Della Notte

This is another one of those Baltimore restaurants I've driven by endless times and never visited. I always put it on my mental restaurant roledex, but when it came time to pick a place to eat Della Notte just never found their way to the front of the line. I finally put an end to that and after a great first visit we decided to celebrate our New Year's with dinner at Della Notte as well

Della Notte is a little more on the formal side of things. It's the type of place that scrapes the crumbs off your table mid-dinner. And simple me, I found it very entertaining that they refolded your napkin every time you got up from the table. I may have taken advantage of this. In addition to the great wait staff the decor is also top notch. The dining room circles a gigantic tree which makes for a cool environment in which to enjoy your dinner.

On our first visit I ordered the linguine and Deana went with pappardelle. We were both extremely pleased with our dishes. My linguine was topped with a ton of delicious clams in a simple white wine sauce. The flavors were clean and straight forward but incredible nonetheless. When you're done eating the plump clams and perfect al dente pasta, you'll be in heaven dipping the crusty bread in the remaining sauce. It was so good I ordered it again on my second visit.

Deana's pappardelle was equally fantastic. For those less familiar pappardelle is kind of like smaller lasagna noodles that they use as regular pasta. It was topped with what is easily the best bolognese sauce we've come across. The sauce had great acidic tomato presence, deep meat flavor, and a nice amount of spice underneath it all. If white wine sauces aren't your thing you can't go wrong with this bolognese. 

We ended our dinner and our year with the best creme brulee we've had. It's light, creamy, and topped with an  addictive crunchy caramalized sugar coating. It's more than enough for two, but I wouldn't look at you funny if you ordered one all for yourself. 

Della Notte was strong in all facets. The decor was great, service was excellent, and the food was delicious. I may have taken a long time to walk through their doors the first time, but repeat visits have already happened and will be happening again frequently. 

Price: Expensive

Recommendation: Great place for a nice date. 

What to Order: I don't think you can go wrong, but don't miss out on the creme brulee climax at the end of the night.

The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Italian Gardens

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. This week's entry is Italian Gardens. Click here to see how the last entrant fared.

Droop Factor - Sadly, the crust passing the droop test (folded with the tip standing at attention) is probably the best thing that Italian Gardens pizza had going for it. Droop factor is important, but when it's the best thing going for you it's not looking good.

Score - 1.5

Greaseification - After my first few bites I was thinking to myself that this pizza was kind of greasy for a simple slice of cheese. When Deana confirmed that it was a greasy without any prodding from me I knew it was time to ding them a point. It's not greasy to the point of a pizza foul, but it's definitely there.

Score - 1

Aroma - When I first moved to Baltimore 7 years ago I actually worked in the mall that Italian Gardens resides in. I was the most unknowledgeable garden department salesman in the history of Stebbins Anderson. If I sold you something and ruined your lawn back then....my apologies. But what does that have to do with aroma? Not much, except for the fact that the smell permeated the inside and outside of the mall with delicious pizza at all hours of the day. Yesterday, when I walked in I was instantly reminded of that delicious smell.

Score - 1.5

Cheese - Italian Gardens is topped with  a fairly typical but tasty mozzarella. It's slightly salty and a little bit creamy. In other words, nothing to rave about but nothing to complain about either. Thus, the middle of the road score.

Score - 1

Sauce - This is where Italian Gardens pizza falls flat on its face. The sauce literally has no flavor. At first, I thought it was because I was tasting it straight out of the oven, but even as it cooled the flavor of the sauce never appeared. I don't know what the deal was but I was super disappointed.

Score - .5

Crust - The crust wasn't bad. There was good flavor with a slightly crunchy yet tender texture. As far as the three main components of a pizza are concerned (cheese, sauce, crust) the crust comes out the winner.

