Amato's Omaha, NE

The first thing that hit me was that it smelled just like an Italian dinner which is exactly what this place is.

Omaha's Amato's Cafe is best known for breakfast.  In fact it is the breakfast ricotta pancakes that makes this place special.

I tried them myself and can testify that they are spectacular.  They don't taste "cheesy" but still like a pancake but richer and more filling.  

Peoples from all over the world somehow know about this place.  I can see why but, I don't know how they do it.  The evidence was a well worn world map with pins for visitors from all over the world.

The atmosphere is typical diner.  The coffees cups were all from Union Pacific railroad.  I'm guessing that they like this place.  It's a little divy.  The chairs were all mismatched chairs, for example.  I kind of like it.

Amato's Cafe
6405 Center St
Omaha, NE 68106

Coco's Italian Market- Nashville, TN

I loved Coco's.  I'm not sure that I've ever been in an Italian market outside of Italy.  There are so many great foods that come from Italy, I'm not sure why.  It was really a market, bakery and restaurant.

When you first walk in, you are in the market.  The market had all kinds of canned and jarred foods, cakes, cookies, you name it.  They also had huge jugs of Nutella with a sign next to it warning people because people have evidently dropped them before probably making a huge mess.

There are a few cold cases.  One had really delicious looking gelato, another one had meats and cheeses.  Yet another had cakes and another chocolates.  They did entice me to try a slice of one of the cakes.  More on that later.  They also had a bar with all kinds of olives, probably for take-out.

The menu was pretty extensive.  They had all of the pasta dishes that you would expect.  I'm told that their pizza is also really good.

I started with an Italian salad; spring mix, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes red onions, roasted red peppers, topped with a vinaigrette.  They claim that they believe in garden to table.

I ordered the vegetable lasagna.  It was served in a baked dish that was incredibly hot when it was served. There was no meat in the dish but, it was filling like there was.  From their menu, the ingredients were "pasta, mushrooms, carrots, sun dried tomatoes and spinach baked with mozzarella, ricotta and egg mixture, Romano and parmesan."  It was really delicious.

So, I went with the veggie lasagna so that I could really indulge with the godiva chocolate cake.  Wow, that was a decadent indulgence.  You can probably get that at the cheesecake factory, but this place just put me in the mood.

Overall, I would rate coco's 9.3 on a 10 point scale.  Service was also really good.  Our server was really friendly and fast.

There was also a bonus.  They had a bocci ball court outside and signs that look like they must sponsor a bocci ball league.  So, this looks like a fun place.

Coco's Italian Market
411 51st Ave N
Nashville, TN 37209
Phone (615) 783-0114
italianmarket.biz

Hildebrandts - Williston Park, NY

Hildebrandts is an old-time diner. There was lots of stainless steel, an old soda bar, the waiters wore black aprons and the drinking glasses had those old-time metal holders.

It was very much a family restaurant.  There was a young mom explaining to her kids how long their family had been coming here. This was a long-time generational thing for them.

The thing that makes them really special is that they make their own ice cream in the back. Watch the DDD video before you go. Having seen them make the ice cream made the shake experience all the better.  I tried the cappuccino chip shake. Wow! You don't realize the extra junk that they put in ice cream until it's gone. They obviously use high quality ingredients. Even the little bits of chocolate were really enjoyable.

I ordered the lobster ravioli in vodka sauce. For a diner, their Italian food was as good as any Italian restaurant in New York.  So, the bar is pretty high.

Service was good but, a little short because they were busy at the time.

I rated them 9.5 because the food was really good and it was a genuine diner. They missed the mark a little on the service side and the atmosphere was kind of ordinary; still well worth checking out.

Hildebrandt's
84 Hillside Avenue
Williston Park, NY 11596
(516) 741-0608
www.hildebrandtsrestaurant.com

Grandpa's - Dania Beach, FL

I had just stepped off of a flight hungry and with a little time to kill.  Grampa's was close enough to the Ft. Lauderdale airport to make this breakfast visit possible.  My stomach was growling as I rolled into Dania Beach.

Inside and out there were pictures of Guy Fiere and the Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives logo.  This is usually a bad sign.  When you first walk in you are in the bakery section.  It is obvious to me that this is an Italian bakery.  They even had black and whites which you really only find in New York.  It all looked really good.

The diner menu looked like any diner menu: nothing really special.  I wasn't really sure what set this place apart until the complimentary pastries arrived at my table.  They were bite sized cherry, peach, and I think lemon filled pastries that come out as an appetizer.  They were a meal unto themselves.  Restraint was definitely in order.  Though I could see how some people might just come in to order just coffee and make a meal out of the free pastries.  But, that's not what I did. 

The waiter was very fast and friendly and sold me on the special.  The Eggs Benedict were the special this morning.  I didn't pause to think about it too hard.  I just rolled with it.   As it turned out, the eggs Benedict were okay.   Maybe they were the best I've ever had and maybe they weren't. Who knows?  The hash browns were like any that you might get at any Waffle House.  It was at that point that I realized that the pastries were the star of the show here and were what made this place kind of unique.

The atmosphere was typical diner.  Again, nothing really out of the ordinary.  I would give Grandpa's an 8.0 on the triple-d scale.

Grampa's Bakery & Restaurant
17 SW 1st St
Dania, FL 33004
(954) 923-2163
www.grampasbakery.com/

Rino's Place - East Boston, MA

Rino's is probably one of the best kept secret's in East Boston.  It was kind of strange because I went looking specifically for this restaruant and drove right past it the first time because the sign was not at all obvious and the shades were drawn, so it didn't even look like a restaruant on the side of the building that I drove by on.  So, on one hand they have been featured on national television but, on the other they don't stand out on a typical Boston neighborhood street.

There is no doubt that this is an Italian restaurant.  There were people actually speaking Italian in the restaurant and the look of the dishes being served at the other tables was pure Italian.

It was a pretty small restaurant.  The ceiling was like a plywood wood arch down the length of the single room.  It reminded me of an old railroad car but, it didn't match the outside of the building unless they built the brick building on top of the railroad car.  The only bathroom was though the kitchen door and to the right.  The whole kitchen was probably about 10 to 12 feet square

This was definitely not Giada's Italian kitchen.  This was a tough middle class Italian neighborhood.  People talk to you like they might sock you in the mouth at any time.  You'd better behave yourself.  The wait staff wasn't tripping over themselves with kindness here.  But, boy could someone in back cook.

I ordered the lobster ravioli.  I read some reviews on yelp.com before I came here and everyone raved about it.  Wow!  They raved for good reason. 

The pasta was obviously freshly made maybe after I ordered it.  It had that hard, chewy a-dente texture and taste that you only get with super fresh pasta.  The lobster was also obviously super fresh because it could not have spent much more time than the time to cook it inside of the pasta before being served.  The lobster still had its firmness to it.  The ricotta cheese inside was really flavorful.  The sauce was a really nice tomato sauce that tasted like the old country.  Just really great.
 
It came with a salad which was okay but, I didn't think that it was anything special.

Rinos Place
258 Saratoga Street
East Boston, MA 02128-1616
617.413.6390
www.rinosplace.com

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