What a wonderful find! We were making our weekly pilgrimage to Costco today when I noted my husband was getting a bit Hangry.... I pulled out my magic phone (that's what he calls my iPhone ) and pulled up the YELP app. I asked what he was hankering for and he mentioned spaghetti . So off I went in search of a local Italian spot with a good number of reviews and $$ pricing. We don't limit ourselves to 4+ stars as so many times we have found amazing places to eat with 3-3.5 stars!
But I digress.... we found Piccolo off SOM Center in Gates Mills Place and decided to give it a shot. It's not a very large place 20-25 tables and a large bar. Atmosphere is upscale casual but comfortable too. It was 6:40pm on a Saturday night, we were greeted by very friendly staff and even through we didn't have a reservation they said hold on we have two tables getting ready to leave. We were followed in by 2 other parties and they had all of us seated within 15 minutes.
The manager came over half way through our meal to check on us - and I observed her visiting many tables. Classy.
We ordered two appetizers, the fried zucchini and the Suppli Ala Romano (risotto balls stuffed with with Motzerlella and deep fried. The zucchini was cooked perfectly which is hard to do with 1x1x6" planks and served with a garlic aoli. We asked for some marinara because the aoli was a bit too full of chunky garlic for our taste. The risotto balls are fantastic! Crisp, huge and full of yummy cheese. Seriously good eats. Served with marinara and pesto sauces. So here is my caution ---- we were already stuffed and our entrees weren't even delivered yet .
When the entrees arrived they were beautiful plates and yep, HUGE!!! I had the Picolli Pork Chop, served with Swiss chart and tomato risotto. A 1.5" thick chop cooked perfectly. My husband had spaghetti (of course) topped with oodles of Italian sausage slices. Nice touch to slice the sausage as so often he has to fight his food. I had a lovely California Cabernet ($7) okay I had two and my hubby is a water drinker.
Oh did I mention the Matre D also stopped at the table to see how we liked it, we had mentioned to him it was our first visit - definitely first of many . We got desert to go (limoncello marscapone cake) and they boxed our leftovers up so nicely.