You can never pass up a good Italian Restaurant

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to frequent this wonderful Italian Restaurant in Salt Lake called Rino's Italian Restaurant. When I first moved to Utah the one thing I noticed was the lack of family owned, hole in the wall, Italian Restaurants. Coming from Upstate NY you are surrounded by these types of places to eat and of course, the Italians themselves.

One of the first Italian Restaurants that I had been to was Cucina Toscuna. This place was also wonderful, but is considered more "fine dining." Later, I also was introduced to Lugano's, sat on their patio in the early fall, and was highly impressed. I've also tried The Tin Angle and Al Forno's.

Rino's sits in a tuscan home and Italian is what you get from the moment you walk in the door. As we were seated and I looked around at the other people who were eating at Rino's, I noticed they were all older. And by older, I mean between the ages of 50 to 80 years old. One thing that strikes me about this, is that you know these people have been coming to Rino's for years and are well known by the owner. AAAAHHH the owner, Mr. Rino himself who spoke mostly Italian when he visited my table. Not only did he take the time to ask me if everything was alright, but he also recommended some of his favorite dishes, served our food, and spent about 10 minutes speaking to me in Italian and asking me about my background. I fell in LOVE at that very moment! Another fellow Italian that reminded me how bad my Italian is and yet made me feel eager to brush up. More importantly, Mr. Rino showed that he cared about his customers and his presence in the restaurant made me feel at home. To top everything else off the ambiance there created that "I'm in my mother's kitchen" feel and the food was AMAZING!!! I had the shrimp scampi and tasted the gnocchi with eggplant alla caprese. I couldn't get enough. The gnocchi was cooked to perfection (which is impressive because most people don't realize that gnocci is supposed to taste almost overdone). I ended my meal with a coffee and tarami su.

Now let me tell you a few things about my little critical self. I come from a family of amazing women cooks and I come from an area filled with amazing Italian Restaurants. When I became exposed to the Italian in Utah I found myself being very critical and harsh - a tough to please Italian! Now I'm not saying that Cucina Toscuna, Lugano's, The Tin Angle, have bad food, but it's just not "real Italian." I'm looking for exactly what I found at Rino's - an Italian restaurant that makes me feel like home AND has good food! I'm looking forward to going back this summer, sitting on the patio, and trying more items from their menu. The only criticism I can give Rino's is that their sign is Neon - very misleading to what you find inside.

So if you're looking for a new place to check out in Salt Lake, it comes highly recommended from myself - Ms. Cassidy, the one who can't cook Italian to save her life, but sure is good at criticizing other Italians and their cooking style. I must say, my taste buds have been very lucky in my life and because of that, my ass is huge!

Maggio i vostri cuori sono riempiti di gioia ed i vostri tastebuds sono riempiti di amore! Buon Appetito!

And of course, I would not leave any of you without the link:

http://www.rinositalianrestaurant.com/main.php