Pazzo - Plantation Center behind Santa Fe

Tiramisu

A new little Italian has opened on the Island.  Pazzo is where the old La Famiglia was (which funny enough, that tosser from Alfred’s worked the room there...maybe THAT’S why it closed...ha!), sort of behind the Island institution Sante Fe.  The owners (also own Flavors on Pope Avenue) have expanded the interior.  The place has a nice buzz to it, charming checkered table cloths, casual Italian – bit more than a pizzeria.  The menu has all the classics – the Parmigiana’s, the lasagne’s, the eggplant’s – you get the idea.  Plus and few other fancier dishes.  There’s also an evening specials board, but our waiter forgot to tell us about that.  It’s only been open a month...so there were serving teething problems!  Nothing to do with rudness..at all...in fact everyone couldn’t have been nicer!  

  Now it’s not me (I swear) – this time I went to dinner with Luke, my son, Sophie, my daughter, and Elena and Ryan, friends of Luke and Sophie’s.  The serving problems stemmed from lack of attention, and I’m not talking about waiting a little too long to take an order.  It wasn't offensive, just perhaps curious.  I thought when the entrees came out we may have had to clear the table ourselves from our starters (I almost did).  There were a few guys “hanging” around, dressed in fancy chef’s jackets folding napkins while we were still playing twister with our plates. 

Sophie and Ryan ordered the Tortellini and Lasagna.  They were the best choices of all our entrees.

Ryan's Lasagne

  We all sampled each other’s and that was the table’s decision.  I had the Calamari to start then the Veal Parm (with the thought that I wanted to see how they did the “classics”). 

Calamari Fritti

The veal was more breading than veal and the marinara sauce was on the bland side.  It was served over a bed of angel hair in a bowl...to be honest; you couldn’t tell what was in the bowl.   Luke also had veal – rollatini – I liked it, he didn’t.  He thought it was bland and tough.  Elena started with a grilled pear salad then also had veal with Parma ham...she said she liked the way I made mine better (maybe she was just buttering me up?!?)  Her salad was huge! 

Grilled Pear Salad with Gorgonzola Cheese

So was Ryan’s portion of lasagna.  So while I hate to say this but we picked the wrong things and you shouldn’t have to say that about a restaurant...they should all be the right things or not on the menu...Si? 

Still juggling our stray ten plates, plus bread, we braved it and ordered desserts...a lot of them. 

Crème brulee, cheesecake, two canolis, and tiramisu...All fresh, made in house, delizioso and beautifully presented!

Again, the desserts came out en masse but at least this time there was back up and the extra set of hands cleared our dinner plates before we had canoli-marinara or tirami-veal. 

The table consensus was...definitely go there for desserts, molto buono.  While the service was dodgy (I’m putting that down to only being open for a month it was nothing even remotely as offensive as that idiot at Alfred’s!), we all decided we would go again, but stick to the pizza and pasta dishes.  It’s mid priced   So my initial thoughts remain the same, a bit more than a pizzeria a bit less then a “proper” full blown upscale give Michael Anthony’s a run for their money sort of place.  Overall...buono...they deserve a shot.  Oh and they are open for lunch.

Pazzo Italian Café

807 William Hilton Parkway

Plantation Center

Hilton Head Island, SC

843 – 842 - 9463