I heard about this place from one of my foodie friends. Since we go to Cape Cod often, we decided to stop on the way to visit Providence for few days. We were very excited to try out the food from here, especially their pizza offerings. The building is quite massive, black with red stripes. The entrance is on the “back” side from the street side, where they have a huge parking lot (NOT free parking). The entrance is cute with arched red brick, framed with beautiful green vines.
The arch entry way go all the way to the back, where the host/hostess station is. They have a small outdoor seating at the back alongside the building But if you want an outdoor seating, the ones to the right of the entry way is more picturesque.
The dining area to the right is bigger, and is covered with more green vines, so that you are not going to be under the direct sun. I really liked the way it looked here, with red brick wall, soft lighting and yes, lots of natural light from the sky. It was such cozy and warm atmosphere, perfect for dining with loved ones.
I especially liked this water fountain with a lion, it really sets the mood of tranquility…
And if you are not an outdoor dining type a person, they do have indoor dining as well! From what I saw, it is a small space, but then again, the space might extend beyond what I could see with a quick glance? Regardless, this place is super popular, so expect for a long wait… They do take your number and call you when the table is ready, so you can go across the street and get a pre-dinner drink or two from another spot while you wait for a table.
Once we got the call, we headed back to quickly, but then, we were notified that they can’t seat us until the entire party is present…yes, we were missing one person! While we waited for the last of our party to arrive, they had to give our table away to someone else, which is understandable. But they kept us on the top of the list, so when we were finally all together, we waited maybe around 15 minutes or so before we got a table. So, we started our dinner with a bottle of red wine, Château Greysac Médoc ($40/bottle). It was rich with ripe blackberry, smoky and really fruity with just enough tannin.
A staff brought us a basket of bread in a bamboo container, which had a couple of different kinds of bread in it. I didn’t want to get full off the bread, but they were good breads, I couldn’t resist…
And they brought the bread basket with a side of olive oil and salt, I thought the way presented them was kind of cute.
We ordered two dishes to share among us as appetizers. The first item was what we came here for, their pizza! They only had four kinds of pizza, and all of them were kind of pricey… We also asked our server if they had any special pizza of the day, and yes, they did! They had Margarita with Pesto Pizza ($21.95), which sounded interesting, so we went with that one. The shape of the pizza was quite interesting, it was not round nor rectangle, but strange…almost triangle shape. We cut them up and tried it while it was hot. It had thin crust with ingredients that you can really taste. They were fresh and high quality. Having some drops of pesto was interesting, I somehow imagined them being spread over the pizza. It was quite good, we all enjoyed it!
The second item was more unique (to me, anyways). It was another special of the day, Squash Blossom ($12.95). I’ve had squash flower stuffed with some kind of tasty ingredients in the past, but this one was quite different. It was stuffed with ricotta cheese & fennel, and fried! When it came to the table, I was a bit surprised to see it in the fried up state, but hey, I will try anything tasty.
The filling was gooey, comforting and delicious. The flower was fried lightly, so it was not greasy. The marinara sauce added extra flavor and warmth tot he dish.
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For main, we each ordered a different dish. The first one was Handmade Bread Gnocchi with Spicy Wild Boar Sausage Ragu ($20.95), with parmigiano-reggiano. Very nice dish, with gnocchi having excellent texture, firm yet fluffy, a bit chewy in a good way. The Sausage Ragu was delicious too, went perfect with the gnocchi. It was light yet hearty dish, comforting and warms your soul.
The second dish was Eggplant Al Forno with Fresh Mozzarella ($24.95), with simple tomato sauce and parmigiano-reggiano. This dish was quite large! More than enough to share unless you are super hungry. It came piping hot to the table, which was great. It had a really good amount of sliced eggplant and a generous amount of fresh mozzarella. It was really tasty, rich yet light, deep, earthy flavor with perfect seasoning. I would love to have this on a cold day, in front of a fireplace… Yum!
Next item was Handmade Ricotta Cavatelli with Prosciutto and Fresh English Peas ($20.95), with cream, black pepper, and parmigiano-reggiano. It looked simple yet elegant. I thought it would have bigger or more pieces of prosciutto, but it was still tasty. The pasta was cooked to perfection and with just the right amount of seasoning to enhance the natural flavors of the fresh peas and prosciutto.
What I ordered was a dish that I saw someone having, while we were waiting for our table. Spaghettini with Roasted Clams ($25.95), with spicy tomato sauce, onions, white wine and scallions. This looked even better in front of me than how it looked at someone else table… I must say, I think everyone at my table was jealous of my dish. Score! The pasta was cooked just right, and the sauce had a good kick to it, without being too spicy. As for clams, it didn’t have a lot of them on it, but they were good sized ones, plump and fresh. This dish was super tasty!
After enjoying our main dishes, it was time for dessert! Now, you must to be careful if you want to get dessert from this place. ALL desserts are made to order, including their ice cream! And therefore, you MUST order your dessert with your Entrée. We hard that their fruit tart, especially the one with peach and berry is superb here. So, we went with Peach and Local Blueberry Tart ($19.95) with Créme Anglaise. It was indicated that the tart are for two people portion, and since we were going to get a good amount of food, we decided to get just one to share among the four of us.
The tart was nothing like I imagined. Soft and flaky crust, served warm and with Créme Anglaise just melt in your mouth. The fruits were very fresh and ripen, sweet and juicy. Light dusting of confectionery sugar softened the vibrant color of blueberries, indeed a great, comforting, tasty dessert that soothes your soul…
The bathroom is in the inside, right by the indoor dining area. It is a nice sized bathroom to accommodate several patrons, a must for a popular spot. Nothing fancy, just simple with what you need in there, while keeping the red brick wall inside to extend the atmosphere.
It was a fun, relaxing, and delicious dinner. Our server took a good care of us, and we enjoyed everything we consumed under the green vines. It seems that their menu changes seasonally or more often, I would like to go back again and try more of their delicious dishes!
Al Forno Restaurant – 577 S Water St, Providence, RI 02903