Chiazza Trattoria - Barrington

Some friends broke into the city this weekend and my refrigerator was unprepared to pick them up, so I took them to Chiazza as it is just around the corner. We could beat the rush about thirty minutes. We ordered the shrimp pesto pizza for a starter, and it was a pleasant surprise. The Pesto was right and the extra crunchy crunch from the fried onions was a perfect balance. For Entrees we went with the bone in the special pig chop, sea bass and lobster macaroni and cheese. The lobster Mac overfed with hump tubers, a sweet balance to the nutty taste of Gouda cheese. My friend's wife loved the sea bass and saved the risotto. I had the pig dogs, and the cranberry and madeira wine Demi glaze were tart and sweet, but not too sweet. I'll be back soon.

My husband and I have recently dined and loved Chiazza! The menu is full of options taste smart and wallet smart. Our waitress was very friendly and attentive. The food was excellent, the Butternuss-Quark-Ravioli, for which I had to die. My husband enjoyed the seafood that was fresh and filled. Our experience was most pleasant and we will definitely be back soon!

We are so fast to write negative reviews, but always forget to get the positive ones up there. My wife and I were here during the Newport Restaurant week and were pleasantly surprised. I ordered the restaurant weekly menu and was impressed to say the least. The caprese salad was perfect in taste, prep and size. The Steak Chiazza was from this world. My wife loved her raspberry and goat cheese salad. You made a customer for life.

I would take the star back if I could. We dropped in with the kids so that we might enjoy something a bit nicer than the Newport Creamery. I will say that they brought the wine pretty quickly and checked back often to see if we wanted to buy any more overpriced room temperature Pinot Grigio. In all fairness, they also brought the kids food quickly-wich can be nice-get them going so that you can enjoy your meal when it arrives. Ah yes, when the salads arrived. When was that...45 min latter? Burned chicken on poorly dried limp greens with the most lackluster ceaser dressing I have tasted since my grandmother dubbed herself a gourmet. The parmesean cheese may have been leftover from the renovation. $100 latter I am quite certain of my dinner plans for next week. Almost forgot, it wasn't even busy...hmm I wonder why?

Chiazza's menu looks fabulous and the prices were pretty fair. But the food fell under what was promised. The BRUSCHETTA was nothing more than five nice slices of the Italian style Ciabatta bread, undisturbed, with a piece of mozzarella stacked high with cubed tomatoes and a balsamic reduction drizzle on the plate. While this is exactly what the menu says, there are so many tomatoes that the bread becomes soggy and hard to eat. The Tuna Ceviche was quite good, but there was no ceviche, there was very little citrus flavor, no acidity, and no heat it was also very strongly flavored with Soy Sauce. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I expected. We had the RASPBERRY GOAT CHEESE salad, which was also quite good, he suffered only with poor execution. The salad was very large for a lunch menu, but too big for a dinner course. The raspberry salad dressing was very nice, well balanced, but there was little of it. The salad was not dressed, there was only a little dressing poured over the greens after they were in the bowl. Two few glazed walnuts and a lot of goat cheese made the salad well, but it could have been much better if properly executed. The Entree's were the greatest disappointment my wife PISTACHIO ENCRUSTED HADDOCK tasted with the exception of coating a floury powder that covered the fish. It may have been pistachio powder, but it was definitely not recruited and my CHILEAN SEA BASS was unlike any Chilean Sea bass I've ever eaten. Again it tasted pretty good, but it tasted more like Halibut as Chilean Sea Bass and the Risotto was badly seasoned (I had to add salt to find any taste at all) and there were no tomatoes or asparagus, as promised in the menu, a lonely shrimp made it a shrimp risotto, but you could not taste the shrimp in rice at all. Thee risotto was very smooth, but it did not have the creamy consistency that makes a good risotto so special. Everything throughout the meal was pleasant, but it could have been much better if the dishes were properly executed or if we didn't know how the food should taste. It could have been much better for the price. Putting things in perspective Olive Garden is much better.