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| - We've really been looking (basically to no avail) for a neighborhood Italian place to call home, so we tried Papa Razzini.
First, to the reviewer who went off about the decor here, get over yourself. Seriously. If you want brand new furniture and up-to-date decor, look to a chain or a high-end Scottsdale eatery. This is a little neighborhood joint, and that's what it's *supposed* to feel and look like! It's clean, it's cute, it's got actual cloth tablecloths and napkins. That's more than you'll find at almost anyplace of comparable price!
We started with cocktails, which were good (way generous pour on the bourbon BTW!), and moved to a bottle of wine. I would kill for a few more wine options, however. If you're ordering $20 entrees, you're going to want something better than a $30 bottle of zin (the top option) to pair with it. A few more Italian varietals, perchance?? (pretty please??)
I adore the bowl of chopped tomato, garlic, olive oil and basil topping that comes with the bread. (you can't technically call it bruschetta, however, as that literally means grilled bread, which would be a lovely although time consuming touch...) There were apparently a few appetizer specials, but we couldn't see the board very well and didn't know about them. I saw one go by though, and it certainly looked good (mussels, I think...). We opted instead for salads. Caesar was *very* wet and wilty, with microscopic crouton bits, but the PapaRazzini salad was great.
There were 5 or 6 entree specials, each of which sounded wonderful. I got a cheese tortellini special, which had a brandy cream sauce, chopped spinach, and a dollop of red sauce in the middle. The tort was pretty thoroughly beyond al dente (sorry, personal pet peeve of mine... pasta shouldn't ever be mushy), and the sauce was pretty thin and overly plentiful, but it was a very tasty dish. Zuppa di Pesce was awesome, with tons and tons of seafood. The linguine it sat on was pretty close to perfect. There were some extra varieties of seafood in there that weren't listed on the menu. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but some of the shrimp still had tails in a fork-only dish, which we found out the hard way.
Our service was truly stellar, but I think the FOH kids were stretched a little tight. And they were obviously at the mercy of the kitchen yelling at them to hurry up and get orders in so they could close down. I *HATE* that. (and no, it's *not* just a part of the industry. I used to be a chef/owner. If staff was in such a hurry to close down that customers felt uncomfortable, you could be damn sure there would be someone else back there the next night who wouldn't be...) If you let 'em in the door, you kinda have to stick it out until they're done, IMHO.
Anyway... Dessert choices were pretty good, not sure of quality yet because we took ours to go and haven't tried them yet. (maybe a little vin santo for that wine list???)
So, overall, not a bad experience. I wanted to give 3.5 stars, but that's not an option, so I went with 4 because I think it takes at least 2 visits to render an accurate opinion, and most of the reviews here are really great. Besides, you never know when you've hit a slightly "off" night...
We will definitely consider going back, maybe on a weekend when things might be more "on point." Lord knows we need places like this, to save us from the Olive Gardens of the world!!
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