iozzo's garden of italy

loved it!!!!!!. we have have been wanting to try thisplacefor quite some time and now we have and we were very impressed. the food was very good and the service was as well. this is a restaurant we would go back to and recommend to friends.

this was a very wonderful find.placeis bigger than it looks. the best meatball sub i have ever had. must try the toasted ravioli. i would definitely come back if i ever get back this way

away from the busy downtown, iozzo's outdoor seating offers you the ambience. whether it's a date night or you're with your friends, you will enjoy your presence for sure. the menu is decent, however the tiramisu is the star in my opinion. the risotto and veal marsala are equally good too. aplacewhere i would definitely return more than once.

iozzo’s is aplacewith history. the great grandfather, fred, was the patriarch that started the family business in indianapolis in the 1920’s. by 1925 he had 2 dozen grocery stores throughout central indianapolis. the gem of the empire was an italian restaurant on south illinois. it featured a band stand, 2 kitchens,3 bars and seating for 850. a tragedy in 1941 led to a quick and final demise of the restaurant. the family kept their recipes and traditions intact for over 60 years before they opened iozzo’s garden of italy in 2009.

disappointing italian. we have been going to iozzo's for special occasions for about 4 years now. tonight was a huge disappointment.
first, to get happy hour specials you need to sit in the bar. second, all of the items the server asked if we wanted included significant upcharges. okay so we may have to pay attention to the fine print on the menu and read between the lines when our server talks but did the food make up for that? no! it was one of the tasteless and poorly prepared meals i have had in a while. if it wasn't for the 1/2 price martinis i would have rated the meal a 0.
the baked penne chicken with tomato cream sauce lacked any flavor. the chicken was plentiful but lacked an any spice. the eggplant parm was pathetic. thin sliced grilled eggplant covered with skimpy provolone cheese layered on top of a brittle ball of pasta with tomato 'sauce.' if you can't pull a complete strand of spaghetti from the pile - in my kitchen i would have thrown it all out. to go on would be futile as were the constructive complaints we made. in a discussion with the manager he acknowledged a change in the chef and apologized. to the discerning foodie looking for a good a meal this is not theplaceany longer.

this is a greatplaceto grab an amazing meal and have a great time. the patio is beautiful and they feature live music from time to time. unique drinks at the bar and something for everyone, even gluten-free!


-----29 apr, 2013-----

finally, great italian in indy!. this restaurant is a family owned, indianapolis original. the food, atmosphere, wine selection & service were beyond my expectations! we sat outside in the beautiful courtyard and had an amazing evening. i can't wait to go back to iozzo's this summer to see live music and old movies in the courtyard!

really good..... we tried thisplaceout for devour and we really liked it. we went for lunch and my husband ordered off the devour menu and he loved everything he got. he had the italian beef sandwich and it was great. it came with chips and this amazing dip. i'm not sure what it was, but i am always a sucker for dip and chips and this stuff was so addicting. he also had the ceasar salad and it was yummy. i had the regular house salad with the balsamic dressing and it was so good. i also had the lasagna and it is definitely some of the best lasagna i have ever had. there was this sauce that was so perfect. mmmmm. my husband had the cannoli for dessert and he and my two year old pretty much inhaled them. i chose to drink my dessert and ordered a chocolate martini and it was perfect!

they were unreasonably rude to me. thisplacecame highly recommended by a dear friend of mine. however, after the experience i had with their staff handling with the situation on the phone with me was not very pleasant.

you see, i am a deaf customer and i was trying to call them to make a reservation for a special occasion, they gave me hard time because i use relay service which meant they assumed that i was a telemarketer or someone is calling to annoy them. that is not the case, i cannot call them directly due to my deafness so i use this service to interpret for me when i make calls to various places. they hung up on me multiple times after myself attempting to explain to them that i was a customer interested in reserving a private room for a special occasion.

what was appalling is that they threatened to call the police! what happened to sensitivity, understanding and tolerance of customers who are deaf or other kind of disabilities? after all we are paying them, right? apparently they did not want my business and chose to be extremely rude and disrespectful to me.

i had sent them an message previously, to inquire about reservations because i could not get through to them earlier due to the continued ringing.

but after what i was treated by their staff, i decided to take my business somewhere else. they do not deserve my business for their insensitivity, rudeness and just plain horrible to me.

fyi for iozzo's staff: i am not a criminal nor i was threatening toward you on the phone. if you wanted to learn all about relay services- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hearing-impaired-telephones3.htm for the future deaf customers that has to deal with you rude people.

so i am sure you can tell by this point i had a pretty amazing meal at iozzo's garden last night. i will defiantly be back. please go and support a locally ownedplacethat is pretty amazing!

inconsistent, but clear potential. there is no doubt this old schoolplacehas earned its chops due to its longevity and i liked the overall decor and feel. our server was very attentive and knowledgeable about the menu and wine list.