Score - 1

Overall Score - 6.5 out of 12

As I mentioned above, I used to work in the mall that Italian Gardens is located in so I was semi familiar with their stuff. I'm very surprised that I'm giving them as low of a score as I am. Prior to eating last night I didn't suspect that they were going to blow my mind, but I definitely wasn't expecting that they would put up the lowest score thus far in the Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit.

 I don't want to make it sound like this pizza is flat bad. It's not. I judged this pizza based solely on what came to my table. After eating the pizza as it came to me and taking notes I was able to spice it up a bit with some pepper flakes, oregano, and grated cheese. It tasted much better, but they shouldn't leave it to me to season their food in order to get some flavor going on. If I ever find myself in that mall again hungry I wouldn't be afraid to spend my money on a piece of pizza. But as far as the Great Pizza Pursuit is concerned, it looks like Italian Gardens just isn't going to have what it takes.

Verde Pizza Napoletana

About two weeks ago I discussed the pizza at Verde Pizza Napoletana as part of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013. In short, the pizza was great. Today, I'll be discussing the restaurant and our visit as a whole.

As good as the pizza was Deana and I weren't overly thrilled with the rest our night. Despite making reservations, we waited well over 30 minutes before we were finally seated. I wasn't shocked that there was a bit of a wait to be seated given that it was the final weekend of Baltimore Restaurant Week, but 30 minutes is a bit extreme when you've reserved a table. And the worst part of that 30 minutes was being forced to squish into the front of the restaurant with everyone else who was waiting for a seat.

The building itself is very narrow with the tables very close to one another. I don't know if it was the fact that I had 84 people in my personal space during our wait, but the close proximity to the other tables was somewhat off putting. With that said, if you are lucky enough to be seated in the back half of the restaurant you have a view into the kitchen where you can see your pizza's being put together and cooked in the brick oven.

At the end of the night, after we had finished our appetizers and pizza, we had to wait quite a while for them to bring our dessert (we ordered it at the beginning of the night as part of the 3 course restaurant week thing). After 10 or 15 minutes of sitting around waiting our dessert was finally delivered.....and then we had to wait just as long to get our check. By the time we left there, it was no longer a guessing game as to why we had to wait 30 minutes for a table despite making reservations. The wait staff just wasn't efficient with their time. Yes, every single table was taken. Yes, it was restaurant week. But the restaurant is tiny and they had food runners. Why the waiter delays were what they were was beyond me.

Now, despite the tone of this review being negative there was a lot to like about Verde. If you read the review of the pizza alone, I spoke very highly of it. It was delicious. And the owner was more than friendly making two different appearances at our table to make sure our food came out tasting good. I appreciated that. For the pizza alone, I would go back to Verde Pizza Napoletana (and I highly recommend you try it yourself at least once). But given the long waits I'd have to endure and the somewhat awkward dining room layout, I don't know how often I see myself being a repeat customer.

Price: Middle of the Road
Recommendation: You have to visit this place at least once for the pie alone.
What to Order: Pizza Margherita

 

Ciao Bella

It's been quite awhile since I've been able to flex my bitter blogger muscle. Unfortunately, the review you're about to read will be full of said flexing.

Our visit started off full of promise as we entered into the small, nicely decorated restaurant. From an atmosphere point of view Ciao Bella is as good as place as any to go for an intimate date. However, the quality of the food and the prices they charge make it very tough for me to recommend a visit. And if I take into consideration the annoyingly long wait (I'll get into more later) I had attempting to pay my bill I can easily say that I won't be visiting Ciao Bella a second time.

We started off our dinner with an appetizer of Shrimp Oregnata. The shrimp tasted just fine, but it came out plated a sloppy mess and to this day I can't understand why they thought 3 shrimp was a good number to serve. If you're a party of 2 or 4 (pretty common sizes)  someone is only getting one or none of the $11 shrimp. It just doesn't make any sense.

For our main course, Deana decided on the Chicken Marsala and I went with Chicken Parmigiana. The Marsala was pretty good. The chicken was tender and while the sauce was flavorful it was a little on the thin side. Looking on the bright side, though, there was plenty of meaty mushrooms which is always key when it comes to a good Marsala. Overall, it was an acceptable dish, but not something I'd run back for.

