Just Like Italy

This is hands down, far and away my favorite restaurant in the area.  The food is delicious and the service is friendly and very attentive.  It is abundantly clear that they take great pride in the food they serve, and that they genuinely care about their customers' satisfaction.  I've even heard them tell a customer if she didn't like the special the waitress was recommending, she could order something else at no charge.  That's standing behind your product!  I also love that pretty much everything that can reasonably be homemade is - - the breads, the pasta, the sauces (they use veggies fresh from their garden in the summer, even), the sausage and the desserts.

So what's good?  Pretty much everything I've tried.  If you do nothing else, do yourself a huge favor and try the panzerotti.  Delicious, pizza type dough filled with mozzarella and tomato sauce and deep fried - they're heavenly!  Similar to calzone, but not as dense and heavy.  The lasagna is fantastic, too - lighter than most, made with a bechamel sauce instead of ricotta, and easily the best lasagna I've ever tasted.  Their vodka cream sauce is really good, too, as is their arrabbiatta sauce (not usually on the menu, but ask for it and they'll make it for you any time).  If you're in the mood for a sandwich instead of pasta, the Italian beef sandwich is exceptional!  The Panino Italiano is probably my all-time favorite Italian sub, and the Italian Focaccia is practically the same sandwich served on fresh, homemade focaccia.  At lunchtime on weekdays they have a great special on pizza slices - about $6 for two HUGE slices and a soft drink, and $3 and something for one slice with a drink.  They seem to always have cheese & sausage slices available, and usually have cheese & pepperoni, too.

Save room for dessert because the cannoli and tiramisu are delicious, too.  They have homemade gelato, but I haven't tried it yet.  I trust it will be up to their high standards, though, so I'm looking forward to doing that soon.

If you're looking for a small, Italian restaurant with great homemade food, this is the place.  If you want atmosphere, go elsewhere. The lighting is way too BRIGHT!  A nice place to bring your family (maybe during the day?) but definitely not where you would take a Saturday night date.  Our food was great, maybe would have been better if it was served with some fresh Italian bread rather than two small pieces of garlic bread.  We had the gnocchi and lasagna, both were very good.  If I'm in the area, I'll try carryout instead.

I am not sure what to make of this place. I'm fluctuating between 3 and 4 stars, but if a few issues were addressed, I could see it being 5 stars.

So why all this indecision? Here's the deal. It's a small mom & pop (& brother & sister & uncle...you get the idea) red & white checkered, casual Italian restaurant that seats about 30 people or so. On a weekday night we were seated right away with only a couple people there, and noticed a bevy of pick up orders.

The service is very friendly. It's definitely like being in an Italian home with a lot of banter and bickering between the staff/family. Our waitress was patient, informative, attentive, nice- the only problem was EVERYTHING we asked about was "the best you've ever had...you won't find a better_________ than this one." While charming, it does not make a decision easy, nor can the menu live up to that kind of hype or scrutiny.

We decided on the panzerotti app to start. It's a kind of puffy dough pastry (huge, but airy) deep fried and filled with mozzarella and sauce. "Give it a minute cuz it's scalding on the inside, seriously," we were warned. My husband lives dangerously so he busted right in. Scalding? It was warm with the center still cool. That's unfortunate as it was delicious really.

I ordered the gnocchi with vodka sauce, and saucy it was! Drowning in sauce I'd say but with sauce that good, I'm not complaining. The gnocchi itself was light and yummy. Oh yeah, EVERYTHING is homemade, from scratch, they tell you; they really make a point of it, with pride, which I get. :) My husband ordered the lasagna. He likes mine better. He thought theirs was greasy and a little off.

Each of our dinners came with soups. I ordered the chicken tortellini, my husband,  minestrone. We each liked ours but once we tasted each other's, we switched. Minestrone is not a fav of mine normally, but this one was different; fewer beans and it had cabbage in it which I found unusual, but I loved it! The soups were delicious! We also added sausage to our meal for a few bucks more and it was a good decision- very good!

So with all this yummy, fast, plentiful, inexpensive, home made Italian food, you're probably wondering why I could consider only 3 stars. The answer is, it all comes with a price. What started out as charming banter between the staff, turned into annoying yelling across the dining room to the cook, even from the pass to the kitchen, the yelling carried throughout the small dining room. Quibbling over what order the waitress actually gave the cook, her brother, etc. I made the mistake of sitting across from my husband, but not directly across. Mistake. A few tables back, I guess the cook sat down and every now and again would pipe in his two cents to my husband who was in eye line. "How's that sausage working out for ya?" he'd say, and not in a cute Joey on Friends way; more like a gruff, gravelly, drunk, pervert uncle making my skin crawl a bit. And it was just annoying. It's possible I'm uptight, but all of the arguing and intruding on our meal and convo left me in a Godfather state of mind dreaming of a contract hit, or placing a horse's head in their bed. So, you've been warned. The food was good, really good for the most part, IMO. I'm just not sure it's worth life in prison, or worse, the chair.