Rugantino

Although due to our winter weather the restaurant was very quiet we were made to feel quite at home by the service staff. Our server, Stephanie, was very pleasant and present without over doing the service. We had a nice bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo the…smelts the pear and gorgonzola salad for starters and shared Mezza Notte pasta dish with anchovies. Our dinner partners shared the calamari and one had the pasta pescatore and the other had the gnochi with veal sauce. We had a taste of the gnochi, so tender and the sauce was amazing! Please note these gnochi are not the usual heavy lumps you can get from the grocery store…no these were small hazelnut sized pearls of lightness! They did comment on liking the calamari very much. Back to our meal. We’ve had the smelts before..and another reason we had them again! So lightly battered and fresh tasting. The salad is delightful, not too much cheese as to overpower the tender greens and shards of pear with a delicate dressing. We shared the Mezza Notte pasta, knowing how generous their portion sizes were from a previous visit. The chef happily split the pasta dishes for us. The only comment I can say to improve our evening is that we were not automatically served bread or even asked if we wanted some for the table. This happened on our previous visit, so I’m not sure why this fantastic homemade bread is not offered up front. Rugantino’s is definitely on our “repeat restaurant” list! Thank you all again and Ciao.

Decided to take an afternoon to explore Locke Street on a sunny afternoon. Found ourselves a quiet patio at Rugatino with Peroni and sangria. Enjoyed the fritto mista per due plus an order of smelts to munch on. Friendly helpful server. What a delightful afternoon!

Stopped in for dinner a few weeks ago. The pizza was amazing. Waitress was friendly and efficient. Will visit soon again.