I do not enjoy writing about negative experiences but I do write The FORKING Truth ……..I also note I have not listed the name of this restaurant in the title of my story on purpose. Only my regular readers get to know The FORKING Truth. You also must know that everything and anything is always subject to change at anytime……and when the press goes and visits a restaurant usually a restaurant is on their best game. For us mere mortals we get what we get.

Aiello’s Restaurant is located in Central Phoenix Arizona in Moon Valley. They originally were opened and ran by Joe and Myrah Aiello in 2007 who have been in the restaurant business for much of their lives. Below is a picture I took of Joe in 2019 at The Italian Festival in Scottsdale. The Aiello Restaurant didn’t serve New American Fancy Food. They served East Coast Style Italian Food. It was good…..It was the type of food that you’d expect to get when you go to an Italian Restaurant. I think my favorite Aiello’s experience was from the 2019 Italian Festival. Aiello’s served a very good spread of many Italian favorites there. I remember me and my husband ate maybe 3-4 different plates from the Aiello’s there.

One of my other favorites from Aiello’s was the thoughtful take out special they offered during the pandemic. They offered take out dinner for two that included a bottle of wine and a candle for $65.

In 2022 the Aiello’s decided to retire and sold the business to someone local. The local people Tara O’Neale and Josh Johnson call themselves Truth and Alibi Hospitality.

Changes have been made inside and out. Outside a lot of the shrubbery has been cleared out. The inside is brighter and more open. The booths have been removed. The chairs got new paint finish and were upholstered with new fabric.

Aiello’s is new again with new faces, new atmosphere, a new menu and a new attitude.

You can stop reading now if you don’t want to know how things changed on my most recent visit. Things started out as good as it got and then things started going downward until the crash at the end.

It was Restaurant Week and the menu sounded amazing. It sure was different from the original Aiello’s…..When I read the menu I thought the restaurant turned upscale Italian….. I also thought I’ve found something very special that I had to try….Maybe something exciting to write about?

Upon my arrival they incurred some sort of glitch with their reservation system. I had a reservation and the hostess insisted that I didn’t have a reservation…..My husband showed the hostess my reservation on his phone……………….She still insisted that I didn’t have a reservation…………..(WTFork?…why?…….)…………I was kinda thinking that I should leave…….I sure didn’t feel wanted there. Eventually we get seated by someone else……………but the weird thing is around thirty minutes latter my husband gets a text that our reservation from Aiello’s was cancelled……(WTFork?)

The only menu we were given was the restaurant week menu and they suggested to get the wine pairings and we agreed…..It sounded great…That’s what drew us in anyway so why not.

They started us off with toasted bread with squid ink black garlic butter.

I can tell you that the bread is decent with a nice crust but I didn’t try the squid ink black garlic butter. However my husband did……He just said that it was very strong tasting.

Next we got a giant meatball with polenta and tenderloin bruschetta and two glasses of wine.

The meatball was the single best dish of what we tried. It was good….My husband said that the polenta was very runny.

The tenderloin was like eating raw meat……….It wasn’t seared or anything and was cold. I was told that it was marinated in tomato. There is some thin tomato sauce under the steak. It’s also a very large portion and is enough for a meal. I ate most of one….took the other two home to cook up better.

Here’s part of one I seared at home…..It was so much better this way and it took almost no time at all to make it much better…It’s tastier and much more tender.

Next course was one of each salad offered….The prosciutto and grilled peach and the caesar and the two glasses of wine were forgotten so my husband asked for the wine.

My husband’s least favorite part of the salad was the peach…..It was supposed to be grilled but the peach turned out oil poached……………..

The caesar dressing taste like mayonnaise mixed with powdered cheese and the croutons taste like they were from a box………..(………..not the best………….)

Our server stops by and says that our dinners would be out soon…..My husband lets the waiter know that we didn’t get our primo course yet…..(the cacio e pepe)….The waiter seems to be in disbelief……Soon someone runs the cacio e pepe plates to us and they forgot the wine again so my husband bothers someone to get us our wine.

The pasta is properly cooked but is in cream sauce……..(who does that?……..that’s not right….) It’s not the traditional Romano cheese and pasta water with pepper……Oddly the two cacio e pepe dishes taste different…….My husband ate his and then just tasted mine because I left a lot….He said mine wasn’t so peppery. I thought mine tasted more like white pepper than black pepper.

After the plates were cleared our dinners come out and the dinner wines never came.

Usually duck breast is served with rendered skin. Here it was not. Sadly the breast was on the raw side and was very tough. Even when I tried to give the leftover duck to my dogs it was so tough I couldn’t pull it apart to tear. The mushroom cherry risotto sounds good and looks good but it taste like it was made creamy with the addition of something like cream cheese spread. (ick) But it wasn’t as bad as the salmon.

The salmon came out with a slightly burnt but seasoned skin. I asked for it to be cooked medium but it came out past well done. I never expect fish house quality fish from an Italian Restaurant but this plate I consider substandard restaurant quality…….Nobody goes out to eat to get a plate like this…………ANYWAYS The well done slightly burnt fish was served over an unpalatable mound of olive tapenade (it’s FORKING AWFUL…Nobody can eat this) I try to eat some of the eggplant. It’s also awful ….the eggplant wasn’t prepared properly and it’s flesh was dissolved and was like a balloon filled with oil bursting out. The best part of the plate is the cooked spinach…It taste more like cacio e pepe than the pasta they served me.

We did inform the waiter that we never got the dinner wine pairing. He said, “I ‘m sorry for the LATE arrival.” (WTFORK is that?) ((WHAT LATE ARRIVAL?????? It never came…….) So he took $5. off per wine pairing.

That was my FORKING Most UNFANTABULOUS Restaurant Experience of 2022….

This wasn’t the story that I wanted to tell but I feel I must tell The FORKING Truth.

I sincerely do hope that these new owners find their way and fix things.

Aiello’s East Coast Italian

777 E Thunderbird Rd PHX AZ

602-547-3354

www.AiellosItalianRestaurant.com

Everything is subject to change and your experience may indeed differ. I sure hope it does.