While my evil Dell was on the fritz, I had the opportunity to sample a few new restaurants:
Paula's Cazuela-During my most recent getaway to St. George with Nats and our upstairs neighbor, Shaniqua. We decided to take a weekend and go golfing while it warm. Nats had heard of this restaurant on a previous trip with some friends of hers who live in St. George. Shaniqua and I were up for trying something new. This quaint little Mexican restaurants is located just off one of the main highways in town up on top of a small hill or ridge, if you will.
We were seated after a brief wait and although the waitress took some sweet time even acknowledging us, or taking our drink order, I thought the food was very good. Homemade chips and salsa, what's not to love about that! I didn't love the dish I ordered, but I wasn't in the mood for a salad...let alone a salad on top of a ranch dressing filled chicken burrito. Normally the ranch thing wouldn't bother me, but I wanted something different. Both Nats and Shaniqua ordered the Chile Verde Burrito (pork burrito with a spicy green sauce...its actually quite on the milder side of spicy). They shared some of their excess sauce with me so I could somewhat enjoy what I ordered. I would go here again, next time I am in town, to try some of their other menu items.
Pizzeria 712-This restaurant is located off of State Street in Orem inside the enormous monstrosity that is the Midtown Village condos (which are still and will forever and always be under construction it seems). Anyway, one of my friends, Harper, suggested we go there one night to try it out. They had just opened and she had heard good things about it. We got about five us together to go, Me, Nats, Harper,
Idyllic Ideas, and Messervy.
We weren't sure if it was going to work out the night we went however, because when we arrived, we discovered that the restaurant was SUPER TINY, and there was a lot of people waiting to get in. Luckily for us, we had just the right amount of people, and that size of table just happened to open up!!! Take that all you little gross couples making out in the tiny lobby!!! Anyway, we had no idea how things worked there, and the menu seemed a little intimidating at first. We asked the waiter to explain some of the menu items to us, and kind of the general gist of the "system." All of the pizzas are made with thin crusts so one person can pretty much eat their own pizza. Some people share one also, but I am with
Joey Tribbiani when he says:
"Joey doesn't share food!"I allowed myself to however, on this night, so I could see what everything was about. We ordered four pizzas so we could all share. We had to ask about a few of the different sounding toppings, but soon discovered that they are just the real authentically Italian ingredient most commonly used in Italy (Speck=Prosciutto or Cured Ham, Sopressatta=Pepperoni...go figure!). We got one that was just plain cheese with basil like a margarita style, another one of those with the pepperoni added, one with the speck and pepperoni, and another one I could find on their website menu that was more of a white pizza. (Help me out guys if you remember or if you have been there cause I can't remember from a month ago what it all entailed!) I think it had like five cheeses and garlic but it had a different sauce other than just a regular tomato. This one was everyones favorite, although the other ones we got were fabulous in in their own right!!!
The atmosphere of the restaurant is fun, they have a few waiters, and what appeared to be only two guys acting as cooks. The have a big brick style oven, and the two guys are right there behind a counter making it in front of you! Everything out in the open! As I mentioned before, I couldn't believe how small the place was. I can't imagine them not expanding either within the same complex, or franchising to another location. They will be that popular!
La Dolće Vita-I have wanted to try this restaurant for a very long time, but now that I have, I wish I had left it to my imagination and wondering. I went with a big group of friends to celebrate a mass birthday. Three of my friends had birthdays in March, so we decided to all go out to dinner once to celebrate. Some of the guys said it was good, so I was excited to finally try it out. This restaurant is located just around the corner from Ottavio's in Provo off of Center Street, and around the other corner from the big Wells Fargo complex on the side.
At first, I was extra excited because I found another place that made Gnocchi! Pronounced n-yo-kee. For those of you not familiar with this little delight, they are associated a couple of different ways. Potato dumpling, or ricotta dumpling. It is either mashed up potatoes or ricotta cheese and flour and salt...that's it. I LOVE ME some Gnocchis! Anyway, so I found a little combination platter on the menu that came with 1/2 penne alfredo, and 1/2 gnocchi marinara. I like the alfredo sauce the best with gnocchi's, so I figured since the dish already came with alfredo, they couldn't charge me an extra $2 to get a different sauce like some places. When I asked the waiter if I could get it all alfredo with no marinara, his response shocked me to the point where I wanted to get up and leave. He says that the dish is
pre-made with the sauces already on the pasta that way, and then it just gets
heated up.
Are you kidding me??? What kind of so called Italian Restaurant PRE-MAKES pasta that way, and why would I want to eat something that was made who knows how long ago and possibly frozen and re-heated??? Let's just say that when the food came out, it wasn't as hot as you would think food that's just been cooked/re-heated should be. It pretty much tasted how I anticipated...soggy gnocchi's and luke warm temperature...neither are a good combination. I will not go back to this restaurant...it's over priced for that kind of quality, the service was lousy, and it's just not that good. Stay away, unless you like really bad "Italian Food" if that's what you can even call it!
