Chocolate Hazelnut Torte – $5.95 (1 slice)

Creamy, but not thick hazelnut chocolate ganache is sandwiched by a light hazelnut sponge cake. The sponge cake is airy providing a nice bounce with each bite into the cake. Finished with a hazelnut buttercream on the outside. The lightness of the ganache doesn’t make you thirst desperately after eating it, but a nice cup of tea or warm milk goes well with it.

92 Spruce Street, Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 861-5190

Fettuccine Amatriciana – $6.75

A simple Tuscan Italian dish. Fettuccine was ‘al dente’ meaning it is well-cooked, but still with the firmness when you bite into the pasta. The pasta when bitten does fight back with a bounce, so watch out for the sauce splash. Amatriciana is a garlic and  spicy tomato sauce with minced pieces of pancetta. The pancetta, dried cured pork, is salty which goes well with the garlicky sauce and the pancetta gives you a chewy feedback. Topped with fragrant parsley. Well done.

313 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA 02446
Phone: (617) 232-2661

Linguine ai Ricci di Mare – $19.00 (smaller portion available)

Truly a delectable experience. The linguine has a bounce to it when you chew on the pasta (relatively good indication that they know how to make pasta). Not only was the pasta cooked right, but the linguine was stirred within a huge parmesan cheese mold using the heat from the pasta to slowly cover the pasta evenly with cheese in a laundry-like process. To top it off, fresh uni (sea urchin) was generously scattered below the plate with the addition of the house-made pink sauce. The pink sauce and the uni brought subtle sweetness to the uniformly covered parmesan linguine.

Cioppino $21

This is an assorted seafood in a spicy white wine tomato broth with garlic bruschetta.

This popular dish at Gio’s gives you a good amount of seafood, very large shrimps,
mussels, clams, fish, baby crab legs, scallops, squid and baby octopus.
The seafood was very fresh and the timing handled well, nothing was overcooked.
The tangy flavors of the wine and tomato broth were well balanced,
the texture was just right, not too soupy and not too thick.
I only wish they had served more bruschetta for me to clean the clay pot.

Gio’s Downtown
701 Market Street, St. Louis, MO 63101
(314) 241-2424

Roasted Littleneck Clams – $25.00 (lunch)

A plate of littleneck clams bathed in a tangy spicy red sauce with scallions. The light sauce has hints of tomato paste and white wine similar to moules frites. On top of the entree are three baked garlic bruschettas which may be too hard for the average customer to eat without cutting up their gum, but the plentiful sauce allows the bruschetta to soak up and soften. The ideal way to tackle the meal should have plucked clams on the soaked bruschetta eaten in one bite, but that is typically impossible with this kind of dish, so expect a mess. I suggest take a bite out of the bruschetta and then fork a clam, simple and easy. The clam meat may be small, but the dish has enough clams to provide a satisfying meal.

550 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
Phone: (617) 423-0550

Fedelini with Tiny Clams, Smashed Cherry Tomatoes, and Parsley – $20.00

Ideal pasta should have the bouncy feel to it when you handle it. At Alta Strada, their fedelini is just perfect to Italian standards. The amazingly bouncy thin pasta is mixed with a light tomatoe sauce with smashed cherry tomatoes and parsley as its entree name indicates so. Some may prefer a heavy sauce to their pastas, but I personally favor a light sauce with my pasta. Tiny cooked clams are also part of the dish which add a little seafood twist to the entree.

92 Central Street, Wellesley, MA
Phone: (781) 237-6100

Thinly Sliced Prosciutto with Fig Jam and Crostini 15.00

The sweet fig jam is infused in the toasted slice of bread where you can layer the thinly sliced prosciutto (cured/aged ham) to eat it together. Truly a delightful appetizer under the Primi (first course) section on the menu.

92 Central Street, Wellesley, MA