Little Eataly

WoW! If you see this food truck, stop and get a Sicilian chicken salad sandwich. I don't like chicken salad. I'm afraid of mayo. This is SOOOO good. I can't wait to try the rest of the menu items. Fresh ingredients, full flavor, thoughtful presentation. 10 out of 10. Way to go Little Eataly!

Food Tried:
- Penne a la Vodka (tomatoes simmered with garlic, basil, vodka & cream then tossed with penne) ($6)
- Sicilian Chicken Salad (roasted rosemary chicken with walnuts, gala apples, sun dried cranberries & parmesean cheese mixed in an Italian basil infused aioli, served on a fresh baked croissant) ($7)

*ding ding ding* Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! In the contest of which food truck has the best recyclable materials in their packaging, Little Eataly is hands-down the winner. Cardboard container, tin foil, plastic cutlery and paper napkings are all recyclable! And, if I had ordered a San Pelligrino, I could have recycled that too!

Little Eataly has been elusive for me. They've been around since the Super Bowl (I mean, who wasn't around for the Super Bowl), but their schedule has been tough to pin down on the days during the week when I am available to have food truck meals. But, after seeing weeks of raving Twitter reviews of their penne al vodka, I finally messaged them and requested a day that I knew I would be available to have a midday meal in the downtown area, and they obliged in setting their schedule to accomodate.

The easiest thing to do would be to not write the review myself. I'll just let their Twitter followers do the talking:

   @BSMBlog: DELICIOUS. Totally makes up for being ditched for lunch.
   @HollyEssex: I just had the best #pennevodka ever with the cutest #cannolis ever.
   @MyIndyTV: We loved the penne, ravi fritti & cuc salad.

I mean, see? I don't even have to do work on this review. People have been raving about Little Eataly since they hit the streets. I had their Penne a la Vodka with a breadstick, and had a tasting of Sicilian Chicken Salad, because it looked so darn tasty. The chicken salad was crunchy, between the apples, walnuts and cranberries, but still very smooth, which I'm going to attribute to the aioli.

Back in college, they used to make a vodka sauce in the dining hall that was aggressive and spicy. The vodka sauce from Little Eataly is NOT this way, so if you too have had traumatic vodka sauce experiences, never fear. With Little Eataly, you can enjoy a creamy, cheesy vodka sauce seasoned with a variety of tasty herbs and offered copiously on perfectly cooked penne. The fact that the penne comes with a breadstick is vital: it will be so tasty that you want to eat the whole thing right up front, but you must save some for when you finish the pasta, as a way to enjoy all the vodka sauce left over. But, here's another important point: you're going to have to do this in two servings, because Little Eataly offers a generous size for the price, and then you get to enjoy it twice as much!

Speaking of, the prices offered by Little Eataly are really quite reasonable: dishes range from $6 to $8, and are generous in portions. I should probably cut this paragraph out considering that I haven't really had anything to comment on about prices in, uh, ever.

Let's see... Is there anything else I'd like to suggest or add? Well, since you're paying still reading...
1. I was wandering through your website and noticed that your menu link leads to your facebook page. While we all know how much I laud facebook, it would be easy to have it on its own page that matches the rest of the website, for continuity and appearances... but that's just a thought.
2. The hand-written menu nor the truck had the price of drinks listed. I'm really nitpicking here because frankly I had a great experience and it seems like a lot of the issues I've commented on in the past with other trucks aren't concerns here.
Which is to say, great job. Thanks for making me proud of my Italian heritage.

I got the Sunday special -- a 6 inch meatball sub, fried cheese ravioli, and a drink for $12.  The fried ravioli were FABULOUS -- great flavor, just enough breading, and nearly exploding with cheese.  They were served with a side of vodka sauce.  The sauce was a little thin and nothing special.  I don't know that it would impress me if I had it with just plain pasta.

I withhold judgement of the meatball sub.  There is some spice that I have a serious aversion to -- I think it makes food taste like dirty water.  Unfortunately, I can't figure out what the spice is, and my husband thinks I'm crazy.  Long story short, the sub had this spice in it, so I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean you might not love it.  Hubbers said he would give it 3 out of 5 stars.  Hubby wrongly assumed the meatballs were GFS -- not true!  The owner just let me know they are handmade, so +1 star.  He also just told me that apparently my aversion spice is thyme.  Good to know!

I did appreciate though that there were 8 smaller meatballs instead of 3 giant ones.  It definitely makes for easier street eating.