Donatelli's - White Bear Lake, MN

When I walked through the door and saw an ice-cream parlor, I didn't expect to be dining on Italian food.  But, if you pay attention then you'll notice the daily specials posted on the wall which clearly have nothing to do with ice-cream.  Donatelli's was not a diner, I didn't drive-in so,  that leaves dive.   I didn't think that it was that much of a dive, just a little confusing.

Being originally from New York, I think that I have a pretty good handle on what an italian restaurant is supposed to be.  So, to add to my confusion, the smells of pizza from the ovens was noticably abscent. I could see the ovens on the way to the back of the restaurant but, no baking bread and tomato scents.  Still confused.

My patience with the place was well rewarded however.  First, hospitality to be really good.  In fact, I found the hospitality everywhere in Minnesota to probably be some of the best in the whole country.  People are just genuinely nice.

Then, I experienced my first bite.  I ordered the baked linguini carbonara.  WOW!  Very rewarding indeed.  It came out piping hot from the oven on a second cooler plate that you could actually look at without getting third degree burns.  It was cheesy, smokey and chewy all at once.  The smoke flavor coming from the bacon was perfect as was the amount of cheese charring from having been baked.  The peas added just a bit of color and chimed into the mix also perfectly.  OK, any previous dining sins had just been forgiven.

I've had linguini carbonara plenty of times before and it really wasn't like this.  I didn't get lost in Donatelli's carbonara sauce.  Usually, the carbonara sauce is the most dominant thing on the plate at most italian restaurants.  Donatelli's carbonara sauce just brought out the best from the homemade pasta, chicken, bacon and peas. 

I was enjoying this plate so much that I actually temporarily forgot how other restaurants prepared the meal.  This just seemed like the way it should be.

As the plate cooled down, you could start to really pick out the individual flavors. Chicken was sliced fairly thin and the bacon fairly thick so that they were both about the same size.  The bacon was more chewy than crunchy and it was very lean.  

There was no bread brought out before meal. But my meal came with bread.  I found it to be a bit disappointing.  It had the soft wonder bread crust instead of the hard Italian bread crust.  The taste was kind of blah also.  I only took one bit of bread.  I absolutely did not go away hungry though.  The linguini was really filling.  I couldn't eat all of it.

I'd give Donatelli's an 8.8.   The pasta alone is worth driving out of your way to find.  Go there hungry!

Donatelli's
2692 East County Road E
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
http://donatellis.com/
651.777.9199