| rev:text
| - My husband and I used to come here a lot when it was Tutti Santi because we liked that there was a nicer restaurant in the neighboorhood. It's now been replaced with Auntie Pastos. We were excited to try it because we like to support non-chain restaurants in the area.
The first thing that suggested to me that this place was lower-scaled was the beer ads and flags on the patio. If I wanted "tacky", I would have walked 10 paces east to Streets of NY. The indoor decor hasn't been changed much, except it's been cheapened even more by crooked stenciled Italian words on the walls, bright red paint resembing the now-defunct Fazoli's, and large TVs showing sports. I couldn't understand the TV being placed immediately above the beautiful wine nook. The Macaroni Grill-esque butcher paper and crayons on the table confirmed our suspicions that this former nice place was now exactly like (or even more chintzy) The dreaded Olive Garden. Also, the top-40s music was distracting and added to our confusion over what the "theme" was for this place.
Still, we decided to not judge until we tried the food.
Bill, the server, was really cool (and easy on the eyes!) He was really friendly and knowledgable about the food and beers. When asked for suggestions he said that the lasagna and chicken marsala are great.
The beer selection is good, and the beer was nice and cold. The wine selection, for an Italian place, was really disappointing. If I wanted a $4 bottle of wine at $6 per glass, I'd like to enjoy better ambience. I expected a much nicer wine list. I had no clue they had a full bar, and since reading these reviews, I see they had sangria and would've enjoyed that more.
We ordered the ravioli and the rigatoni with chicken added. The foccacia bread was ok, a little doughy for my taste. The salad was better than, say, Mimi's house salad. It had salami and olives, which makes it a little nicer. The dressing was too salty and overpowering, however.
When the food came, my husband could not see any ravioli, as it was drowning in sauce. On a positive note, the ravioli was stuffed with serloin, but overall was "just alright", and obviously not homemade. The rigatoni had the same sauce as the ravioli- a good combo of white, red, and vodka sauce. The portion size was great, as it left me with leftovers. Overall I thought the rigatoni was too peppery, as in, black pepper and should've left the sauce to do the talking without so much pepper.
Sadly, we won't return to Auntie Pastos. The ambience and food were just too "ok" to give them our money ($55 for 2 beers, 1 wine, and 3 entrees- I got a spaghetti to-go for my son who stayed home). We eat out twice per week and really aim to patronize non-chain places so we'll find others that are better.
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