendous (there was once where we were seated and no one ever came by to actually to get our order… we waited 20 minutes). Aside from pizza, there other food is pretty good and above par compared to most Italian places. The drinks are also not too over priced.
Good for a cheap date, families, or a fourth option as a place to drink a beer and watch the game.

The best Calzone I’ve ever had! Excellent customer service… definitely will come back for more! Bravo!

Pumpkin ravioli app was pretty good. Would have liked a touch more sage, but nice brown butter sauce. Atmosphere can be a bit loud, but food is usually good and menu has homemade pasta. I like when they have the lamb special. dinner salad is a bit common, but overall good place for a Friday night with the fam.

Been here a couple times, never wow’d by the food or the service. Was ignored by our waiter during my first visit, second time I ordered ahead and brought the food home. Had the Buffalo Chicken Stromboli, it was pretty delicious, bread was perfect and the flavor and heat of the sauce was excellent.
I’d go back to give the waitstaff another shot as well as try some other food.

Don’t be in any kind of a hurry. Went on a Saturday night and we were 1of 3 tables. Food came out pretty slow and when it came it really want any better then diner food. I had the «homemade» ravioli, it tasted old. My wife has a chicken pasta dish. Not much chicken and it tasted like burn plastic. My mother had pizza, we have had better frozen pizza. This place looks nice but it’s a bust over all.

Sorry this place does not cut it.
Antipasto advertised as having prosciutto and Sopprasata
Presents at the table as Salami and Cappacola, not even close.
Calamari is breaded in flavorless breading.
Rigatoni Bolagnese is presented with grossly overcooked pasta that can barely stay together under its own weight.
Soft drinks served in high ball glasses, two sips and they are empty, waitresses walk by empty glasses 10 times and then have to be asked for refills.
Children screaming, chasing balloons around the place.
Whew, never again.

This is a place every month and a half I get take out from. I mainly do it because of its location to my house. This place is a debacle everytime I go in. EVERY TIME! Busy or slow everyone is running around like chickens with no heads. The first 4 times I ordered take out. We ordered calzones one with two ingredients and the other plain. They screwed it up. By either not putting ingrients in or putting them in both. The second time I called in and said what happened and the girl blamed me. I could understand if it was multiple items and changes but it it was 2 calzones. Since then they have been better.
For the food I find it to be very good. The main reason besides location that we continue to get take out from here. The sauce it excellent and calzones are really big. I just recently got an order for grinders and this is where it is at. The best meatball and chicken parm grinders I have ever had. Full chicken cutlets not chopped up pieces of chicken as I have gotten from other pizza places. You really cant go wrong with these grinders.

My friends and I had dinner at Zingarella after attending an art event at the wonderful Paris In Plantsville gallery. As we were being seated, the hostess saw something on the bench and got a paper towel to wipe it up, explaining, «sometimes this pipe drips», gesturing to the pipe overhead. Well, don’t seat us under a leaky pipe! ?!?
Then, another bizarre thing happened. My friend asked to see a beer list, and the server said they did not have one, but rattled off the names of the beers they had on tap. And then;
Friend: And, do you have bottled beer?
Server: Oh yes, we have lots of them,
Friend: …Can I see a list?
Server: We don’t have a list.
(awkward silence)
Friend: Oh, ok.
He got up to go look at the list posted at the bar, and asked for a Sam Adams. After way too much time had passed without receiving the beer, he again said that he would like a Sam Adams. The response was not «Oh, I’m so sorry about that», but «sure», and the beer arrived in about 5 seconds, indicating that the glass had been sitting on the bar the whole time.
Anyway, on to the food. Good, nothing mind blowing, but we enjoyed everything we had. Between the four of us, we had the Pear Salad, Beet Salad, Calzone, and Florentine Pizza. I’d never had brie on a salad before, and it was a nice complement to the pear slices. The pizza had a nice thin, chewy crust and perfect ratio of spinach, tomato and ricotta, although I would have liked a little more sauce. Tiny, minor complaint.
Despite being not overly impressed by the service, and the hot food taking a very long time to come out, it was a nice meal. I come out to Plantsville on occasion to go to events at the gallery, so its a possibility that I may return.

We have friends that own tattoo studios in Southington and visit them frequently. We drive by this place at least 2 – 3 times per month. We watched as they transformed and ugly building into a very nice restaurant, it looks great and the interior is very inviting.
We decided to finally try this place and we were hoping for the best, that it would be a new gem; we were a bit disappointed.
The staff was friendly enough but the service was painfully slow. It didn’t seem that busy although it was a Friday night, the staff just seemed to be unorganized. Perhaps they just didn’t have enough staff to cover the restaurant.
For food we orders the garlic knots, shrimp bruschetta, and a New York style pizza. So lets go through this one at a time.
Garlic knots — they were more like rolls and not knots like I am use to. Problem was the rolls were hard, like they were stale or were sitting around a while. Whenever I have ordered knots from other restaurants they were hot and doughy, these were not. The sauce was good.
Shrimp Bruschetta was ok, nothing special just ok.
I have had a lot of New York pizza, this was not New York style which I translate into thin and crispy crust. This was thicker then I would expect and not crispy. Overall the pizza was good.
Overall I think the place was ok but a bit pricy for the quality that we experienced that night. if you are in the area and looking for a place to eat, this is ok, but I would not go out of my way to go there. Because we are in the area a lot we will give them another try at some point and update my review.

First time at the local bar and Pizza. From the start we liked it! The hostess was friendly as we walked in the door and the bartenders while busy, were attentive.
We sat at the bar as we like to sit next to each other and chat, and to our dismay the chardonnay choice was limited to a very inexpensive and low quality wine. To bad. A better wine would have led to two glasses and a more substantial meal.
We ordered the pizza with riccota and sun dried tomatoes and brocoli. Not bad but the crust was non descript. Not chewy or thin — just «cardboard» like. I started with the clam chowder — which was tasty and full of potatoes and clams. My wife had the house salad with a tasty vinaigrette but they omitted the promised cranberry’s.
Will we go back? Yes, we would like to give them another chance — the bar opens to the outside and it had a good vibe. The place was busy, the staff friendly and they poured a good glass. We will try some of the other menu options and update this post in time.

If you are out walking or running on the Farmington Canal trail, make sure you end your stay with a meal at Zingarella.
This place was recommended to me so I decided to stop in on a Friday night after a little exercise on the trail. And was I ever impressed.
Since it was my first time there I did take note of the service, which was very helpful and friendly. During good weather there are three seating options: dining room, bar and outdoor patio. I chose the bar and it was fine. Plenty of TVs and a friendly, casual atmosphere.
I ordered three things: mozzarella di carozza, which was basically an Italian grilled cheese filled with mozzarella, deep fried and bathed in marinara and topped with grated cheese. Next up was the house antipasto which was impressive because it was chock full of Italian meats such as prosciutto, capicola, and salami; roasted peppers, olives and shaved sharp provolone. For once, the mixed field greens on the bottom were just a garnish, not the main attraction. Amen! Very good job on this dish.
Lastly, I ordered a twelve inch veal parm grinder which was cooked to perfection: crispy on the outside but plenty moist and tender on the inside. This was also extremely well made.
There are a lot of choices to be had on the menu and I will be back to try the gnocchi dish and their clam pizza for sure. Portions are big so ordering a couple of apps and a grinder were more than enough for two people to share.
I’m not sure how many people outside of the Southington/​Plantsville area know about Zingarella. But you should get to know it. There are a lot of good things happening in their kitchen.