Ever since I came back from Italy, no pizza, pasta nor gelato satisfies me. Everything tastes too Americanized, too “fake.” Nothing tastes as good as real Italian food in Italy. Oh man that was such a wonderful time. I already want to go back and eat more food! Please please!! But reality requires that I fulfill duties here. It will be a while until Italy can happen again.. But I think I found a restaurant that can serve as a good replacement for Italian pizzas and pastas until then.. Ravello Osteria in Monterey Park, CA has got to be the closest to Italy as it can get. And it is in 626!!! What luck!!
The decor of the restaurant was simple and large. The walls were painted bright red and the lights were dim. There were paintings on the wall. As you just walk in, there is a huge fireplace pit for the pizzas. There is loud chatter everywhere as huge parties drink wine and eat and talk. It already looks and feels like Italy. Oh please let the food live up to my hopes too!
And so it did.. Our waiter and all the waiters were super friendly. He gave us our first serving of complimentary toasted bread covered in garlic and butter and olive oil and all the amazing flavors that are soaked into this delicious, crispy, toasty bread. It was so good! We ate all of it! Another waiter came by and refilled our plate! Everyone was so nice and friendly! All the waiters were humorous and laughed and greeted. It was amazing.
traditional napolitano pizza – fennel pizza – fennel sausage, over easy egg, tomato sauce, mozzarella, cherry peppers and red onions. (Made from their special Italian flour, 36-hour recipe). What does this mean? Per our waiter, the owner of the restaurant visited Italy for a year and gathered all of their recipes and knowledge of their food. He brought it back with him to America because he wanted to share what authentic Italian food tasted like. This includes their pizza and their dough. It is different from Americanized pizza. First of all, it is super thin and there’s barely a distinction of crust. The dough also tastes different. We tried it and we loved it. It almost, almost tastes exactly like Italian pizza from Italy. Good job!! And adding an over easy egg right in the middle? How smart and genius! Italians love eggs in their pizza as a topping by the way! 😉
linguini with lobster – Manila clams, cherry tomatoes, garlic, chilies, fresh herbs and brandy, finished with butter and parsley. And the pasta? He nailed it!!! It was not oily at all! Very good! There were a lot of seafood delights in this pasta. Plenty of lobster and it’s cousins!!
I will definitely be back for more when I am having Italian withdrawals! And I will only come back to this place! After you visit Italy, it’ll just not the same to your tastebuds anymore!! I cannot wait to try the rest of their pizzas and eat more of that delicious bread in the beginning.
