Piccolo’s Italian Steakhouse

This is a fantastic place for lunch. I had the the eggplant parm sandwich that was packed full of flavor. Thin slices of eggplant lightly battered and fried to a perfectly crisp crust. Outstanding restaurant that I look forward to trying for dinner.

I would definitely recommend this place! This was about a 30 minute drive to try out and I’m glad I did! Excellent food, great prices, nice atmosphere, and good service. The portions were the perfect size and I still brought food home– had both an appetizer and dessert too. No negatives at all, just a great place that I will definitely come back for!

Wife and I enjoyed dinner here the other night. I have eaten at Dominick’s nearby several times. I honestly thought this place had better food. The seafood pasta was great. Wife got scallops and they were excellent. We will definitely be back.

The food was bland and unappealing. The red sauces had an off taste like uncooked canned tomatoes. The ‘carbonara’ was drowned in at least 2 cups of heavy cream sauce. Calamari fritta was not at all crispy and had no flavor. I would not come here again or recommend it to others. There are better places nearby.

We had the most wonderful visit. The owner came out and introduced himself and just made the experience that much more enjoyable. Everything we had was wonderful. Highly recommend this place for anyone liking true Italian food.

First time eating here tonight. Was Refered by a friend. The food was really good. Service excellent. Refreshing

When I posted our review of Dominick’s in Watkinsville on Facebook, Tim Piccolo left us a public comment inviting us to try his restaurant Piccolo’s Italian Steakhouse. We gave no advance notice to Tim that we were coming nor did we introduce ourselves to Tim during our visit. Someone else had actually commented before him that we should try Piccolo’s so it was on our radar anyway. We enjoy taking reader comments and, most of the time, we’ll try almost anything.
We’d done a review in Buckhead that afternoon, played around in Chastain Park for a while and then sat in some terrible traffic and weather. By the time we got to the restaurant, I was starving. My friend who lives in the area actually introduced me to Piccolo’s Italian Steakhouse. I didn’t even realize they do steak because every other time we’ve been there I just order Italian. This time though, I wanted to find out if there was any meat to the fact they call themselves a «steakhouse».
When we arrived, we were seated right away. There were several large parties in the dining room near where we were and the restaurant seemed busy. Our server arrived promptly to take our drink orders but we were talking way too much to have even looked at the menu.
My friend ordered the Filet Mignon Marsala which featured sautéed mushrooms in a sweet Marsala wine sauce. For his side he ordered fettuccine with traditional sauce and the Caprese salad. Melanie ordered the Baked Ziti that is baked with mozzarella, Parmesan, ricotta cheeses and marinara sauce. She also added some Alfredo sauce so it would be more like the Cody Special we’re so fond of at Provino’s in Snellville. She also ordered the house salad with ranch and bleu cheese. I ended up ordering the House Salad with Thousand Island and the Tuscan Filet.
When the salads arrived, I noticed my friend’s salad looked much better than mine. I just got iceberg lettuce while my friend received an awesome spring mix. Note for the next time, order the Caprese salad instead of the House salad. The dressing were very nice — thick and flavorful.
When our entreés arrived, I knew I had made the right decision. Melanie has been on this vegetarian kick lately and I was dying for a solid steak! Boy, did I get one! While the 8 oz Filet isn’t stunning in size, the flavor of the seasoning and the perfect preparation made it delightfully juicy and tender to enjoy. My friend assured us both that his steak was prepared equally as well. Melanie thought the Baked Ziti was a little dry and could have used more sauce and more seasonings. She felt the marinara was bland and needed some more Italian seasoning added to it.
As I mentioned, we’ve been to Piccolo’s Italian Steakhouse before and have enjoyed each time we’ve gone. When in the Athens/​Watkinsville area, it’s a great place to enjoy with family or friends. Guten appetit!

Excellent menu, v friendly staff, great lunch.
We will be regulars. Beer selection is adequate but could improve.

This is the worst Italian food I’ve ever had… The salad was straight from a bag and the pasta was overcooked, as were the «sautéed» vegetable in my dinner. My husbands dinner was awful too. Do yourself a favor and go have real Italian food, or hell even pick Olive Garden over this… YUCK!

One of my favorite little spots in Watkinsville! The staff is very nice and they work hard to make sure that your food is hot and good. If you don’t like it, they offer to replace it with something else. I’m a HUGE fan of their fried green tomatoes as well!!! Yum!

I ate here to give this a try with a gift certificate I received. Its average strip-​center Italian food. We had a pasta dish and a chicken dish — the food was adequate, but nothing was memorable. It looks like the restaurant was boot-​strapped up on a tight budget and is a mix between strip center pizza place and nicer restaurant. It might be better served to pick one or the other. Based on its location, it might be a nice quality local pizza/​italian joint instead of trying to advertise itself as an «Italian Steakhouse».
Service was average, it seemed to be high school aged wait staff that needed some more time and seasoning in the job.

