Illiano’s Grill

I used to go there all the time on my lunch break, but not anymore. The pizza by the slice on display doesn’t look fresh at all, and is usually mediocre. The worst was a few weeks ago when I ordered spaghetti and meatballs in the lunch portion. When I got back to work and opened it, I found watery pasta with ONE average sized meatball! I called them immediately, and was told that’s the lunch portion. To me it seemed pretty lame for $ 10, but whatever. Then I tried to eat it. The first thing I noticed was that the meatball was like rubber. I could hardly get the plastic fork through it. I’m guessing it had already been reheated several times. But that’s not the worst part… the taste was just awful. It literally tasted like spicy sausage and dishwater. I had 20 minutes left of my hour long lunch break, so I brought it back for a refund. The manager (owner?) kept asking what was wrong, and I kept telling him it just tasted bad. He repeatedly tried to talk me into ordering something else, and I repeatedly explained that I was out of time and needed to get back to work. He snapped at me that I didn’t want to communicate with him. What?! No, I just don’t want to pay $ 10 for something gross that I can’t eat, and I’ve wasted my entire lunch break! I asked for a receipt for the refund (because I had paid with a debit card) and he just held it up and said, «what?! It’s right here!» I had to get back to work so I didn’t have time to argue. The refund did go through. The whole experience completely turned me off of that place for good. I’ll be generous and give three stars because when it’s fresh, the food is pretty good, and the staff is pretty friendly too… but it seems to be more miss than hit, and there’s many other restaurants around, so I’ll go elsewhere.

This was my first at Illiano’s and was excited to try their food. We arrived around 7:45pm and ordered our pizza. Ten minutes later, a big family with about 10 people showed up after us and ordered their food. They got there after us and but were able to get their 3 pizzas before us. Why?! I asked one of the waitresses where our food was and all she could tell me was that they were busy. Really? Then our waitress comes out with our pizza 45 minutes later, telling us that they couldn’t find the pizza that we ordered — you’ve gotta me kidding me. I have never waited this long for a pizza in my life. The pizza was not even that great. If you want great pizza and great service, I recommend jack’s brick oven pizza. I never never returning to this place ever again, what a disappointment!

Love their pizza!!! Great customer service!!! Wonderful garlic knots!!! But the real surprise is their Italian cuisine outside of the usual fast food! They have a chicken tortellini soup with hand made fresh cheese tortellini that is out of this world!!! Their pasta vodka is great! But my favorite is their pasta with chicken florentina which is in a creamy white sauce with spinach and pasta on the side which they your red sauce on but I always ask for the white sauce to be served over the pasta instead because there is plenty of sauce and it’s just that good!!!

Great pizza, great service, reasonable prices. A clear winner. We particularly enjoyed visiting with our server Jennifer A. And in today’s massacring of the language and meanings… a ‘you’re welcome’ instead of the annoying and thoughtless ‘no problem.’ A real local gem.

Outstanding. We went for lunch and had a great experience. The pizza as delicious and we had great, friendly service from our waitress. Highly recommended.

I used to love ilianos as their pizza was crispy, the dinners were flavorful, and they had great soups and salads. I ordered take-​out recently despite the last few of my orders being soggy, greasy and overpriced. For dinner tonight we got two salads-​which was pretty much lettuce with a couple fixings– totally not worth the almost 10 $ we paid each. I ordered chicken marsala which usually at every restaurant ive ever been to comes with a side of plain pasta or mixed in the marsala sauce so it is like one big dish. Here they gave me two bland chicken breasts with a «marsala sauce» and a side of penne with marinara sauce. I was so dissappointed. I had to boil my own pasta to mix everything together. My boyfriend got the gnocchi with red sauce which was mediocre at best– most likely boxed gnocchi and canned sauce that had no salt or pepper. All in all, I wont be returning. This meal was 50 $ and I regret spending so much money as there are several great other italian options in the area.

Illiano’s Grill — Yantic, CT — 6÷13÷2015
Illianos is a chain of Italian restaurants located in various cities in Connecticut. This is the first time we’ve been to the one in Yantic, a town basically in the middle of nowhere.
Like the other Illiano’s we’ve been to this one offers friendly service with the addition of an outdoor patio.
We had house salads which were decent. lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and gorgonzola cheese sprinkled on top dressed in balsamic vinaigrette…
A side of meatballs in sauce accompanied one of our salads. Quite good too I might add.
For the grinders… A genoa with lettuce and tomato on a seedless roll… The other, a meatball with roasted red peppers with melted cheese and a side of «madenaaad»…
Always consistently good food and service at any of the Illiano’s we’ve been to. Highly recommended!

