4.5 stars.
Another unassuming strip mall restaurant with excellent food in Mesa. After living here for seven years, I'm *finally* finding the authentic mom-n-pop places with good food, yay! And they're all in strip malls. Weird.
Alessia's was great. We had a party of six so we called earlier in the day to get a reservation (following their website guidelines, which state reservations will be taken for parties of 5 or more). We left a message because they don't open until 5pm. When we arrived, the owner (John) greeted us and knew about our reservation without having to look it up, and he gave us our choice of a round or a rectangle table. The place felt homey, and it was comfortable. John is definitely over the top with his kidding, but I didn't mind it. And he really knew what he was talking about food-wise.
I'm not a huge pasta-lover but my family is.Here are the reports from most in our party:
The linguini carbonara was wonderful. Very full-flavored. It heated up the next day better than expected, which was a nice treat.
The cappelini pesto was tasty but the sauce was a little overpowering -- maybe a bit too much sauce for the amount of pasta. (and maybe angel hair wasn't the best choice of pasta for this sauce - it was really swimming in it).
The gorgonzola gnocchi was delicious (we had this for an appetizer for the table).
The lobster ravioli was very good but a bit mild in flavor.
The tortellini bolognese was fabulous.
Overall great pasta and decent prices with good service. I highly recommend.