Lovin' La Volta

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

La Volta Ristorante Italiano

This restaurant is located in downtown Raleigh at 411 Fayetteville Street.

Knowing that the same owners of Vic's Restaurant was the same as La Volta's made me a little nervous about trying this place. But I sucked it up and dove right in.

La Volta is a cozy, romantic place that has lights hanging down from the ceilings and the lights dimmed low. They even had sculptures throughout the restaurant.

As my mother and I were seated, I opened there lunch menu and to my surprise, it was completely different from Vic's and I was overly excited because of all the options I had to choose from.

Not only did they offer more food, but their prices were incredible. Exactly in my poor college budget, this made me one happy girl!

For my meal, I started off with a side salad with their homemade balsamic vinaigrette and ended with the special of the day, Orcehiette pasta with sausage, broccoli, garlic and olive oil. And this time I did not feel like I was drinking the oil. Also, their noodles were homemade.

My meal was only $4.95. Now that is a special!

The sausage was a little plain, but the spices they had mixed in the broccoli brought out the flavors in both. It was a little salty with a hint of pepper, which I love.

As for my mother, she went with the Mediterranean salad with grilled shrimp on top. There were about five or six shrimps and she only had one. I devoured it. The best shrimp I have ever put into my mouth. It was so fresh tasting and the spices made it complete. Needless to say, she only got the veggies and spinach leafs.

This meal was only $5.75 for lunch. For dinner it was almost $7

The next time I go, I might just ask my waitress to bring out a plate of just the shrimp and I would more than satisfied. Just by writing this, I am drooling.

When I asked my mother what she thought about this place and their food she said, "Simply amazing. Their salads were fresh and had lots of flavor. Cheapest lunch date we've ever had along with great service. Most definitely blows Vic's right out of the water."
Read on as the search continues....

Pizza Saves the Meal

Monday, February 20, 2012

Piccola Italia

I am now fifth week of my Italian food blog, and I started to run out of options for restaurants in downtown. Thankfully, my roommate Alexandria, told me about an Italian place in Cameron Village called Piccola Italia.

The restaurant is located at 423 Woodburn Rd.

After hearing about their great lunch menu from Alex, I thought it would be a great date night for my boyfriend, Daniel and I since the prices where cheap and stayed in our poor college budget.

As we are pulling in, I noticed the nice set up they had outside....

If it was not for the weather, I would have loved to sit and enjoy the fresh air.

Walking inside, It seemed cozy and romantic because they had the lights all around dimmed. The first thing I saw when we got to the hostess table was a sign that said, "After January, 2012, there will be a $5.00 charge if you use a debit/credit card." My only thought was, "This food better be worth it."

Once we were seated, we opened our menu and my jaws literally dropped. Since I love seafood in my pasta, I went straight to the Seafood Entrées and everything was around $20.00-22.00. My thought again, "This food better be worth it."

Since we are broke college students, I decided to stick with an original cheese pizza with bacon on top because even if we split, we would get another $5.00 charge to our bill ... ridiculous.

It was yummy. It was light on the sauce (which I loved), the cheese was stringy and the bacon was crispy.

As for Daniel’s meal, it was horrible.

It had no flavor or seasoning, the chicken was dry and the sauce tasted like it was something bought in the grocery store and out of the can and this meal was almost $18.00.

As for our service, the man was incredibly nice. He was very helpful and quick.

When I asked Daniel if he would ever come back or try something different, he said, "I would come back, but I would come during lunch hour and get something different besides pasta. Hopefully their lunch menu will be under $35.00."

As the search continues, I hope it stays within my budget and taste completely different from something I could make in my own kitchen.

Caffé Luna, Under the Stars

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Caffé Luna

Want a tasty lunch or dinner for a reasonable price and great service? Choosing Caffé Luna was the best decision I made for an Italian restaurant.

It is located at 136 East Hargett Street.

Never thought that 518 West would be booted off my number one list, but after trying this restaurant, there was a new number one in town.

My mother and I went to during lunch time, and along with us there were about 10 other people waiting outside the door as well. As we were seated, more walked in. Probably the most popular place I have been during a lunch hour and it was only even 11:30.

As we were looking over the menu, our waitress asked if we had any questions and as I informed her about doing an Italian food blog on restaurants in downtown Raleigh, she instantly named an item that were their most popular.

The dish was called Fiocchi, which is a fresh pasta stuffed with four Italian cheeses and pear saute in cream with tomatoes. When she described that, I could feel the drool rolling down my mouth. I only wished that it was dinner time ….

After looking at the menu for about twenty minutes, I finally made my decision and went with Faralle al Salmon which is bowtie pasta with fresh salmon in a pink cream sauce.

The way it looks, is exactly how it taste, incredible and delicious along with the fresh salmon and a smooth cream sauce.

Before, eating my lunch, we ate my favorite appetizer, Calamari. It was the best Calamari I have ever eaten in my entire life. It was fresh, lightly breaded with just little seasoning to give it flavor and topped with lemon juice.

Not only was our meal incredible, but the prices were unbelievable too! Especially for a college student! My meal was only $7.95 along with the Calamari being $5.95. A cheap and amazing meal.

