sienna on the square

new place, same great taste. distinguished local chef matthew porco, formerly of mio kitchen & wine bar, received a few of our best restaurants awards (including 2010 chef of the year). not surprisingly, buzz has been building about sienna sulla piazza, a new italian eatery situated in market square that will feature the chef’s work. sienna, one of few regional eateries that received certification from the green restaurant association, strives to provide diners with an exceptional experience. themenuincludes such dishes as pasta fagioli and tomato risotto. if you were a mio fan, it looks like you’re in luck.

delicious italian close to the cultural district. sienna is a great restaurant that offers a hugemenuof housemade dishes. the mixture of outdoor/indoor seating is nice and service is friendly, though slow. we were seated at the large bar area and it seemed that the single bartender was overloaded. we had to wait long periods before being presented with menus or asked about our order, though dining with a pre-show crowd has that effect i guess. the food easily makes up for the slow service though!

pros:
1. decently priced meal options, with appetizers in the low $10s and entrees between $15-30.
2. offers a variety of housemade sauces and pastas (and you can definitely tell it’s made in house)
3. we got the following dishes and they were simply amazing:
rabbit and housemade tagiatelle
handmade papperdelle bolognese (pay extra to get the mozzarella meatball, it’s worth it!)
4. also offer delicious looking , huge salads and flatbreads. we saw a lot of mouth-watering flatbreads coming out of the kitchen with a mound of greens.

cons:
1. service is slow at the bar area
2. complimentary crab dip is yummy but the accompanying bread is pretty bland

overall, i highly recommend this place for market square dining. it’s delicious, has nice outdoor seating and the effort the restaurant puts into making items in house is clearly reflected in the food.

what a wonderful experience!. from the time we walked in to the time we left, the staff was attentive to our needs. our waitress, who said it was her first day, was knowledgeble, friendly and accommodating. the food was sensational and not the usual items on amenuwhich i found to be a refreshing change. this was my first time at sienna but definitely not my last!

delicious meal great value. i've been here twice before, once with a friend for happy hour drinks and another time to meet up with my son and daughter-in-law for dinner before a show. i had excellent experiences both times. today i stopped in for a bite for lunch and the excellence continues.

the ambience at sienna is contemporary with low lighting and caribbean infused jazz playing just loud enough in the background to create a cozy, inviting and, dare i say, romantic atmosphere. the bar is fully stocked and they carry a modest selection of craft beers. it’s finally getting warm enough now outside that they were able to open the front wall (garage door style) of the restaurant exposing the place to the sights and sounds of market square. they even offer sidewalk seating for those early enough to snatch up a table there. i, however, wasn’t so fortunate and took a seat at the bar.

after taking a stool i was promptly and cheerfully greeted by the bar keep with a glass of ice water. i glanced at themenuand hesitantly decided on the open face chicken parmesan sandwich with a side of pasta salad. i say hesitantly because i haven’t had a good chix parm in the downtown-cbd yet.

it took less than ten minutes for my meal to come out and i was oh so pleasantly surprised. in front of me was a juicy plump chicken breast covered in delicious italian inspired marinara sauce (that was obviously in-house made) topped with a generous coating of provonello all sitting on top of a lone slice of focaccia. a pinch of basil sat capped off to the side on the provonello as if to say, “we believe in attention to detail”. it’s been a long time since i had chix parm that simply looked this good. if the presentation gets an “a”, the taste of this here dish gets an “a++”! the side pasta salad was a nice touch. it was dressed lightly and paired perfectly with the parmesan.

my total bill came to $11.77 plus tip. if you’ve dined enough in the downtown-cbd you know you can spend a lot more for a meal of this quality. i really can’t say enough good things about sienna sulla piazza.... excellent service, comfortable atmosphere, delicious meal all for a more than reasonable price.

great meal, as always!. we have never been disappointed when we've gone to sienna. it has become one of our favorite restaurants. my husband had the melon gazpacho and it was fabulous. we were there with a couple of picky eaters and they both found something on themenuthey loved. i would not hesitate to recommend sienna to anyone.

mobile review first i'd li.... mobile review
first i'd like to know if i ate at the same place the other reviewers are at? i have nothing but negative comments from my experience the other day. first off the ice tea was brewed so strong it just felt like your whole mouth was full of bitters. second the flatbread was so soggy and so full of garlic. not enjoyable at all. the most disturbing of all is when the waitress sent the manager out to our table to discuss our request. he spent more time explaining to us why they could not change the type of cheese on our flatbread than trying to accommodate the customer. the request was not ridiculous or complex it was a simple change. it would have taken less time to simply make a change and work with the kitchen and accommodate the customer than go through the song and dance he displayed at our table. we will never ever go back to the restaurant again.


