eat2winraleigh » Italian

Mambo Italiano

eat2winraleigh — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:16:14 +0000

Mambo Italiano is located in Apex on West Williams Street in the old Cinelli’s space.

We haven’t eaten a full meal here so we can’t do a full review, but we stopped in to Mambo Italiano this weekend since we are constantly searching for good Italian food like you can get in NY. The owners are a couple from Long Island. Mambo Italiano has a family style menu and we ordered a couple of appetizers to bring with us to our friends’ house on Saturday night. We ordered the cold antipasto appetizer, the hot antipasto appetizer and the fried zucchini. The hot antipasto appetizer has eggplant rolletini, baked clams and stuffed mushrooms (wouldn’t recommend the clams but the other 2 were good). So anyways, Mambo Italiano might be somewhere to try for NY Italian food, we will make a visit for dinner and update the review!

Tweet This Post

Vic's Ristorante Italiano Restaurant Review

Bella Italia Restaurant Review

eat2winraleigh — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:22:01 +0000

Bella Italia is located in a shopping center near the intersection of Falls of the Neuse and Durant road in North Raleigh, close to Wake Forest.

The New Yorker- I ordered the Chicken Parmesan. The chicken was tender but I didn’t like the red sauce. Good hot bread served before the meal. Mediocre salads come with the meal. The Pasta Fagioli soup was loose and liquidy. The pizza looked and smelled good but we didn’t get a chance to try it.

The Raleigh-ite- I ordered the Italian Wedding soup and the Chicken Saltimbocca. I really enjoyed the soup; it had 3 medium sized meatballs and great flavor. The pasta and the sauce on the Chicken Saltimbocca was good, the sauce was a thin, light, lemon sauce. The chicken with proscuitto tasted rubbery and kinda bland. The green beans on the side tasted like they had been frozen.

Do over? Bella Italia is a 20 minute drive for us, and we won’t be doing the drive again just to eat at this Italian restaurant. If we are in the area, we could be tempted to stop by and try the pizza.

9/07/09- We ordered 1 diet pepsi, 1bowl Italian Wedding soup, 1 bowl Pasta e FaFagioli, 1 Chicken Parmesan, 1 Chicken Saltimbocca. Total: $44.53

Bella Italia Chicken Parmesean

Bella Italia Chicken Saltimbocca

Tweet This Post

Cameron Bar & Grill

eat2winraleigh — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:32:59 +0000

Cameron Bar & Grill is located in the Cameron Village shopping center in Raleigh.

The New Yorker- We ordered the grilled shrimp cocktail–light coleslaw with 5 grilled shrimp on a skewer. Perfect app, great seasoning on the shrimp. I ordered Chicken Parmesan with linguine and red sauce. The chicken was lightly breaded, not too fried, good flavor. Good portion for lunch–1 breast of chicken, if it was a dinner portion it would have been a little small.

The Raleigh-ite- We ate at Cameron Bar & Grill for lunch today. Great outdoor seating– very comfortable, nice outdoor furniture. Clean, simple but comfortable look to the inside. Upscale-ish menu. I ordered the Caprese salad. It was 3 tomatoes with mozzerella, balsamic vinigrette and a side of greens. It was a perfect, light lunch (if I was more hungry, this would have been too small). The balsamic has some interesting seasoning and was very good on the tomatoes.

Do over ? Definitely be back.

8/19/2009 – We ordered: 1 grilled shrimp cocktail, 1 caprese salad, 1 chicken parmigiana, 1 diet coke. Total : $29.47

9/29/2009- We ordered: 2 glasses of Merlot, 1 hlf lb shrimp appetizer, 1 cup vegetable soup, 1 caprese salad, 1 caesar side salad, 1 80z filet. Total: $62.26 ( We had a restaurant.com $25 off coupon so the total with the coupon was $37.26)

Cameron Bar and Grill 8oz filet

Tweet This Post

Daniel’s Restaurant Review

eat2winraleigh — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:49:15 +0000

Daniel’s is located in Apex right off Hwy 55. Daniels is a freestanding building with inside and outside dining areas. They have a sister restaurant in Fuquay-Varina.

We ate here for the first time last night. Daniel, the owner, was there and we met him. Dan wanted to talk NY with him, of course, and he told us he moved down here in 1992.

The New Yorker – Chicken Parmesan was very close to what you get in NY. Best salad I have had down here (Greek salad). We will be back. They serve bread at the beginning of the meal with a side of red sauce.

