Restaurant Impossible - Perella's Ristorante Update

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Warren, Rhode Island to makeover Perella's Ristorante. Perella's Ristorante is an Italian restaurant owned by Louie Perella and it has been around for 25 years.  Robert finds that not much has changed in 25 years as far as the menu, decor, or Louie's opinions and this is holding back the restaurant.  Robert will need to convince him to change his ways if the restaurant wants to be successful.


As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Perella's Ristorante to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant: Impossible):





Positive Reviews:

• "My husband and I dined at Perella's last night. The remodel is absolutely beautiful. I also love Ed the new menu. I had the eggplant rolltini"
• "First time back after the remodel. The transformation is amazing. Food very good. Calamari was great. Check it out. We will go back. Waitress was very friendly."
• "Went with my daughter to check out the revamp. The decor is gorgeous. We ordered two appetizers to share. The Calamari and eggplant Rototini. Both were absolutely delicious. The best calamari we had tasted in a long time. Crispy, not greasy or rubbery. The eggplant was rich and melt in your mouth. We also shared the lasagna as the main course. Very good. Would try something else next time."

Negative Reviews:

• "We thought we would give it a try because of very mixed reviews here and other sites. Service and kitchen was very slow on this Saturday night even though it wasn't crowded. Server did not offer the info that kitchen was slow and service was slow because they were short handed---remember this is a Saturday night. I had to ask why the meals were taking so long after another member of our party noticed people who came in after us were eating. One of the salads was drenched with balsamic vinegar even though no dressing was ordered. The server ordered one of the meals wrong and then told us it would take too long to prepare the correct meal that was ordered. She even charged us full price for the incorrect meal---not the lower price of the meal that was ordered. Salt seems to be the "spice" of choice in the kitchen. Even their menu specials, described as "award winning" on the menu, were mediocre. So go there if you prefer slow service, slow kitchen, and mediocre meals."
• "Showed up at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night and the dining room was closed (should have been a red flag). I ordered the chicken parm, and it was awful. I got a crummy piece of chicken with bones in it, three pieces of asparagus, and what looked like corn meal. That dish cost $18.00. What a joke. How is this place still open? Service was absolutely awful, bartender was to caught up in conversation with a friend at the bar to even pay attention to me and one other customer. Does this business not like money? If you’re thinking about going to parella’s don’t even waste your time or money. There was a time this restaurant was great but that time is long gone!!!!"

Other News and Links:

• The Restaurant Impossible makeover happened in October 2019
• Here is the Perella's Ristorante website and Facebook page.
• In a local article about the upcoming episode, Louie said at the beginning he wanted to throw Robert Irvine out.  He also told Robert Irvine to keep the Sistine Chapel inspired mural, but Robert still got rid of it.  Louie said that Taniya incorporated all of his design ideas and he was very happy with the makeover.  Louie has kept the slimmed down menu, but will eventually add some items back that have been requested by regulars.
• In that article, Louie also talked about the plot of the episode.  His son submitted the restaurant to Restaurant Impossible while they weren't filming a few years back.  By the time they returned the call, his son was already in a position at another restaurant and had no plans to take over the family business. Restaurant Impossible still apparently went with that plot even if it wasn't true.
• Here are the reviews for Perella's on Yelp, Tripadvisor and Google.
• The reviews now seem a little bit better than before for the makeover.

Conclusion:

The reviews for Perella's Ristorante since the Restaurant Impossible makeover are mixed, but they are more positive than they were before the makeover.  People like the food and the remodel while there are both compliments and complaints about the service.  Louie said he is happy with the makeover and that the plot of the episode was kind of contrived and based on information from an old application.


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