I’ve eaten here several times in last year. Tim and staff do an incredible job every time I dine at Piccolo’s. If you want an authentic Italian meal then this is the place. I can’t be specific about any particular dishes because I like them all. Every thing from lasagna to the chicken Marsala are excellent– every time.
If you are in the area, don’t miss this restaurant. !

This understated restaurant is a family affair. The chef will come to your table to discuss menu items and craft your meal. My favorite is the Schnitzel, which is not on the menu. It may be veal or pork –both are delicious! OK, it doesn’t sound Italian, but it is the way he does it. YUM!

I’m giving this a 4-​star review as a STEAK house. As a pasta restaurant, it’s a 3.5 or so. I can’t remember the salad either, so I guess that’s not a high point. Consistent quality on the pasta side, but the recipes are a bit boring and Americanized. (Perhaps having eaten Italian in Boston and Chicago has spoiled me.) However, as a treat, I went back by myself and splurged on the special steak of the day ~ a juicy, very well-​prepared steak with capers and other yummy stuff all over it. Wow. With a beer and a cannoli for dessert (what was I thinking?!?), I passed the $ 40 mark, but it was a fine dining experience. Moral of the story: Splurge for the steak!

Absolutely horrible. Food took too long, the appetizer (calimari) was over cooked, scallops over cooked, chicken over cooked, and my Dad asked for marinara which was spaghetti sauce with chunks of tomatoes. Did I tip? Yup, cuz that’s the kinda guy I am. Don’t waste your money folks!

Good food, good service, and quite pleasant… Split the Butterfinger cake, used a coupon, no problem. We’ll be back. Has WiFi too if you’re into that :-)

My friend and I tripped over this place by accident looking for another restaurant in the area and we are very glad that we did.
Very homey atmosphere, nothing fancy, but the kind of place where you can relax and bring the kids. They are also very «Gluten» friendly.
The staff was very friendly and helpful and knew the menu and how everything was prepared. They checked on us often enough to be
attentive, but no so often to be annoying.
My friend has a gluten issue and our waitress walked us through the menu and only had to check with the cook on one dish.
We started with mussels di zupa, and that was the only hiccup all night. It was a huge serving, almost two dozen I think. But almost half of them were still closed, obviously not steamed long enough. But when we called the waitress over she apologized profusely and a few minutes later an entire batch of almost two dozen arrived at our table.
My chicken Marsala over angel hair pasta was wonderful!
They prepared my friend’s veal florentine with gluten free flour, and her side of gluten free pasta was served bolognese. Since the meat sauce contained flour they went through the trouble of crumbling sausage to use instead.
A couple of espresso’s and we were set for the evening.
The issue with the mussels is the only thing keeping me from giving them 5 stars, but will definitely be visiting them again!

Came for lunch on a Saturday. Not very many people in here. Really bad sign when hostess is getting your water saying waiter would be in soon. What does this mean? Very slow service of course is my first complaint second got the gnocchi with greens and beans. No beans and tons of jarred garlic sad that people can not mince there own fresh garlic it is not a good taste. Baked ziti had super watery sauce. Took forever to get bill. Did like that they do half portions but that was about it

We were looking for something local, Italian and well reviewed. We came across this place and after living in the area for 15 years wondered how I missed it. Well, it was easy to figure out once the dining experience began – Appetizers we ordered were attempts at craft bread, both of those were tasteless fail.
Drink list was cheap wine/​beer. Nothing craft or high quality available. Entre – now this is where the fun began. My wife ordered scallops and pasta, and I ordered talapia and pasta. Other servers came to the table to present the dinner and announced each entre. The server placed my talapia in front of me and I looked at it like, when did they put a crust on a baked/​broiled talapia? Maybe it was their style so I cut, and cut and cut and cut – it was not talapia, it was some other form of meat. I inquired, and our server said it looked like it was veal — isn’t that what you ordered? No, it was talapia, broiled, that I ordered.
She took it back to the kitchen and said they got the order mixed up. I declined anything else and then all of a sudden my broiled talapie arrived at the table. It looked ok, I was still hungry and gave it a shot. What I was thinking is the origial meat served was veal, yes, veal so tough you’d though it was shoe leather.
We finished our meal (My wife’s sauce on her pasta was overly hot) and both agreed this was a Sam’s Club type of place – a dining spot that buys all its stuff at Sam’s Club, then attempts to turn low cost (and quality) ingredients into something that aligns with their theme – italian, mexican, chineses.
My advice is to go to Des Palmas or another discover in the Athens area. I don’t care for Olive Garden either, but even that would be better that this ciao!

Great family-​run restaurant away from the college kids. I highly recommend trying the Greens & Beans. The unique buttery flavor is perfect for bread dipping, and the solid beans provide a nice contrast from the soft, mushy greens.
It is both an Italian restaurant and steakhouse. You may choose from the Italian staples such as Chicken Marsala, Eggplant Parmisian, etc. Or you can go with steak or seafood. It is all delicious and portions are very large. If you are not a fan of leftovers, ask for the «lunch portion» instead. The food is prepared fresh and the service is always excellent. It is definitely one of the top restaurants in Oconee.