vino & cucina

The skinny: If you have aren’t that hungry, have a lot of time on your hands, and would like to enjoy a long peaceful meal in a small family restaurant atmosphere, give it a try. Pizzas are likely to be a better bet than the pastas, not to say the pastas were bad, just the pizzas were better.

Review:

Off the bat, I’m just going to say that it took them nearly an hour to cook the food. The first basket of bread they give you is free, but take note that you’ll be charged for all baskets thereafter.

The Menu:

A first glance at the menu and you’ll immediately realize that the food is very heavy on carbs---definitely not your Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden with selections of meat or fish dishes (odd note: there were no meatballs of any kind on the menu either.) Most of the menu consists of pasta, pasta, and more pasta. There’s a whole page devoted to just pastas and then anther devoted to seafood pastas, so you get my point. And if you’re big on wine your Italian food, there’s a whole page dedicated to that too (but not being a wine taster myself I can’t comment on the selection.)

The Pasta:

Gnocci was good, but not very noteworthy. Farfelle Sara was merely okay too. It says on the menu that the Spaghetti Francesca is “to die for.” I’d say that that’d be a most meaningless death. The sauce was good, not diehard by any means. But the spaghetti was woefully undercooked, very doughy and pretty hard. The only lasagna you’ll find on the menu is in the appetizer section, and it was the shortest stack of lasagna I’d ever seen---tasted fairly good though. The portions are all pretty good sized and fair enough for the prices.

The Pizza:

Wednesday is pizza night (and there’s an entire menu for just pizzas which comes from their mini pizza parlor run by the same family next door) so we ordered two pizzas. All their pizzas are 14inches, thin crust, and cut into 8 slices. First pizza on the menu “Vino & Cucina” was a smash hit. Everyone loved it---perfect blend of meats, cheeses, and a light tomato sauce. We also ordered a vegetarian pizza # 21 “ Villa Borghese,” which was relatively good though not spectacular. The zucchini was good but the artichokes were strangely bland (as far as artichokes go.)

The Service:

I’m a little torn on what to say about the service. When the owner or waiters are there to serve you, they’re all very nice and helpful, but don’t expect too much initiative and they might not notice you immediately when you raise your hand. On the bright side they didn’t charge us the mandatory large-party tip either.

Bottom Line: So there you have it. The food was mediocre to good. The prices were fair. The portions were standard. The cooking was slow. The service left a bit to be desired. And it skates by with three stars.

(review courtesy of greta l)