our appetizers, salad and soup were great and much as described by the waiter. one of my guests loved his scallops and the other loved his fettuccine as their main courses. the wine was solid and to value.

however, my main course (chicken diavalo) was not as described by the waiter. perhaps a weak effort on too much of a standard, but the chicken was flavorless and other than the heat from the tired, heavy red sauce, it was a forgetable meal. this could have easily been a completely different experience.

when trying a new restaurant, i typically like to try the standards as if they can nail these, it's typically indicative of solid fare across the menu.

i would recommend iozzo's with mild reservations.

living the godfather. iozzo's is a must seeplaceeven if you are not a big italian eater. the decor and atmosphere are marvelous! and the smell when you walk in is heaven! you want to start eating right a way! they were not terribly busy when we were there - the middle of the afternoon - and we received some extra attention, especially with the telling of the family story.

so much of whether food merits 4 or 5 stars is up to individual tastes and what people were brought up on. but, the food was all served fresh and hot and i highly recommend it! nearly everything, including dressings and sauces, are homemade. so it is a unique taste experience. and you have to order the meatball martini! three meatballs on a nest of spaghetti served in a large martini glass for $5. a person could have that with a salad for a meal!

we went for lunch, which i prefer for the lower prices. but if you are looking for a good time in the evening this seems to be a goodplaceto go.

the meal was so incredible i also wanted to scream it from the rooftops......everything i ate was seasoned perfectly and cooked to perfection.the meal was such a great culinary experience i just have to share it with all of you. thisplaceis called iozza's garden of italy, not sure i would have ventured there on my own if i was not going to meet the chef....culinary master artist, chef kathy jones. thisplacehas some history, the building itself is from the 1930's era. the ambiance is elegant, simple, yet quaint, the service was fantastic.....but wait, the meal was simply beyond delish. we ordered the baby spinach salad, with the bacon vinaigrette dressing. we added grilled chicken to the salad which was cooked to such perfection, it's tenderness seemed to

fourth time and still...fine. this was our fourth dining experience at iozzo's and while it was fine, the results keep diminishing every time i return.

while not incredibly expensive, every time i leave i feel like i've paid a bit more than my meal was worth. the food is just fine, the service slow but friendly, the atmosphere charming but a little small.

i do highly recommend the courtyard on a night with a good breeze and i imagine that it would be lovelyplacefor a first date.

great food, great service. we made a reservation and were seated right away. i was concerned about parking on the way but it was not a problem at all. we went at 1830 (630p) and were able to park in the adjacent parking lot. small restaurant overall and we were sat in the bar area. the tables are a little small in there and the chairs are uncomfortable, but for an hour you can stand it. aplaceto lounge and have long conversation? no. i took a peak in the courtyard and it looked adorable. plastic pool chairs at the tables, but probably more comfortable than the ones inside.

aside from the above, the decor was great! cute little place. the service is fast and the staff are extremely friendlly and helpful. we loved all that we got. portions are the perfect size. for once we both were actually interested in the dessert menu so we didn't finish all of our entrees, and we were able to try a little of everything from their menu.

appetizer: stuffed portabella mushrooms. hubby loved and loved it some more. he's a mushroom fanatic. i hate shrooms, tried a small piece and shroom wasn't bad, the stuffing however was delicious. house bread was served room temp (cold and on the chewy side) with a tomato/olive oil blend that was yummy. but i opted for butter instead. salads that came with our entrees: caesar and caprese. i'll tell you what, they really need to up-sale their caprese salad. it looked the best, tasted the best, and i'm sure was the freshest. super awesome!! their caesar had a vinigerette dressing, different, but a nice change from the heavy caesar dressing we are all used to. for our entrees we had cheese ravioli, which is smoked mozzerella in a tomato cream sauce and hubs had lobster ravioli with tomato cream sauce with shrimp on top. both of which were fantastic. if you are a cheese lover, you will appreciate the smoked mozzerella they use in the cheese ravioli. the flowers they serve as garnish are edible, because i asked, and yes i ate them. i thought they were good mixed withe the cream sauce haha.

for dessert hubs had tiramisu flute and mini cannolis for me. both were fabulous. we loved all their food and the service. not the cheapest, but worth it in our opionions!

bummer. i had heard great things about this restaurant, and took my wife there. the building itself was nice and the hostess was very accommodating. the first thing that started to weird me out was the art on the wall, it sort of looked like it had a bad godfather theme to it. then the music was almost all music from commercials. then the food came, both of our spinach salads had a lot of bad spinach in it to the point that we didn't eat too much of it (we both love spinach so that is saying something). the main courses came next. i got the fettucini alfredo, which was fine, not great but not terrible. my wife got the ravioli, which was awful. the initial taste was ok but then there was something else in the sauce that kind of tasted like bologna. it was almost inedible. at that point we just paid our bill and took our leave. it's a bummer that thisplacemakes bucca di bepo look like legit italian food.