Their website explains Piada is “a fast casual, authentic Italian eatery serving hand rolled piadas, pasta bowls and chopped salads. Born from the belief that everyone is entitled to experience fresh, authentic Italian food, in a warm and inviting atmosphere.”
Piada has 16 locations from Carmel, Indiana to Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and all the way up to Troy, Michigan. This growing chain features the “make-your-own” style meal, which we’ve seen at Chipotle, Fusian and Hot Head Burritos. That style seems to be catching on. While patrons do all the work (standing, waiting, ordering, carrying trays, self-seating and clean-up), they all seemed to enjoy the quick service and the ability to check their order for accuracy.
Now your Dining Divas are not shy, but we did find ourselves hanging back as we both studied the elevated menu, hoping to figure out the procedure before new customers fell in behind and forced us forward before we were ready.
The amazingly-friendly food fixer smiled and waved us to step forward. Sandy said something to him like, “We’ve never been here before, we don’t want to look stupid!”
He replied, “That’s why I’m here to help you!”
Nice, and unexpected. He made us feel welcome. He gave us his recommendations and we dove in to the ordering process.
What we had:
• PIADA MEATBALL PASTA ($8.95): Sandy chose the meal with a six-inch meatball, pasta, pomodoro (crushed tomatoes, garlic & basil) and Parmesan reggiano.
• PASTA CARBONARA ($6.98): Connie happily ordered this pasta and grilled chicken dish, topped with Parmesan alfredo, pancetta, spinach, Parmesan reggiano and bruschetta tomatoes.
• CANNOLI CHIPS: $2.95 Crunchy Italian dessert, topped with powdered sugar and served with white icing and chocolate chips.
Other menu offerings include:
Chopped Salad Bowl: Choose a grill item like chicken ($6.98), Italian sausage ($6.98), or vegetarian ($6.98). For those who love calamari, you can have it with hot peppers ($7.25), crispy chicken fritte ($7.25), steak ($7.25), or salmon ($8.95).
Soups: Tomato Basil ($4.25) and Lobster Bisque (4.75). This isn’t your typical fast food.
Piada also offers Italian teas on the fountain. Sandy went for Lemon Tea, Connie poured the Peach Tea. Both were refreshing and a nice change of pace from the typical pop or iced tea you normally get.
Meals come in a large, wax-treated paper bowl, sturdy and ample enough for the heavy pasta dishes.
The checkout associate up-sold us on the Cannoli Chips, which Sandy said “Yes!” to, without knowing what they were. If the word “chips” is in a sentence, her brain is hard-wired to say “Yes!”
Piada is new, having opened last fall. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, casual. Lighting dropped from the ceiling illuminates contemporary wooden tables, bench and bar-style seating for about 70 patrons.
We dug in and were delighted with the flavor.
SANDY: The meatball was the size of a baseball, enough for a hungry man (woman or child) or a food fight. But I wouldn’t recommend chucking this ball. It was delicious.
I noticed the little boy sitting next to me, probably about 10 years old, as he waited for his parents to bring his meal. When he pulled his massive meatball from his bowl, his eyes grew twice their size and he nudged his mom with a silent, “Mom, look at this!”
The pasta was perfectly done, and I’m pretty picky about my pasta. I don’t like the doughy, uncooked taste of undercooked spaghetti. Piada has it down to a science, I’d say. It was hot, chewy and done!
Now I’ve never put additional toppings on my spaghetti in all my years, so I was a little surprised by the food-fixer who offered me olives, onions, cheeses, and more. I took a chance and added red onions, which was delightful as well. Next time, I’m going for the black olives!
CONNIE: Since Piada is “Italian Street Food,” Sandy and I started our journey together on “Pasta Alley” (same thin spaghetti), but we took different turns at “Meat Street.” I chose grilled chicken to top my Pasta Carbonara. Made with alfredo sauce, it’s covered with a bed of fresh, tender spinach leaves, cheeses, tomatoes, mushrooms, Italian bacon, red peppers and the olives Sandy by-passed. It was huge!
At the table, it took my fork a long while to get through the pile-up of toppings and the construction of spinach leaves and bacon to the bottom of the bowl where all the pasta and chicken was. (We tried for 10 minutes to find a way to include the expression “fork in the road” in this review, but we reached a dead end.)
By 8:30 p.m., the restaurant was at least half-full, with families and young people piling in for some winter comfort food, served in generous portions.
OBLIGATORY DINING DIVAS WARNING: (Don’t let children under 10 read the following!!!) We played with our food. Mother taught us we shouldn’t play with our food. However, we disregarded this prepubescent lesson when we shared part of our meals.
Connie: Reaching into her salad, “I haven’t eaten from this side of the bowl. You want my bacon?”
Sandy: “Sure!”
Connie handed me a large, round bacon disk. It was about 3 inches in circumference, an unusual size and shape, for sure. As I looked at it, I saw a face. Two holes were perfectly formed to make the bacon look like a mask. And not just any mask. It looked like the mask from the “Halloween” movies, only made of bacon.
“Hey, Connie!” I chirped as I held the bacon-mask up to my nose.
“Snort!”
So we played with our food. Our bacon mask. We took pictures of the bacon mask. We laughed. We saved it for our co-worker, Frye Guy at K99.1 FM, who’s known in these parts as a humongous bacon lover.
But the playing-with-our-food-time wasn’t over yet.
We opened our Cannoli Chips and pulled one from inside the white bag. The cylindrical-shaped dessert, brown and covered with powdered sugar, looked like a finger. In fact, it fit right over Sandy’s index finger like a scary appendage.
“Snort!”
We played with the cannolis, dipping them in the sweet, white creamy icing mixed with chocolate chips. They were delicious. We took more pictures. We laughed.
Isn’t that what dining out with friends is for?
Our bellies full and our bacon mask safely tucked in a napkin, we hit the highway home and set our GPS for a return trip to Piada.
Last words: Piada is a pleasant, change of pace from the typical Italian restaurant. Its contemporary, make-your-own meal experience is affordable and family-friendly. Piada is also among the new restaurants that allow you to order online and pick it up with no waiting. http://www.mypiada.com/
The info: Piada Italian Street Food, 4397 Far Hills Ave., Kettering, (937) 938-8927. Other Dayton-area locations:
3286-B Pentagon Blvd., Beavercreek, (937) 912-9967; 1047 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, Dayton, (937) 938-1356.
Hours: Monday through Sunday, 10:45 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Connie Post of the Dayton Daily News and Sandy Collins of News Talk Radio WHIO (95.7 FM/AM 1290) are two of our Dayton Daily News Dining Divas. They both listened to most of what their mothers taught them — except the “don’t play with your food” rule. Write to The Dining Divas at life@coxinc.com. Who knows — we may invite you out on our next adventure.
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