Sunday, December 2, 2007

My Favorite Toledo Area Italian Restaurants







My Favorite Toledo Area Italian Restaurants
We are very fortunate to have so many options in this category. My list includes Mancy’s Italian Grill, Ciao!, Bravo, and Biaggi’s. Their greatest commonality is infused olive oil to dip very high quality bread and freshly prepared, fresh ingredients. They all also have delicious salmon dishes that are cooked perfectly – not overdone. I’ve had the best eggplant parmesan at Mancy’s Italian Grill http://www.mancys.com/italian/ . Unfortunately, they’ve taken this off the menu; but it had the crispiest eggplant layered with ricotta cheese in between with delicious red sauce and high-quality mozzarella on top. I’ve never had it that way, ever. If you’re reading this Mancy Boys, please bring this back on your menu. Lunch at Mancy’s Italian Grill is a different menu with options of Due where you select smaller versions of two items – it’s a perfect afternoon retreat!

Ciao! http://www.ciaorestaurant.com/pages/ciao_news.html is also a delicious experience; they’re not open for lunch but dinner is fabulous. There are weekly specials that include new, interesting items and the regular menu so you can order your favorites. A delicious, different pasta is the smoked chicken tortelloni. It’s creamy, cheesey, and thoroughly enjoyable. Because it is so rich, it’s best to split this or plan to take half home for tomorrow. Although I find left-overs never taste anywhere near as good as when first served. A great benefit of Ciao! is the Birthday Dinner Promo:
“An Extraordinary Birthday Discount As Our Way To Saying Thank You For Choosing Us And Happy Birthday! Join Us On Your Birthday And Receive Up To 50% Off Your Meal. This Offer Extends To Anyone On Their Birthday And Is Based On The Number Of People In The Party, For Example 2 People Dining 50% Off, 3 People Dining = 33% Off, 4 People Dining = 25% Off And So On.
Offer extends to the food portion of the bill only and proper id is required for proof of birthday. Not valid with any other promotion.”

Bravo and Biaggi’s are newer additions to our area and both are incredibly wonderful, too. http://www.bravoitalian.com/ and http://www.biaggis.com/. I once sat at the kitchen bar at Bravo with my daughter who was three at the time and we had a great time interacting with the chefs. Biaggi’s has the best spinach salad I’ve ever tasted.

I should add I recently tried the new La Scala on Airport Hwy and was rather disappointed. The eggplant parmesan was greasy, and my friend’s tri-sauced manicotti was very over-sauced. The dipping oil had this snake-looking thing in it which turned out to be a tasteless garlic paste. The service was mediocre at best. But the decorations were lovely, you would think you were in a different world when you sit down in the dining room. I’ve heard others had a better experience so I plan to try them again. Please let me know what you think about this new restaurant.







1 comment:

Rebecca Liebes said...

Since posting this I've heard from George Mancy that Mancy's Italian Grill offers $15 off your entree on your birthday.