We made our first visit to Via Veneto in several years last night, and we have to wonder why we don't patronize the place more often!
The atmosphere is nice. There is a family-oriented feel to the place, so one would not feel out of place if you brought children along to dinner, yet there are also dating couples, and folks who seem to be quite serious about their food and wine.
To the details, we all passed on appetizers and went for main courses. One of us had one of the evening's specials, sauteed bay scallops over a vegetable risotto. I didn't get comments, but the fact that the dish was devoured in a matter of minutes, with nary a scrap left on the plate, suggested it was very good. My wife had the veal barolo, which was scallopine of veal in a barolo/tomato/cream sauce over pasta, enhanced with sliced portabella and shiitake mushrooms. The veal was tender, could be cut with a fork, flavorful, and the mushrooms were outstanding with the sauce. Add a bit of parmesan from the table, and you are right back in Italy. Outstanding!
I did something I haven't done for many a year. I asked the chef to do something that wasn't on the menu. Back in the distant past (more than 10 years ago) there was a small restaurant called La Rosa's, near our house. They had a dish, pasta alla Scoglio, which was a wonderful melange of mussels, clams, and garlic, served over pasta with white wine, italian parsley and olive oil. I just loved it, and haven't had any since they closed.
I asked our waitress if the pasta with mussels and clams, with marinara, which was on the menu, could be sauced differently. Her answer - No Problem! Then I described alla Scoglio, and she said that there were other dishes on their menu that were very close to that sauce preparation, so it would be no problem to reproduce the dish I wanted.
10 minutes later, I had a perfect platter of pasta alla scoglio in front of me. It was perfect, just fantastically fresh shellfish, high quality olive oil, plenty of garlic, and loads of flavor. I devoured every bite, and sopped up the sauce with fresh Italian bread. It was garlic nirvana, and I really appreciate that they could go "off menu".
For dessert, cannoli were authentic, according to my half-Italian bride, and their profiteroles were really good, with nice light puff pastry. All in all, a good ending to the evening.
There is good work being done in their kitchen, so if you are on the North side and want really good Italian food, I would suggest that Via Veneto should be "on your radar".