Found ourselves in Brownsburg around lunch & wanted to try something locally owned. Â So Italian fit the bill with homemade Italian dishes at reasonable prices. Â The lunch combos offered the most variety for the dollar.
Inside is cute, counter-style cafe. Â Order at counter, seat yourself, served by staff, clear your own table.
My opinion of the food will differ from most Midwest Americans. Â I was born in Naples, Italy and this stuff is NOT local American diner's version of Italian. Â This is homemade, cafe-style Italian food. Â
Loved the pasta menu - you can choose between 4 different pastas and 9 different sauce options. Â The Amaticciana sauce is very authentic - I wish there'd been more. Â Would have been fun to have farfalle as a pasta option, but enjoyed my capellini (angel hair).
Pizza slice had a good, crisp crust & certainly was NOT packaged. Â Nice sauce & cheese. Â Would prefer the sausage be pulled, uneven bits instead of perfectly rolled little balls. Â This gives the poor impression of packaged pizza sausage.
Tomato basil soup is thick and very fresh. Â Husband liked the lasagna but insists he prefers mine. Â Maybe it's my fresh ricotta cheese, maybe it's something else...
Brownsburg is lucky to have So Italian & it will be my first place to return if back in town.
I've been driving by So Italian for a few months now on my commute to work, and it took a deal from Living Social to finally motivate me to stop by with my son for a visit. Â My son is 9 so half of the experience is paying attention to how well he's treated. Â The other half, of course is the food.
This is a slightly cafeteria style place in that you stop at the counter, place, and then pay for your order.  While some might disagree with me, this doesn't bother me because somebody still brings your order out to the table, and there' no waiting around for your bill when you're finished eating.  They do have  child size portions of pasta so my son ordered the fettuccine with Alfredo sauce, while I went with the meat-piled pizza.  I don't want to sound like a pizza snob from the big city, but I did just relocate to Indianapolis from Chicago, and I have to say Indy's pizza sucks.  Indy has two major problems with their mom & pop pizza places like So Italian - 1. Pre-made crust and 2. bad quality, probably frozen, mas-produced sausage.  I can forgive one, but not both. Â
I was pretty pleased with So Italian's pizza. Â The pizza came out pretty quickly, and cut New York style. Â I wish I had gone with a less salty (not a knock on So Italian, anytime you have ham, bacon, pepperoni, and sausage on a pizza it's going to be salty), and flavorful pizza so I could have really tasted the sauce, and quality of the meat - the crust comes out thin and bubbly, so I'd assume it's hand-tossed, and while I wasn't blown away by the quality of the sausage (I'm used to large, home-made chunks), the ingredients were pretty good. Â The staff was also good with my son; again since it's cafeteria style you have to get your own drinks and utensils. Â When they brought my son's food (with a plate of animal crackers) to the table and he asked about a fork, one of the guys ran and picked one up for him. Â Having his drink included in the price of the kid's meal is also a nice little bonus.
There are a lot of good options for lunch and dinner that I plan on trying, including a dinner sampler that includes a half-portion of lasagne, a portion or pasta w/marinara, and a portion with Alfredo sauce + soup/salad for $10, Italian subs, and calzones. Â
Now if they only had cannolis...
Love their pizza. Thin crust but not crispy. Authentic looking toppings. Great flavor. A little high priced for pizza but best choice In town. Â Recently tried pasta and not very pleased. Â It was something that would come from a steamer or microwave. Â The flavor was good overall but, over priced for Italian. Â Decent food for Brownsburg, IN but price is too high for quality.
Review Source:I only get one thing here and that's there double stuffed veggie pizza, which is delicious. Â This place doesn't have much of a vibe, but I always get take out, so biggie. Â I've seen some of their Italian dishes and they do look like something you would get at fazolis, but maybe they'll taste better.
Review Source:Decided to try the local place that people in Bburg seem to like. Â I am very positive going in....I want to help a local business succeed, and I want to like it.
Right off, I am putt off, by the fact that I walk up to a counter to order. Â I don't do that. Â Not to say that I am a snob, I work hard all day, and if I want to spend money on dining out, I want the entire experience of full service.
We ordered, which took a while, as it's Friday evening, and the line is pretty long. Â Ok. Redeeming feature, we can order Chianti. However, the price of the glass of wine is what you expect in a restaurant that provides service, and atmosphere.
Three of us ordered caprese salad, 16" So Veggie Stuffed Pizza, Chicken marsala and a  house salad.
