Lusty Italian

We wound up at Rizzuto’s recently. It was on my mind because we were talking about their chargrilled oysters. It had been a while since we visited the place, and it seemed a good idea on a beautiful day to sit outside for an evening meal.

When we arrived I immediately remembered why their outside space had never attracted me, even though I am an al Fresco fanatic. The patio is under roof and outside, but that is where the interest ends. There is absolutely nothing else to recommend it.

Inside is very nice, so we sat there. Then I asked about Happy Hour specials and was told it was only available in the bar and the patio. I went to look at the patio again and even half-price apps couldn’t make me sit there. 

Once inside, we started ordering and as usual, got carried away. We got the baked oysters, which is a more accurate way of describing these. We also couldn’t resist the meatball, because we can never resist a meatball. There was also a tableside Alfredo appetizer and we added that. A crabcake was on the menu, and following my crabcake law that I must get one everywhere, it was added to the order. For entrees Mary Leigh got a wedge salad, I got seafood lasagna, and Tom had the Veal Rizzuto. 

The oysters arrived piping hot and were exactly as I remembered them. These oysters remind me of a stuffed artichoke atop an oyster in a shell. There is no artichoke anywhere, but the herbs, garlic, and Parmesan mixture baked on top is spot on what I taste in any great stuffed artichoke. You can taste good Parmesan. These are just fantastic. There is a little juice in each one, adding to the allure.

The meatball came next, and it was large, nestled in a pool of thick red sauce. When we cut into it we saw that it was situated over a bed of ricotta. Growing up eating Italian food, I was never introduced to the extra-rich decadent version of our culinary Sicilian heritage. Ricotta cheese anywhere near Italian food elevates it considerably. It is almost too rich, but you can’t stop savoring it.

This meatball with ricotta was divine. The red sauce was also spectacularly rich and together these flavors were irresistible, but you really couldn’t eat more than a few bites of this. Splitting it three ways worked.

The Alfredo appetizer done tableside puzzled me. It was $16, so I couldn’t imagine how they could do that for that price. My image is from Impastato’s where it is a portion for three. This was a portion for one, which is understandable at that price, but it seems like a lot of trouble. It too was rich, so the three-way split plan worked. It was very good and hit the spot for a creamy pasta.

The crabcake arrived next, and it is a masterpiece. It is broiled as a mound of crabmeat and herbs and chopped vegetables, held together by magic and broiled. A butter sauce was an enhancement that added to the flavor profile of this too. To my taste, this is a candidate for the best crabcake around.

From there things went downhill. The wedge salad was part of the Balsamic vinegar universe. I’m not a Balsamic vinegar fan usually, but I have had salads where the dressing was terrific. As a drizzle I find it distracting with nothing to recommend it. It even looked like a mess. Mary Leigh is passionate about wedge salads, and she said that she didn’t even like the Bleu cheese, which is sort of a fundamental attraction for her to this menu item. I had a few bites from what she left and while my feelings weren’t nearly as strong, it was, well... meh.

Also on the table was an order of fries, simply because we can't resist these when they are housecut, as I knew these were. They were disappointing because they came to the table dark. I hate dark fried anything because I become highly suspicious of the oil. If one is going to go through the enormous extra effort to do this, keep the oil fresh. Please! Then the fries become a bigger bonus to the table. On the bright side, they were crispy.

By this time I was pretty full, and the seafood pasta arrived after I was done. I had a few bites, and it was very good, but not so good I had to eat it. There was a lot of seafood in it, and there could have been more sauce, but this would have been a very satisfactory choice. I wish I had room for this.

The Veal Rizzuto was thinly pounded veal blanketed in a mix of tomatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, and jumbo lump crabmeat in a lemon butter sauce. Tom was also done by the time the entrees arrived, so it’s hard to tell if he just wasn’t interested in the dish.

I tasted it and the mix of vegetables was good, and the veal was good, but I didn’t understand the fanfare. We didn’t get a steak because we went for Italian, but this part of the menu is also very good, (and very expensive.) I would say that is true of the place in general, but it is really delicious.

At one point I looked up and saw Santino from Andrea’s in the dining room. We always loved him and still do. And that may be another reason to go back to Rizzuto’s, all by itself.