After eating our meal, this man came up to our table and asked our names and where we were from. I noticed before how he was going around to every table and after he left, my mother informed me that it was the owner, Mr. Kennedy.

I have never been to a restaurant where the owner would walk around and make a friendly conversation and get to know who you were instead of asking, "Is your meal okay?"

I fell in love. I fell in love with the food, with my waitress and of course Mr. Kennedy. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. I even asked him if I could make a reservation for dinner tonight, he simply replied back, "Of course. I'll put you right on there."

When we were walking out, I noticed a picture frame that held an article from the Southern Living about Caffé Luna. It talked about the food and the paintings that hung on the walls that Mr. Kennedy's wife, Nicole had painted.

There was a lot of history behind this place and the owners, I only wish I had time to read the entire article.

Not only was the food delicious, but the atmosphere and history behind it made it even more remarkable. I think coming here once or even twice a week would be beyond perfect. I am that addicted after my first time going.

Wine and Dine

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

518 West

This Italian Restaurant is probably my favorite place to eat in downtown Raleigh. I love the atmosphere and the cozy feeling it gives you as soon as you walk through the door.

The restaurant is located at 518 W. Jones St. - Raleigh, NC 27603. This place is great for any occasion. Whether it is for celebrations, lunch and dinner or maybe even a place for a little romance, 518 is the place to go!

I celebrated my 21st birthday here with great friends and family and when selecting my topic for my blog, 518 West was the only place on my mind for some fantastic Italian food. Their wine/beer list is very reasonable and comes with a variety of selections.

Just like my last two blogs, my mother has tagged along once again. Not that I can complain, because I get a free meal, great company and also great advice when choosing my meals.

We started off by sitting at the bar and having a nice soothing glass of wine called Reich Graf von Kesselstat - Josephhofer - Riesling Kabinett '10 Germany. For just two glasses of wine, it was a little less than 20 dollars, which I thought was not bad considering the bottle itself was $37.00.

Since I forgot to take pictures, compliments of their Facebook page, this is just a little glance of the bar.

While waiting for our table to get ready, I interviewed a lady who was sitting next to us at the bar and she said, "518 is amazing, period. Just amazing. There isn't too many places where you can find an Italian restaurant for cheap and with great service. I try and come here about once a week and the food and company never gets old" and she was absolutely correct!

  

After our glass of wine, we went upstairs and ate dinner looking over the lower level scenery. It was so peaceful and romantic because they had the lights dim that reflected on our table. I even wished my boyfriend was there with me, but mother will just have to do!

How amazing does that look? And it only gets better from here....

For my meal, I had The Crab which is red pepper papardelle pasta tossed with a dill cream sauce along with mixed of wild mushrooms, with scallions and bacon topped with fresh crab meat.

It was heaven to my mouth. The spices brought out the cream sauce and the bacon was crispy. As for the fresh crab meat, I could have just eaten it by itself and would have been perfectly okay.

Not only was this meal incredible, but also if you come during their lunchtime from 11:30 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. you will not walk away disappointed and the price for this delicious meal was only $10.95.

I am starting to enjoy these free, cheap meals once a week and everything going to my thins, but thankfully 518 West did not let me down like last weeks spot at Vic's did.

Read on as the journey continues....

Linguine or Pooguine?

Vic's Italian Restaurant

January 31, 2012

After eating that yummy meal at Gravy last week it was hard for me to decide which restaurant to choose next. I was suppose to be going to Caffe Luna but as I walked up I realized they were not open until 11:30 and since I had a class at 12:30, my mother insisted on Vic's Italian Restaurant. I was highly upset!

Vic's is located at 331 Blake Street, Raleigh North Carolina. I have never heard of this place before so I was a little worried about trying it. When we walked in the first thing I notice was the beautiful paintings on the wall. I honestly felt like I was having lunch on the streets of Italy.

What I loved most about these paintings were the colors and how they make the picture come alive.

For this one, I loved the view that it gave from the buildings and how peaceful the water is.

I love seafood. I think it is my weakness and it seems that even when I cook or go to restaurants, seafood must be the main ingredient. With that said, I decided to try the Linguine alla Mario which is a Linguine pasta with shrimp and broccoli smothered in garlic and olive oil sauce. Can we say yum?

Though it sounds and looks delicious, as I ate the noodles, all I could taste was the olive oil. I felt like I was drinking it right out of the drainer. Besides the noodles, the flavor of the garlic did not even exist and the shrimp was very plain and cold.

Disappointment was not even the word to describe how my food tasted and usually if I do not like something I will try and at least eat half of it but my stomach was just screaming "DO NOT DO IT!" So I listened.

As we finished our meal, I asked my mother what she thought about the restaurant and if she would come back and she said, "I enjoyed my meal and the environment made it feel cozy, but if you really want a nice Italian meal I would choose another location that has more to offer."

Walking out dissatisfied and a horrible stomach ache was not the answer I was looking for but searching for Italian restaurants obviously is a challenge. Hopefully the next one I try will be a winner!