The Raleigh-ite – I didn’t love my entree (penne alla casa), but I did LOVE the salad I ordered (it was on the specials menu, fresh white corn summer salad). The sauce on the entree was very rich, making it hard to eat very much. The salad had such a great flavor, white corn, tomatoes and an awesome dressing.

Antipasti salad not nearly as good as the corn summer salad, but it was still a decent salad. Good sized, fresh greens, nice light dressing. Chicken Piccatta has very light wine sauce–kinda runny but tasty. I like that you can order the dishes with vegetables instead of pasta to cut down on the calories/carbs.

Do over? The New Yorker willing to drive to Apex (15 minutes from us ) for this, not the Raleigh-ite (well, at least not without the summer salad).

7/11/2009- We ordered: 2 glasses of Riesling, 1 glass of Merlot, Greek Salad, Special Salad, Penne alla Casa, Chicken Parmesan, Side Meat Balls, Tiramisu. Total : $73.76

7/15/2009- We ordered (takeout): Greek Salad, Antipasti Salad, Chicken Parmesean with Broccoli (instead of pasta) , Chicken Piccata with Broccoli, 1 side of sausage. Total: $50.59

Tweet This Post

San Carlo Restaurant Review

eat2winraleigh — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:38:48 +0000

San Carlo is located on Falls of the Neuse road near the 540 interchange.

Danny- Ate chicken Parmesan ; it was very good. Didn’t need a knife to cut it. Best Italian I’ve had yet. Great garlic bread.

Jessica- Quiet place in a shopping center. Small, limited seating. Had the Caprese salad. It was OK.

Do over? Would go again, if in the area.

Tweet This Post

Vic's Ristorante Italiano Restaurant Review

eat2winraleigh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:22:35 +0000

Vic’s is located in the City Market area in downtown Raleigh. Small place with a few tables outside.

The New Yorker- Terrible Italian. Won’t eat here again. Bland. Red Sauce- not what I’m looking for. I could taste the oil/grease from where they cooked my chicken.

The Raleigh-ite – Antipasto appetizer was good–nice selection of cheese, meat and olives Didn’t like my meal here. I had Chicken Picatta and I didn’t enjoy it. Nice atmosphere for experiencing downtown City Market area at night. Eating outside here is very pleasant (minus the food).

Do over? Would visit Vic’s again to sit outside and have a glass of wine & cheese.

Tweet This Post

Anna's Pizza Restaurant Review

eat2winraleigh — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:00:48 +0000

Anna’s Pizza is located on the corner of Salem street and Chatham street in Apex.

The New Yorker – The owner of Anna’s pizza is from NY. Very close to Italian that I’m looking for. Chicken parmigiana very tender.

The Raleigh-ite – For me, Anna’s is nothing special. I had 2 slices of pizza that were good. I’m not in a rush to go back.

Do over? For a quick, casual Italian meal we will be back to Anna’s.

Tweet This Post

Ruckus Pizza Review

eat2winraleigh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:28:09 +0000

The original Ruckus Pizza is located in the Mission Valley shopping center in Raleigh near NCSU. The newer Ruckus, that we visit, is located in the Tryon Village shopping center in Cary on the corner of Walnut street and Tryon road.

The New Yorker – Great variety. Great wraps. Pizza–better than average. Don’t love the red sauce compared to NY.

Overall great place for lunch or dinner.

The Raleigh-ite – Perfect lunch spot. Always get a delicious meal. LOVE the ranch bacon chicken wrap; its probably my favorite wrap ever. Also great place to go for a beer.

I used to be really in to Ruckus, but they keep messing up my takeout orders. I emailed them about them getting wrong like 10 takeout orders in a row, and they never emailed me back. So I’m not so into Ruckus anymore

Do over? Looking forward to eating dinner here to explore more of the menu.

Tweet This Post

Cinellis Restaurant Review

eat2winraleigh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:32:06 +0000

Cinellis is located at The Shoppes of Kildaire in Cary.

The New Yorker – Meatballs were good. Red sauce–not so good. Just OK Italian food. Not NY-style.

We ate at Cinellis in Apex and it seemed much better–willing to give Apex location another try, not this one.

The Raleigh-ite – Was a mediocre meal. No plans to go back. Located in what looks like an outdated Wendy’s-style building. Appeared like we were the only 2 customers in the restaurant.

Do Over? Probably not.

4/29/2009- We Ordered: Diet Coke, Side of Meatballs & House Salad, Chicken Parmigiana, Chicken Francese. Total Bill : $42.93

Tweet This Post