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| - I was super excited for an Italian restaurant with a pasticceria--one of my big gripes with PGH is the lack of Italian pastries. We headed here on a Friday night, foolishly without a reservation, and were able to snag a seat at a high top table near the entrance (our 7pm arrival would have netted us a 9pm seating in the main dining room). We ordered an assortment of dishes:
-Tortellini en brodo. We got this purely because of Yelp recommendations, and the broth was indeed delicious and deeply flavored. The tortellini themselves were a bit chewy, not in an "al dente" way, but in a "this pasta is too thick" way.
-Pork neck toast. The pork was nicely tender, but the red sauce accompanying it was overly sweet.
-Cauliflower with ricotta and pine nuts. This was a very large portion, but was a bit lackluster. The lightness of ricotta wasn't highlighted with the seasoning, and with only ricotta, the dish wasn't cheesy enough to be a gratin.
-Ravioli al'uovo. We're a bit biased since we make this at home (with sage brown butter), but we though the richness of the egg yolk was lost amid the creamy sauce. While the assorted mushrooms lent depth to the dish, one of the varieties remained significantly firmer than others and didn't meld with the dish.
-Cinnamon roll. This was topped with a really tasty, pleasantly sour frosting. Full marks on that part! The roll itself was fine, but wasn't served warm, so it was a little firm and definitely needed the heaping topping of frosting for moisture. But the real downside to me was the stunning lack of Italian pastries--while there are some Italian *desserts*, the pastries are pretty much all French! No pasticiotti, no sfogliatelle, and not even any cannoli! (As an aside, it is a travesty that most of the places in the Strip fill their cannoli with whipped cream...an even bigger affront than not having any.)
-Limoncello. This was a delicious housemade version with just the right amount of lemon...no medicinal quality whatsoever.
They currently have no happy hour specials, although our server hinted that might be in the works. I'll give it another shot for the sandwiches, as service was excellent and the place has great ambiance, but I repeat my plea for actual Italian pastries in PGH!
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