Very good food and the price was reasonable for the quality and atmosphere.
I have to say I wish there was a place like Pranzo when I was drinking. The bring your own beer or wine style really saves money. This type of restaurant would surely charge top dollar for beers and wines. You also do not have to rely on the restaurant's wine selection. The choice is limitless.
I do however have to rate my overall experience as poor since the valet service, Park Avenue, really blew the night up for me. First, the man who took my keys seems uninterested in me in many ways. I guess he may have judged his potential tip by the car I drive. Being a 2010 Mazda, I imagine it did not compare to some of the of the other cars (I am only saying this in retrospect since I can figure no other reason for the mans cold attitude and I would not have thought of it had this been the only issue).
When dinner was over I went outside to give my ticket to the attendant. This attendant seemed either overwhelmed or just ignorant to me standing outside waiting to give him my ticket. Then the guy jumped into a car and left for several minutes to park the car without looking to me. When he returned once again he went to another arriving car. I now called to him and he said to give him a minute. Funny I had already given him 15 to 20 minutes in 30 degree weather, but I did.
When he finally took my ticket he could not find my keys. He looking on the board and then I looked after him. Sure enough the keys were not there. The man then said he was going to go find the other person who parked my car, and he left for another several minutes. When he returned he helped another person get their car checked in but when I went to ask him what was going on he put his finger in the air for me to wait.
After a few more minutes I asked my wife to see if she had her set of keys. She did, so I began walking through the lot behind the restaurant hitting the unlock button to track down the car. Sure enough I found it and pulled the car out.
I drove the car up to the front of the restaurant to wait for the man. As I stopped the car I saw someone in the lot and called back if he found my keys. The man said yes I dropped them and he walked over to where my car was parked and picked up a set of keys.
He was not an employee, but luckily he was a person walking out to his car while I was pulling out my car. He heard my keys fall on the ground. So it appears the first attendant must have left my keys on the car and went on to other people. Luckily I did not see anything missing from the car.
Due to the extra 45 minutes to an hour I waited to get our car back I have to say it ruined any good experience I had going to Pranzo.
The major reason I limit the times I go to downtown Willoughby for dinner is the pain of parking. My wife and I were planning on going to a movie after dinner and we chose Pranzo for the valet parking. NEVER AGAIN. We missed the movie and had to settle for just dinner and a parking fiasco instead.
This makes my overall experience of Pranzo as it sucked.