Café Italia could teach a masters clinic on how to run a successful upscale neighborhood restaurant. Step 1 - Take a tiny old house in a cool part of town and gut it. Step 2 – Throw some local art up on the walls. Step 3 - Toss some white table cloths down. Step 4 – Fill to capacity with everyone from 30k Millionaires to soccer moms complete with kids in tow. Step 5 – Serve good food at a very reasonable price.
Entrées:
Food here is way underpriced…or maybe everywhere else is just over priced?!? It's also not really Italian either. I mean they've got all of the Italian restaurant staples, but they've got a bunch of what they call Tex-Italian food...lots of different grilled protein and veggies over pasta. And now that I think about it, I dont think anyone in our group even ordered anything I would classify as classic Italian food.
I opted for the daily special of Angus Ribeye, jalapeno-corn mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus for $20-ish. My cut was fattier than I would’ve liked, and then others at the table had, but it was good. The potatoes had a nice kick to them but could’ve used a little more cream…then again when you live with Lindsay you become an expert on the intricacies of the mashed potato. Lindsay picked the stand out dish of the night with the King Ranch Chicken Pasta at $13. Pretty much everything about this dish was a success…down to the crispy red tortilla strips across the top. My ribeye was good, but I was jealous of KRCP’s cheesy, spicy, mushroomy goodness. I gladdly mopped up all of the left over sauce with the garlic bread until the bowl dry as a bone.
Desserts:
They only offer 3 desserts at Café Italia…so we ordered all of them. The Mascarpone Cheese Cake topped with fresh berries was really, really good. Simple, nice, and sweet. The Flourless Chocolate Cake was dense and rich. I’m not a chocolate guy, so it was a little much for me…but everyone else at the table loved it. My favorite was the Lemon Tiramisu topped with micro mint. What’s not to like about lemon custard, layers of coffee dipped biscuits, and a ton of whipped cream?
Overall:
Café Italia’s food was good, but when you combine it with the fact that it was so reasonably priced for what you got…it was great! It’s not someplace I’m dying to go back to, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it either. What's nice about it is that It's a place that you could go to in jeans and tee shirt, or for an nice dinner with friends. It's got a lot of repeat dinning versatility that you don’t find with Dallas restaurants...but you probably should.
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