Vittoria Ristorante-Date Night Out (Valerie)

05/23/2011

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Talk about a surprise!  My husband signed himself up for Groupon Deals all by himself, then bought a deal to Vittoria Ristorante!  Vittoria is located at 10241 Sawmill Pkwy, Powell, OH 43065, 614-791-8100 in a small plaza in Powell.  When we arrived the staff was very well organized and  friendly.  The decor inside Vittoria is breath taking and I don't imagine I would choose that description very often.  Lots of darks woods and high vaulted ceilings. Gorgeous decor.  The ambience was quiet.  This was not a place that had music blaring super loud and a hip bar crowd.  Our server was very attentive but not intrusive.  Many of the wines featured were Italian wines.  We started out with a bottle of Pinot Grigio, Casa Liliana, Veneto.  Very nice and smooth but a hefty nose.  We ordered Shrimp Cocktail for an appetizer and also enjoyed bread and dipping oil to start.   Choosing an entree was hard as there were many tempting selections.  I opted to get the Ravioli Alichia.  I was very intrigued by the idea of Vittoria making homemade noodles for their dishes.  The Ravioli Alichia was stuffed ground beef, spinach, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses topped with tomato sauce.  The raviolis were huge and plated beautifully. I was thrilled to that the ravioli noodle was made fresh.  My Gramma would occasionlly make fresh pasta and it is 100% better than the stuff ready made in the store.  The filling was hearty and I enjoyed the fresh spinach and herbs.  I of course had to ask for more tomato sauce because I love my pastas dripping in sauce!   I also ordered a meatball to see how it stood up to Little Joe's favorite at Tommy's Pizza.    The meatball mixture was different than the ravioli filling and had a good flavor, but Tommy's meatball and sauce are still superior!  My husband, Brian, had the Baked Gnocchi which is served with a cream sauce and topped with prosciutto.  I had a little taste of the gnocchi and I did not think the dumplings were made in house, but maybe they were.  Brian and I were so stuffed we decided not to get dessert, and ordered cappuccinos to end our meal.  Vittoria is a little gem on the corner of this plaza.  I highly suggest you visit Vittoria for a quiet evening out and taste the authentic italian cuisine.  http://www.vittoriacolumbus.com/index.htm   SMAC Approved
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C.Williams Bistro-Girls Night Out (Mona)

05/18/2011

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Crab cakes-it was okay..
I (Mona) have an organized book club with my group of friends.  This time we read and were going to be discussing the book "Room" by Emma Donoghue.  The restaurant I chose was C. Williams Bistro because it is listed as the "Best New Restaurants in 2009" so I decided that we should head to Powell to check it out!  The cuisine at the restaurant is what I would consider Classic American Bistro-steaks, lobster, fish and pasta. The group wound up consisting of 4 people that evening, so my friend Rene asked if we could be seated at a smaller table--we were sitting at a table for 8.  We were politely told "No" because the other tables had been reserved.  We had all ordered our drinks and then I think we waited another 20 minutes before we actually ordered our food.  All of us weren't really that hungry for $20+ plus meals ,so we ordered appetizers/soup/salads among the 4 of us. Supriya had ordered the Spinach salad and wanted to substitute the blue cheese for goat cheese and she also ordered the Crab cakes.  I ordered the Crab cakes too (with chipotle sauce) and the cabbage soup with andouille sausage.  Rene and Kelly split the Fried Calamari with Chipolte mayo appetizer.  Then, Rene ordered the Shrimp and Grits (cheesy grits with andoullie sausage and shrimp) and Kelly ordered the Risotto and Lobster.(creamy risotto with parm cheese, peas, prosciutto and lobster)
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Tasteless Fried Calamari!
After we ordered, I think we waited yet another 25 minutes for drink refills (esp. for Rene who ordered iced tea!) and for some bread.  Looking around the restaurant, you could see people just sitting there waiting for their food and it wasn't even that BUSY! (Oh and those tables that we could not sit at because they were reserved--we did not see anyone fill those seats!)  I think another 15 minutes rolled by (mind you that we were VERY hungry at this point) and Supriya's salad was the first to come out.  She quickly noticed that they had not subsititued the blue cheese for the goat cheese as she had originally requested.  She just went on to eat it because she was so hungry.  When the waitress came back, Supriya told her about the mix up and she said that there was a new "salad person" so that was probably the problem.  Again, at this point, Supriya did not want to send the salad back even though the waitress said she could--she didn't care at this point!  Then, the chef came out to apologize (really for a salad??) and offered to exchange it but she had already told him that she ate more than half of the salad already and didn't want to eat another one!  Rene asked us both to try the calamari and we all agreed that all we tasted was the batter--no salt or pepper seasoning here!  Rene said her Shrimp and Grits were good and Kelly said he Risotto and Lobster was okay.  I did think that the cabbage and andouille soup was outstanding--I really liked the "heat" of the andoullie sausage! Supriya and I agreed that this was not the best crab cakes that we had ever tasted.
All in all, we were disappointed with our experience. Even though some of the food was decent, the wait for the food,  (over and hour for mostly appetizers!) and the bad wait staff service was not what we were expecting from a expensive restaurant.  Rene complained directly to the manager about the calamari and we were shocked when the manager argued with Rene about how many people like the "beer battered taste" of the calamari. Weird!  Most managers would say, "I am so sorry and I will take that off of your bill".  (Later we learned from the waitress that their cliente is mostly the 60+ crowd--does that mean they lose all of their taste buds???) It wasn't until we got the bill, that Rene noticed that the calamari was taken off of the bill.  They also removed Supriya's salad mix up off of her bill too.  I believe we got there at 7pm and didn't leave until almost 9 pm--and that was with pushing them to give us the bill to get out of there!  Valerie was unable to attend, and she thinks that there is something wrong with this strip plaza in Powell because she had a bad experience with Brooklyn Pizza which is in the same plaza!  (http://smacolumbus.weebly.com/1/post/2011/02/pizza-adventure-2-brooklyn-pizza-powell-jan-2011.html)  Obviously, we are all never going to go back here again!
SMAC Not Approved!
http://www.cwilliamsbistro.com/index.html
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Delicious Cabbage soup with andouille sausage!
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