When you are late for Lunch and the restaurant you really wanted to go to, has waiting for 15 minutes and is only 20 minutes away from last order – What do you do????

Wander about aimlessly and weigh your choices…. Not wanting to repeat any place, where you have already been and also trying to find one which serves liquor (coz most of the eateries here are newly opened) can require you to work more combinations than your recent password changes.

So we finally landed at Italiano.. The warm aroma wafts through the cosy, little outlet.

Food 3/5 – We ordered one LIIT and a Kingfisher Ultra for drinks. The LIIT was average, nothing to write about. Beer.. well.. how can one go wrong with that..

For starters, we chose a Chicken Caesar Salad and Veg Panzarotti with Spicy Salsa Verde.. Salsa Verde is the “green salsa”(made with green tomatoes called tomatillo.. traditionally in mortal and pestle to give it a bit rough texture)..

The panzarotti is something like fried dumplings veg stuffing – Cheese & Mushroom… I quite liked the taste.. crisp on outside and soft inside.. the salsa verde was not spicy at all.. and too much olive oil kind of subdued the flavour of the dip.. The salad was fresh, chicken chunks were done to the taste, no rubbery taste there..

For main course, we ordered Sicilian style Risotto – Arborio rice cooked with butter, onion, white wine, saffron, parmesan and chicken sausages in brown sauce.. this for me was the highlight of the meal.. Subtle yet flavorsome.. the sausages melt-in-the mouth. I absolutely loved it..

Your Italian meal is not complete until you have had a pizza. So we decided to order a Pizza alla Rucola – pizza with cheese and rocket leaves. This was a let-down. Did not enjoy it at all. The pizza had no flavour.. Even the rocket leaves could not add any flavour to the bland pizza. I was more disappointed having read in the menu that it is cooked in wood-fired oven and was really looking forward to bite into some sumptuous pizza.. alas.. not meant to be..

For desserts, we ordered a Cinnamom Gelato and that again impressed me.. the cinnamon texture and taste enhanced the gelato flavour.

Ambience 3/5 - They are on Level 1 and have an open air sit-out area too.. but we chose to dine in-doors.. Once inside you feel comfortable, the music playing in background at a sound-level which lets you have great conversation.. Cute little quotes on “food” and “pasta” on one wall.. Totally loved those. My fave one – I am not a glutton, I am a food explorer (Erma Bombeck).. defines me completely and is going to be used as my defense in future..

Service 3 / 5 - Service is quick and efficient. Smiling would have been a little add-on.. Servers are well informed and help you make good choices. When asked for doggy-packing the food that we couldn’t finish, they forgot to give us the pizza box.. When we remembered to ask, it was promptly brought to us..

For All this, we paid Rs. 2581/- so this place is definitely value for money.

They are trying to stay true to the cuisine they are serving and I admire that. They are not trying to be apologetic and try to indianise it..I will visit again to try many more things on offer – pasta, lasagne, ravioli.. so much more to try..

Buon appetito my amici..