-----23 sep, 2012-----

company slogan " no we can't ". chef of the year or not we will never be back.this was 2nd bad experience. we had a party of 8 and every small request was greeted with no , no & no. server was good and tried to accommodate our large party but struggled to keep up with drink refills. he candidly told us the bartender only moved at his pace and takes orders from noone. well thats a great way to start our dinner. so from there it went downhill fast . we could tell the chef had lectured his servers well on "no changes on the menu" instead of getting our drinks from the slow
bartender , our server told us there could be no changes and themenu"is what is."great customer service there buddy! we received our food , salmon 4 oz portion at best . the pasta portions where ok. one of us asked for more bread on the meat cheese platter , we where told it would be a small charge.....really i mean really....! give it one year at best, the chef is too arrogant , those types don't last for long. that jerky i'm always right atitude doesnt translate to customer service. when you go out to dinner, what makes you want t go back to a place is great customer service and great food...and sadly this establishment does not deliver either.

great food great atmosphere!. a colleague of mine recommended that we try the restaurant. i went online and was able to easily set a reservation, upon arrival we were greeted immediately even tough they were very busy. the hostess guided us to the bar where the service was very pleasant and responsive. our table was ready on time and the waiter was excellent. his knowledge of themenuand the food preparation was fabulous. everything we ordered was exactly as he stated and the food was excellent! the atmosphere was very relaxing and was the perfect to fit the mood. this is definitely on our list of restaurants to return to.

amazing food and cocktails!!!. my boyfriend and i headed down to market square this past friday, december 20. with the unseasonably warm weather, and it being so close to christmas, it was naturally crowded. my boyfriend loves jazz and we originally had tried to go to nola but could not even get through the front door. we had gone to sienna previously-just for drinks- and had looked at theirmenuthen and had wanted to come back so this was the perfect opportunity. we grabbed two seats at the bar and perused the menu. my boyfriend ordered a sangria (he was not impressed) however i drank the rosemary lemon drop (he loved that though) and the first one i had was good but the second one (made by a different bartender) was hands-down 100% the best cocktail i have had in a very long time! my boyfriend ordered the braised rabbit,which is actually what i wanted, however i decided upon the prosciutto &arugula flatbread. that way i could taste his rabbit and he could try the flat bread.the braised rabbit was one of the best tasting entrees i have ever had at a restaurant! it was cooked very tender and was not "gamey", the sauce tasted as if it had wine in it, was creamy but not overly so-it was just amazing! the flatbread was surprisingly very good as well. it was a little overly salted, however, not so much so that it distracted from the other flavors.and it was very evident that all ingredients in both dishes were very fresh and authentic. the bill was a little higher than we would have liked. in particular the rosemary lemon drops were $10 each which is steep, however, the second one i drank (and i don't believe i have said this in a long time) truly was worth $10 based on taste and presentation. overall, i am excited to go back and try another entree besides the flatbread.i think next time i will order a rabbit entree for myself, even if my boyfriend gets it again, because it was just.that.good.

the magician. i had a great experience at sienna sulla. after going there for lunch a couple times, i had my heart set on dinner and sienna did not disappoint. everything i've eaten there has been fantastic...beets, flatbreads, the mussels on their lunchmenuwere the best i ever had and my only complaint is that they weren't on their dinner menu, the greens and beans and finally the excellent shrimp risotto entree. perfect! i love the atmosphere. we had great service. and, i found my new favorite wine...the magician! thank you sienna...i will be back!

themenuis three sheets of paper on a clipboard. the first page is food, the second is cocktails, beer, and wines by the glass, and the third is wine by the bottle. sp, to my surprise, ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc. to his surprise, i chose a cocktail over wine, it was called a kentucky mule, i think, or something like that. it was bourbon, lemon, peach, and ginger beer and it was served like this:

great salads. a co-worker recommended sienna for lunch one day and i have gone back several times since. the ingredients in their salads always seem very fresh and the salads as a whole are delicious. i have only ordered salads but the people i have dined with have ordered variousmenuitems and have always been satisfied. every one at the table always finishes their entire plate, myself included, so that says something!

not a complaint at all - just know that the place is small and there is a chance you will be seated very close to another table. just an fyi.

excellent!. my husband and i enjoyed sienna last night for our anniversary. we loved the atmosphere, food and our server; matthieu.

the cocktailmenuis unique and festive, certainly not just your standard wine or cosmo options. i enjoyed what appeared to be their "signature" cocktail, a lovely vodka martini with freshly made cucumber vodka and lavender.

we ordered:

wild mushroom bruschetta (i'll be honest, i didn't love it - my husband did) prosciutto and arugula flatbread
papperdella bolognese (double o.m.g)
bucatini with mozzarella stuffed meatballs (o.m.g)

we had heard that the portions weren't huge, and we wanted to try out several different items so we "went all out".

the food was amazing and the service was outstanding. our server was knowledgeable, friendly and very attentive.

we will certainly be returning and bringing friends!

amazing experience! my a.... amazing experience!

my aunt and uncle were in town from atlanta and we decided to go to sienna. i had never been or heard of this before but i will definitely be back! the service was incredible and our server really knew what he was talking about. i had the pork chop which was cooked to perfection. i also enjoyed an agave tequila cocktail from their drinkmenuand it was so uniquely delicious. we had appetizers, main courses and desserts; all of which were fabulous. i would highly suggest anyone to go here whether it is a romantic night with your significant other or a fun dinner with friends! we took our time and soaked up the great atmosphere :)