My Parmigiana, and I say this as a self described Chicken Parm expert, was meh. Yes, I was served an ample amount of chicken. And yes, the sauce was pretty damn good as it was bright with plenty of that acidic tomato taste I love so much. But, the chicken wasn't tender at all and a tough piece of chicken is one of the unforgivable sins a chef can commit when making this dish.

At this point of the night, I was still debating a return trip to Ciao Bella. Despite the food only being okay, I really enjoyed the setting and our waitress was extremely nice. Nice as she was, though, she was terrible at managing her time. At the end of our meal she stopped by to box our food and hand off the check. And then we waited.....and waited.....and waited.....and waited for her to take our money. At least 30 minutes passed and she still hadn't stopped back to take our payment. Eventually, I got so pissed that I took our check up to the hostess and asked her if she could take care of the bill. She gave me a look of annoyance before she handed off our money to someone else who proceeded to take another 5 minutes to get our change back to us. By that time, a return visit to this restaurant had no shot of ever happening. I know people get busy. I know people have bad nights. I get it. With that said, 35 minutes of waiting to pay a bill coupled with mediocre food and a pretty pricey menu isn't a winning combo. If you're visiting Little Italy believe me when I say there are much better options to spend your money on.

Price: A little high given the quality

Recommendation: Little Italy has better options available.

What to Order: ?

Pacific Coast Dining Co.

Anyone who has followed this blog at all knows I'm quite the fan of Groupon. Thanks to the site, I've come across an endless amount of restaurants I might have never tried had I been left to my own devices. Pacific Coast Dining Co. is one of the restaurants I recently tried thanks to a pretty good deal they were offering. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'll find my way back to the Pacific Coast.

By no means is Pacific Coast Dining Co. a bad restaurant. The food isn't bad, but the menu is confused. Half of the menu is Italian and half is Mexican/pacific. Neither is bad, but if you ask me they need to pick a direction and run with it. I get that they are located in Little Italy and they are trying to cater to those expecting that kind of food, but if you're going to call yourself Pacific Coast then be Pacific Coast.

While we were going over the menu I put in an order for a beer. I can't remember exactly what I ordered, but I know they poured it into a glass. That in and of itself isn't a problem. Any beer outside of the typical American staples is best served in glass (non chilled at that for the beer snobs among us). But the glass my beer was poured into smelled like a dirty rag. Once upon a time I worked in a restaurant and realize that things happen so I didn't raise an issue, but it really threw me off throughout the meal trying to get over the smell.

Prior to dinner we worked up quite the appetite at Max's Rare and Obscure event so we decided to start off with an appetizer of hummus. It was okay. The hummus had a good garlic flavor and was creamy but it was served really cold. Sometimes I don't mind that if the pita is nice and hot, but it wasn't and the hummus got kind of one note rather quickly.

The Groupon deal I purchased raved about the tacos and after consulting with the bartender she agreed that the tacos were really good. Okay, sold. I ordered a couple steak tacos cooked medium rare. Deana decided to go to the non-Pacific Coast side of the menu and ordered the Chicken Marsala.

The tacos were okay. The aioli you see zig zagged over the top of the tacos was really tasty as was the mango pico. The main problem I had with the tacos was the temperature in which my steak was cooked. I ordered medium rare, but I got something back that in my opinion was borderline rare at best. It was almost to the point of being raw and while I'm not afraid to eat something that's still mooing, this wasn't for me. Another small issue I had was the fact that nothing is served on the side to mix up the meal a little bit. After awhile I want a different taste or texture and since they didn't give me that option, Deana and I decided to switch dinners with one another.

The Chicken Marsala, again, wasn't bad but it didn't score as big on the tastebud turnon score-o-matic as I would have liked. I'm happy to report that the noodles were cooked al dente and the mushrooms were nice and earthy, but on the whole this wasn't a dish I felt like I needed to brave the terrible parking of Little Italy for.

