A taste of Little Italy

Just realized I have like a bazillion posts in draft mode, so I'll try and post as many of them as possible this morning. So brace for the flood.

Last Thursday night, went to this nice Italian place called Little Italy. The place is all vegetarian but had the largest selection of vegetarian Italian dishes that I have ever seen. And the food was excellent.

We arrived there a little after 8, prime dinner time in India, and were seated immediately. The place was busy though, so I am making reservations next time. The decor was modern yet warm, with dark brown (wenge, yes wenge :)) wooden panels and tables. Candles on each table along with soft hidden lighting made for a great setting. Not a great place for a date though, it was loud. There were five of us and I couldn't hear a thing being said on the other end.

The one thing that I have found interesting about restaurants in Hyderabad is that everything is multi-cuisine. Little Italy was no exception. Two pages of Antipasti, then pasta, then pizzas, desert - and bang, Mexican. Eh, Italian, Mexican; what's the difference - same latitude. The same latitude theory did suffer a setback from the lack of Indian dishes on the menu.

If only the multi-cuisine episode would end there. Apparently, the place has two restaurants and you can order from either menu. The other restaurant, Bean Me Up, which I initially assumed to be a Start Trek themed restaurant, offers a delectable array of soy bean salads and dishes. The wait staff must have had instructions to push this soy stuff pretty hard coz we got 3 Bean Me Up menus and only 1 for Little Italy. We politely sent the soy menu back and asked for some more menus with the Italian offerings.

Satya, my friend from high school, and Douwe, the other Engineering ambassador for Hyderabad, ordered beer, which in itself was an adventure (everything is at this point :)). The restaurant didn't have Kingfisher, a beer that Douwe has a bit of history with. It was the first beer he had when he crossed over from Pakistan into India on his trip from Europe to India, by bus. Back to the beer. The choices were Fugherers or Rowyul Shalenge. What? Fukkers or Ruey'all Shalange. I'm Sorry, what was that again. Ooooh, I get it , Foster's or Royal Challenge. Two RCs please. I gave the ladies company with water.

The food started showing up shortly, in somewhat of a random order. First came an appetizer with bruschetta style bread and a mushroom sauce - so good. Then the Nawabi Pizza, a thin crust pizza an amazing tomato sauce and corn. The Caprese was to die for; the mozzarella was fantastic, and plum tomatoes were farm fresh and sweet, the likes of which you can only find in India. We had everything family style, which gave it a feel of being in small plates restaurant; and I am glad we did it that way since everything we ordered was fantastic, and it was good to be able to try out everything.

Will need to come back here to try a few more dishes. And next time I will remember to save room for desert. We had had way too much food to even think about desert. Overall, a great place for my first real meal out in Hyderabad.

Note to self: Need to start taking pictures

PetPuja Rating
------------------
Ambience: 8/10
Food: 10/10
Service: 6/10
Value for money: Good 500-700 per person with the beer.
Good for Groups: Yes
Date Scene: Above Average
Verdict: Will definitely be back for more.