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| - Aiello's bills itself as "Fine Italian Dining" but seems more neighborhood in quality. In terms of atmosphere and price, perhaps somewhere in between. Service is agreeable enough, but not fine. Food is ordinary, roughly on par with Sauce or Babbo, and certainly not in Tomaso's league.
It's considerably cheaper than Tomaso's, but when you order a $16 pasta or entree, it doesnt come with soup or salad. That's six dollars more. Only one bottle of wine is under $30. Perfectly reasonable for fine or semi-fine dining, but our large table of entrees lacked much sophistication or subtlety.
The seafood in Linguine FraDaviolo ($22) was perfunctory and the sauce one dimensional. Nobody liked the huge, ballyhooed meatballs much. Other things were better, but we ate here a while ago and I cant remember specifics. I do remember exiting the restaurant, after a genuinely pleasant chat with the owner, thinking I've had Italian this ordinary elsewhere for less.
Aiello's is not stop the presses terrible, but the food's just not that interesting, and it seems to me like a marginal choice for special occasion Iltalian. Perhaps I'm making too much of their self-described "fine dining", but much of this eating out "thing" is about delivering on expectations, so there you go.
Two stars for the food, one for the pleasant, welcoming owner.
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