Don't be fooled by the name. Pacific Coast Dining Co. is trying to lead you down a path they only deliver on halfway. If they reworked their menu I think they could have something good, but until that happens I'd probably pass on a second visit.

Price: A little expensive for the portion sizes
Recommendation: Pass
What to order: Steak Tacos

Pasta Mista

When I first moved to the Baltimore area I was living right in the middle of Towson. I came down for grad school and really had no idea what Baltimore was all about. The one thing I didn't expect in such a highly populated area (compared to where I came from) was the difficulty I'd encounter trying to find pizza that didn't taste like squishy bread and tomato paste. At the time it seemed as if Seasons Pizza was everywhere and being the smart guy I am I figured it couldn't be that bad if they were successful enough to open up franchises at a pace rivaled only by Starbucks. Seven years later, I'm still wondering how Seasons stays in business.

But that's neither here nor there. The reason I bring any of that up is to illustrate the terrible stress I was under for nearly 4 months searching for a delicious pizza I thought I might never eat again. And then one day I came across a simple article in the college newspaper detailing exactly what I've been talking about----the nearly impossible pursuit of finding good pizza in Baltimore. The author of that article raved about Pasta Mista with such passion that I'm pretty sure I drove down to the Towson location after class and tried it out for myself. I've since found other pizza places just as good if not better than Pasta Mista, but because of the travails I encountered searching for pizza early on in my Baltimore experiences,  Pasta Mista will always be held in high regard for this blogger.

These days,I no longer live in Towson  but I was fortunate enough to be in town a few weeks back and was able to rekindle the romance that once burned so strongly between myself and the pizza. I was also able to introduce Deana to Pasta Mista for the first time. Needless to say, she is their newest fan. And I have to give her props for letting me maintain a relationship with someone I once was so close with not so long ago.

The day we visited both of us were drawn to the chicken parm pizza. It was as good as I remember. The crust was thin and crispy. The sauce had that delicious sweet/acidic tomato taste I love. And the chicken was nicely breaded and tender. For a quick lunch, you're not going to do much better.

Pasta Mista might not be "the best pizza in Baltimore" (they are in the discussion), but for my money there is no better place to get a simple slice. They always have 8 or 10 different pizzas up front for you to pick from. By the time you pay and fill your cup up with something to drink they already have your slice heated through and out of the oven. Variety and speed? I'll take it. Add to the fact that the slices are huge and the price is cheap....I'll take two!

If you are new to Baltimore and encountering the same problem I once had fret not my friends. For Pasta Mista comes bearing gifts of frankincense,myrrh, and delicious pizza.

Price: Cheap
Recommendation: Must visit
What to order: Every pizza they make is a winner.

Vito's Cafe

A few weeks ago after attending the Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Fest at the state fairgrounds we were looking for somewhere to eat dinner after a long day of tasting beer and walking around. Our initial choice had much too long of a wait, but after driving a little further down York Road we came across a sign that read Vito's Cafe: Italian Cuisine and Brick Oven Pizza. Pizza sounded perfect for a quick dinner so we decided to give it a try.

When a restaurant has brick oven pizza loud and proud on their sign I automatically think of a pretty casual restaurant experience.That's not quite what we received at Vito's Cafe. When we entered it felt like we were making our way to the catwalk the way the hostess eyed our outfits from head to toe. We were asked if we had reservations and when we said no, after looking exasperated that we would dare enter without reservations, we were seated right next to the door in this little 2 seater completely separate from nearly every other table in the entire restaurant.