It’s a place to eat. Nothing special. My biggest complaint is the server we had. I asked if there was meat in the baked ziti and the answer I got was yes. So that’s what I ordered. When it arrived there was no meat in the dish. Therefore I asked, wasn’t there suppose to be meat in the baked ziti? The waitress said, «You asked me about the lasagna». I told her no I did not. She then told me, I’m sure you asked about the lasagna. My mother-​in-​law the. Interjected and told her, no his he didn’t. It was my son that asked about the lasagna. Then instead of apologizing she asked me if I wanted meat on the side.
First and last time ever eating here. Train your staff to be courteous and apologetic to customers. Next update the décor.

always a good spot and stop there heading to/​from RI & meet there with my parents. you can get a quick pizza slice, calzone or salad or sit down and get a full meal. Their grinders are excellent, especially the roll they serve them on! meals are good as well and the servers are always working hard & pleasant.
In the summer, they have an outside patio near the river which is nice.

The pizza here is good but unfortunately with the rolling tomato across the street I will always pass it up! They do have this delicious creamy garlic salad dressing that is a must try

Good pizza, wonderful staff. Stopped in for a couple of slices, a beer and an antipasto salad to go.
Pizza was reheated and pretty good. Had one slice of vegetable and one slice of Buffalo chicken (I’m a purist when it comes to pizza, but the Buffalo chicken was good). The place was very clean and the waitress that I had was wonderful.

Ate here. Below is a quick breakdown.
Food:
I had the chicken illiano. VERY good. Not sure I would say 5 star, better than «average».
Their bread and garlic olive oil starter is awesome!
Service:
Friendly but lacking. Not very attentive
Price:
Expensive for what you get
Cleanliness:
Clean a little dated. Flies were a problem. For some reason seems to be a problem in Norwich area in general.

Very disappointed.
This restaurant got very good reviews so we went there for dinner while traveling. We were seated quickly but then waited forever for our order to be taken. I noticed other diners had drinks while reading the menu, we were not given that option. Our dinner was not good. The ravioli was tough and the sauce tasted right out of the jar, only they burned it while heating it up
Lastly we were presented with the bill but she never came back for the payment. Another waitress noticed us and processed it.

They have outside seating, that being the highlight of our experience. Ordered seltzer & lime (no lime, just lemon), when it came it was just water with lemon.
Calamari app was fresh and it was a LARGE portion, marinara with it had OK flavor.
Ordered an Italian salad (to split) asked for house Balsamic dressing (which was OK) and creamy Garlic dressing on the side. Salad arrived looked good, except the waitress brought creamy Italian dressing not what we had ordered.
Probably 5 cars in parking lot, so they weren’t busy.
Waitress not attentive, but brought seltzer later (without charge).
Pizza was good, but crust was not as crispy as I would expect with «brick oven».

Love the garlic knots & the buffalo chicken pizza is our new favorite. You have to pick the right pizza bc sometimes the toppings can be sparse. We usually pick up but when we eat in we get pasta and it’s usually pretty good except I wouldn’t recommend the eggplant parmesan bc it was very soggy recently. If u like garlic this is your place bc I think the red sauce even has plenty in it as well.

Grabbed a quick bite to eat while in town for a bachelorette party. Pleasantly surprised by this quaint spot with excellent service. The garlic bread and mozzarella sticks were quite yummy.

Clam & Tomato linguine = FOOD POISONING.
Damn it, I knew something was wrong when I felt nauseous during the course of my meal. Came home and immediately vomited! Talk about a colon cleanse…
Illianos, it’s where you get the sh*ts!

Illiano’s makes a good but very over-​priced pizza. For a local (chain) I think they are over-​priced when a pizza can easily be $ 20+.
I do enjoy the competition that the mobile pizza setup across the street has created, Illiano’s now has a large pizza and a 2 liter soda for $ 10-​$ 11.

From the outside Illiano’s looks like your average pizza place. In the front opening there are booths where you’re able to sit and then there is also a back seated area of the restaurant as well. The menu is pretty straight forward as far as Italian food. I ordered the Fettuccine Carbonara– it was absolutely delicious but I actually ended up getting sick from it. I don’t think my body is used to that rich of a food. There are tons of choices to choose from. I would definitely go back to try more that the menu has to offer.

I love Illiano’s. The staff is super friendly and generous. If you order to go, they will typically give you samples while you wait. Everything I have had here is good from the pizzas to the salads to the grinders. My personal favorite is the buffalo chicken pizza. I’m salivating just thinking about it! They have a large menu with tons of different options to choose from, so everyone will leave happy with their tummies full!