Friday, January 8, 2010

A vinter day at Vinto



 
After an all-day corporate meeting that included lots of food and snacks on Thursday, I wasn't sure how hungry I was going to be for lunch on Friday. But then Wingnut's socializing led to a late start for our little GPaK three-pack, so by the time we arrived at Vinto, I was ready for some vittles.

I was a bit skeptical going in, I must admit. It seems like you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a new, stylish pizzeria these days, and when the parking lot was filled with BMWs, I thought perhaps we were in for a meal of tiny pizzas at high prices. And as we walked into the bright, modern-looking restaurant, my fears grew.

However, I see now that those fears were unfounded. I went with the pasta special of the day, the meat lasagne with ricotta, tomato sauce and parmigiano. It came to the table quickly, and it was piping hot. One quibble is that the pizza Wingnut and SuperScrunch ordered didn't arrive until several minutes later, but I'll let them talk about that. I tried to wait for them, but the lasagna smelled delicious, and I caved before their meals arrived.

I wasn't disappointed. The lasagna was cooked perfectly. All of the flavors meshed well, and the the ample portion held together as I sliced and diced it with my fork. It also wasn't watery, as some lesser lasagna tends to be.

Bottom line: I left with a full belly and a smile on my face, even when I walked down the wrong row between tables and missed the exit entirely. D'oh! Hopefully we'll be back to a full GPaK next week, but this was a good way to start the year.

Man-up possibilities: 8
Food quality: 8.5
Service: 7.5
Fizz-o-meter of Coke: 8
Overall: 8

— GPaK

Quotes of the day:
I'm looking at you, fart-face.
I swear I'm gonna kill him.
I have a feeling that it could be the man-down pizza.
It's not, like, pay-water, is it?
It kind of looks finger-ish, doesn't it?
Is that a drip of water on your nose, or is it snot?
Just do the crotch one.

3 comments:

  1. Spot on oh GPaK with the BMW analogy. I feared for my wallet with the decor and lighting, but $8 specials and by and large many choices under $10 led me to feel pretty good about our choice.

    After quickly scanning the menu, the pizza del giorno sounded best and for $8 who could pass up "Pizza Trecolori, Pesto Mozzarella, Cherry Tomatoes and Parmigiano," pizza. Yes, that was the entire name. Served on a cutting board, this slim feast came split down the middle in what looked like two different pizzas. A "pesto" side and a tomato based side. I preferred the full flavor of the tomato side as the pesto was good but not as gooey and delicious as I typically envision pizza. I devoured the whole thing though so it must have been a feast fit for a bird.

    As mentioned, GPaK's meal arrived first, way first. We told him to go ahead without us and he did the polite thing and tried to wait. But between 3 and 5 minutes is WAY too long to wait for the rest of the food. It's not like the place was packed either. Greg's meal was piping hot, but how about a warm holding place for his meal and serving us all together?

    That said, for as fine dining as this place looked, which usually leads to shall we say, longer meals, they were overall very prompt and on top of things. After deciding that the opened bottled water at our table was indeed free and pouring three glasses, a server was promptly there to replace it with a new one.

    I also digged the way Vinto embraced technology. Our orders were piped to the kitchen through a little hand-held device, which I've seen before. What I hadn't seen was this device's ability to also process credit cards table side.

    Those fearing the lost waiter with your credit card syndrome should not worry at Vinto. We arrived, dined and paid for our meals in less than 45 minutes.

    Man-up possibilities: 8.5 (the pizza is thin)
    Food quality: 9
    Service: 8.5
    Water: watery (cold, without ice)
    Overall: 8.89

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  2. Vinto looks pretty foofy to me. Were there any normal pizzas there or all pesto-y?

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  3. sounds like a nice place, hold the pretension?

    must try in future.

    and yes, 'tis true, 1/3 of the gpak (plus jared and joe.c) ended up not at the blue iguana for lunch, as was previously reported, but instead to the warmth and familiar coziness of our fav, the atlantic.

    cevap and illy coffee. you cannot go wrong with that.

    cheers, boys!

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