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| - An evening at Michaelangelo's is really special!
We went there a couple of weeks ago, and just felt as though all the staff bent over backwards to take care of us. The hostess took out coats; then another person seated us and asked - get this - if we would like black napkins instead of white to go with out dark clothes. What?!?
Then another woman came over to inquire if we wanted sparkling, bottled still, or tap water.
Then our actual waitress came out and rattled off the specials. They all sounded amazing. We went for the calamari appetizer (sauteed, not fried) and the ribollita (Tuscan vegetable soup). Delicious.
For our main course, we wanted to try some of the homemade pasta on the menu. There was a note that said "half-sizes available," which the waitress mentioned could also be used to mix and match orders. Great! We each decided to get two half-orders of pasta. I went with the veal & cheese tortellini and the tomato-basil cavatelli. My husband opted for the lobster ravioli and the gnocchi pesto.
When they were brought out, we thought they got the order wrong - EACH dish looked like a full size! But nope, they were half. I'll know for next time, because it was almost embarrassing how much food was there. I recently visited another Italian restaurant downtown where the half-sizes of pasta were truly like half-sizes. This was more like 3/4 sized, or just plain full-sized.
The pasta was outstanding. Our favorites were tortellini, which had this amazing cream sauce, and the gnocchi. My husband loved the lobster ravioli - I didn't as much. The cavatelli was pretty standard and didn't have a tremendous amount of flavor, although the chunks of fresh mozzarella on top were a nice touch.
Dessert was tiramisu...mmmm. And they had great coffee too (even though I had decaf).
All in all, a great restaurant in a tucked-away location for a special occasion only! (Did I mention we had to use valet parking? Ughhh!) They also have a nice patio area outside (which nobody was using because it was chilly). On the way out, we passed the cozy, lounge/bar area with leather couches, a fireplace, and of course, sports on the TV. This would be a perfect place to take your old-school, but slightly classy, parents on a visit to Cleveland.
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