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| - The food is definitely above average. I would say very good for Italian food in America. But I've been to Italy twice and this isn't quite as good. So I'm going to be super critical of this place. I went with my friend whose mother is from Italy and owns a house in Abruzzo. She got the Gnocchi with meatballs. First thing she said after tasting it was that the sauce was too sweet. I tasted it too, didn't think it was too sweet, but her Italian trained tastebuds weren't impressed. The gnocchi were the size, shape and consistency of marshmallows. Spongy and light and different than any I have every had. I did like them. I got the pasta dish with sausage, pine nuts and raisins in chicken stock. Unfortunately, the pasta was under done. It was hard and almost crunchy. Needed another minute to cook. The flavors were ok together, but it wasn't something I would get again. My Italian friend didn't seem to like it that much either.
Then there is the whole pizza controversy. I saw on their website that they had pizzas available for dinner on Tuesdays through Thursday to go. I thought this was odd and asked about getting one for dinner. The waiter said we could not order them to eat at our table, only to go. I would have to come back for lunch if I wanted to eat one at my table or take one home and eat it cold. It's eye-rolling policies like these that make you not want to come back at all. However, we were able to order the $8 bread appetizer which was same pizza dough, olive oil and grated Parmesan. Which was we did and was pretty good. My only complaint was that the middle of the bread was too thin and burnt while the outside was think and chewy.
Overall it was a nice enough, but I asked my Italian friend what she would rate it and she said B minus, 3 stars. I'm giving it 4 because you can tell that they put a lot of time and effort into the food and it's 1000 time better than anything at Olive Garden. The atmosphere is also great. We went on a warm May night with the garage doors open and our waiter was originally from Italy and his accent was charming. It doesn't get much better than that for atmosphere. I may come back during lunch or brunch, but won't make a huge effort.
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