At that time I was doing my best to ignore everything and just order a pizza, eat, and be gone. Our waitress came over and took our orders and laid one of the all time greats on me. Deana wanted a salad and I ordered what they referred to as Di Cipolla Swiss Onion (for all intents and purposes French Onion soup). After that I asked for the Original Margherita Pizza. I thought that would be the end of our order, but I was then informed that our pizza would come out without being cut. It was delivered in a tone that insinuated this would somehow be a problem for us simple folk who have never had sophisticated food before. I was half tempted to tell the waitress that we had just gotten done with the chapter on using knives in the Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating the night before and that we should be able to handle it. But I said nothing and let her be on her way.

While waiting for our food I finally looked around to see who was actually eating in this place. That's when I noticed that we were the only customers in the restaurant not eligible for the senior citizen discount. During that time, and throughout the rest of our night, the area we were seated in (right next the entrance) began to fill up with AARP members who eventually filtered their way over into my personal space as I was eating.

So, how was the food? Who cares? By the time the food came I was so annoyed with the place I just wanted to get the hell out of there and never go back. To answer the question, though, the food was actually delicious. I loved my French Onion Soup and the pizza was top notch as you can see in the picture.

The food may have been great but every single other factor one weighs when it comes to a restaurant visit was miserable. I can't remeber ever feeling like I did that day, just itching to pay my bill and run out of that place. I won't be back to Vito's Cafe.

Price: On the precipice of expensive. Something like Spaghetti and Meatballs is $17.
Recommendation: Great food. Terrible Service/Environment
What to Order: I'm sure it's all very delicious. The Original Margerhita Pizza was tasty.

Basta Pasta

This past weekend I decided to take a chance on a restaurant I've been driving by almost since the day I moved to Baltimore (nearly 7 years ago). Basta Pasta has intrigued me for ages, but because it's located in what I'd classify as the middle of nowhere (you might call it Fallston), I've never quite managed to make a visit. I'm very happy I found the motivation to make the drive this past Friday because Basta Pasta was one of my favorite restaurant experiences in recent memory.

The first thing you'll notice when you walk into the restaurant is how homey Basta Pasta feels. The dining room isn't tiny, but it's not overly big either. It's kind of like the third bowl of porridge....just right! Really bringing the home vibe to the forefront is a large fireplace in the center of the back wall. Throw in some classic Frank Sinatra music and the mood is set for a great night at an Italian restaurant.

Anytime I visit an Italian restaurant for the first time, I know what I'm ordering before I even open the menu. I've been a Chicken Parmigiana aficionado since way back. There is no easier way to gauge the quality of the restaurant than to try out the dish I know best.

Happily, and possibly still a bit full from the dinner I had 4 days ago, I can say that Basta Pasta serves up a mean variation of Chicken Parm. You're served 3 pieces of perfectly breaded chicken, smothered in mozzarella and a covered delicious marinara sauce. You will really love the marinara. I'm used to getting more of a "salsa" type of marinara with bits and pieces of tomato found throughout, but this sauce is very smooth and gravyesque. Fettuccine is served on the side along with a bowl of salad and bread sticks. There is no question you will leave with a full stomach and a full to-go bag. The portions are huge and that's fine by me as my leftovers made for an awesome lunch the following day. Also, I'm happy to report that the pasta was cooked al dente!

My girlfriend decided to try the Chicken Piccata. I've never been a huge fan of Piccata because it always seems like the sauce is super liquidy. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and a maybe a product of being a wine based sauce, it just never appealed to me. This was different. You can tell from the picture how thick the sauce was and for the first time I found a Piccata I was interested in trying more than just a bite or two. The capers they included in the sauce added some nice salty bites here and there and my girlfriend was thrilled that they cut up fresh mushrooms for the sauce instead of adding the little rubber canned things you sometimes find.

Basta Pasta may be a bit of a drive, but it's well worth it. I imagine driving through the country roads during the summer while the sun is setting is a beautiful thing. One night when you feel like taking it easy and want to enjoy the country scenery you'll find Basta Pasta as the perfect place to end your trek outside of the fast paced city.

Price: Upper end of Average

Recommendation: Put this on your "to-visit" list
What to order: Chicken Parmigiana