We went to find a table. Â I sat down in a booth, and my rear end landed sharply on a piece of the bench's framework. Nowhere on the bench could I avoid this uncomfortable feature.
The three of us are just chatting, wating for our dinner, when 4 Brownsburg PD sat behind us, radios on full volume, disturbing our chat. Â Cannot blame the establishment on this faux pas.
The caprese and house salads are delivered. Â Caprese without fresh basil. Unripe tomatoes. Well, there was a basil paste. What??? How embarrassing to serve that. Â The house salad had some variety on it, but the red onions were very strong. Â
The chicken marsala was delivered with a warning that it was very hot. Â While my son ate his salad, the dish cooled for about 5 minutes. Â He burned his lip on this hot, tasteless dish. Â There was very little chicken, 3 mushroom slices, all in more of an alfredo sauce than a marsala sauce.
Pizza is delivered. Â Double crusted, with bland sauce, and miniscule pieces of tomatoes, peppers, onions and mushrooms. Â I went up to the counter to ask for red pepper flakes, because I needed to taste something! Â The guy gave me a soup cup with about 1/4 cup of flakes, asking me if it was enough. He obviously new the food lacked flavor.
The final disappointment, was that you are expected to bring your dishes and trash up to this table, and put them in the labeled dish buckets.
Prices were reasonable, but no for flavorless food at an almost self serve type of place.
I am very disappointed, as I have tried all the mom and pop places in Brownsburg, and have been disappointed in every one of them.
I will continue to cook for myself. Â Maybe someone should go in to the business of cooking GOOD FOOD around here!
I'm not sure at which restaurant these other people ate. My wife and I make weekly visits to So Italian. We see a lot of people there, so it can't be too bad. I love their panzerotti, so full of mozzerella cheese, sausage and pepperoni with marinara on the side. The pasta is okay... I wouldn't go out of my way to go there for that, but the pizza is awesome. Yes, the service is not always the best, but it's a family-run place, so I'm not sure what these other people were expecting. It's not the Olive Garden, people, but it's good food and unique, authentic Italian and pizza for Brownsburg. Go downtown or to one of the chain restaurants if your expectations are so lofty.
Review Source:Unfortunately, the last dining experience here was slop in a bowl. It came out too hot to eat and by the time it cooled down it tasted terrible. Unfortunately, the lack of professionalism shows in their cheap presentation. On top of that, the restaurant smelled bad. We won't be back considering that Rock Star serves superior pizza and Sal's has delicious Italian dishes (plus pizza) both within a mile of this place.
Review Source:I really, really, really wanted to like So Italian. Their prices are very low and it's a local family-owned restaurant in a place that doesn't have many.
Unfortunately I just can't. Â Their food was sub-par at best. Â The pizza I got was just alright, and the lasagna my husband got was an overweight, heavy, greasy mess without much flavor. Â The sandwiches the other people in our party got were boring. No one finished their food or took any leftovers home. The cheese-covered breadsticks were good but that's the only thing I had a positive reaction to.
Besides the food, the service was bad as well. We were in the middle of ordering (up at the counter, there's no waiter service despite the place being tiny) and they got a delivery phone call, instead of finishing taking our order and going back to the phone call, they took the delivery order, which took 10 minutes. Â Yes we stood at the counter for 10 minutes waiting to finish our order.
I definitely wouldn't go back.
I made a discovery that makes So Italian's pizza acceptable ... almost.
After not finishing the pizza (in part because I over-ordered, in part because it wasn't worth stuffing my face with crap), I took a couple slices home in a box. My figuring was that I could give it to that homeless guy I always see at the interstate exit ramp. though I eventually decided against this because even hungry people have standards and deserve to be treated with dignity. So, after a long drive home, sitting in the near-freezing trunk, the pizza made its way to my refrigerator.
Fast forward two days: It's cold, I'm hungry, and I've been snowed in by a blizzard. In an act of desperation, I open my fridge and see those two slices of pizza -- looking as bad as ever. I sprinkled them with a little water, put them on a sheet of tin foil, and broiled them in a toaster oven for about five minutes.
The difference was extraordinary! Somehow, my home remedy corrected for the pizza's shortcomings -- a few days in the fridge dried out the once-soggy crust, and a few sprinkles of water and reheating melted the cheese to an acceptable level.
Does it make So Italian worth returning to? No. But if you make the same mistake I did and go there anyway, know that all isn't lost. Freezing and reheating makes their pizza every bit as good as the frozen pizza you get at the grocery store.
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,916 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
