Pellana - Peabody

My normal review for Pellanas fabulous restaurant with excellent food, superb service, and a refreshingly old lib atmosphere. Only room for improvement, based on numerous previous experiences, is a revival of the classic Pellanas salad, with the usual embellishments. Perhaps last night was an oversight. No matter, as we will return soon.

We had requested a nice quiet table to celebrate our 40th anniversary, which hostess acknowledged when we arrived, and we were seated in a corner table. A couple of minutes later, a large party of 8 were seated close by, which ended the quiet table placement. Our server Roberto was pleasant enough, but seemed to be spread too thin, covering too many tables, including the large party who had 2-3 cocktails, while we shared a glass of wine. We kind of felt a bit neglected, disappointing for a “high end” restaurant. For dinner, my wife chose the barrel cut filet mignon, along with a lobster tail. I ordered the bone-in sirloin, also with a lobster tail. When dinner arrived, the lobster arrived in the shell, which made taking it out of the shell a bit messy. The tail my wife got was especially difficult to extract, and contained 1/2 the meat that mine had. We notified Roberto, and he did bring us a replacement tail, but it was frustrating to deal with. Also, my wife found her filet somewhat over salted. The sides of mashed potato and roasted mushrooms were wonderful, as was my sirloin. Roberto brought us 2 complementary vanilla ice creams with Happy Anniversary chocolates, which was a lovely touch to end our meal.

Jim S. was an excellent server. He knew the menu very well and made suggestions. I had the Halibut. Jim offered me a choice between Blackened or Pan Seared with crumbs. I had the Pan Seared. The cut of Halibut was flakey , moist and very flavorful. I had the Crab Cake and it was moist and all crab. My friend had the Bone-in Sirloin, medium rare. It was very tough to cut. We were surprised for a high end steakhouse. The Lobster Mash was loaded with Lobster and large enough for two to share. The cut of Sirloin was the big disappointment. Wait staff, atmosphere and menu was excellent.

This was an anniversary dinner for my husband and I. We had never visited Pellana, but now we will definitely be back. It is pricey, but we expected when we made our reservation. The food is cooked to perfection, the staff is so pleasant and warm, the ambiance is perfect. Just an all around great experience.

We always include Pellana in our weekly rotation of restaurants and always know the food is sensational , always and was this time too . Our reservation is always in Roberto's section as he is just wonderful and my wife adores him . He treats her like a queen .He is a true professional waiter and we eat in great restaurants up and down the East coast , based in the Boston area so here more . unfortunately, the waiter in the next section was about the worst waiter we have ever seen , rude , loud , makes himself a show and knows it . He stood at the table of 5 behind us and carried on about his gun collection , favorite types , his amo stock and his favorite local gun ranges , loud enough to be heard through out the entire section , others rolling their eyes as well .... He enjoyed being the show , maybe he use to work at Romies use to be down the street , dinner and a show ! We had requested a quiet table for our Saturday date night and to have the STAFF steal the evening was so disappointing. Roberto knew as we cut our usual evening short without our desert and Expresso Martini's .. Such a shame , how one careless waiter again he knew it and kept going in spite ! could ruin the dining experience ..