ROSARIO’S – 0LD WORLD ITALIAN STYLE CUSINE
Rosario Lanza and Chris Lanza bring generations of fine Italian cooking to Boca Raton. Located at 12358 Mizner Boulevard (561-393-0758), they are open for dinner from 5PM to 10PM, Tuesday through Sundays.
The stand menu lists 9 appetizers and we chose to sample the Sicilian meatball, an excellent dish with the beef and pork meatball topped with tomato and ricotto cheese. We sampled baked clams casino casino with pancella, onion and celery in a tomato sauce, then baked clams oregenato with bread crumbs and a fine lemon sauce. The calamari was floured, seasoned the lightly fried to produce a dish that was crunchy and tasty, even without the dipping tomato sauce. A must try is the eggplant rollatini, egg battered eggplant, ricotta cheese and mozzarella in tomato sauce – extremely fine offering. We also sampled a juicy bruschetta, mounded tomato, onion, garlic, basil and olive oil on crispy toasted bread, that was perfect.
Of the 6 “mozzarella” listings, we sampled capresse, a stacked tomato, basil and oil and vinegar. It was okay but the star was spiedini alla romaine – fried fresh mozzarella sandwich topped with garlic, lemon, olive, oil, capers and anchovy sauce – a wonderful taste treat, thank you Rosario!
The Caesar salad was a nice, lightly dressed item with romaine, parmesan cheese, croutons just a touch of anchovies in their homemade dressing. A spinach salad and a house salad are listed as is a dish of roasted peppers, anchovies and capers.
We sampled both soups – pastga e fagioli and escarole e bean – both hearty with full taste
With a dozen items on the pasta list, we tried sensational rigatoni alla vodka with its pancetta, onion, tomato sauce, vodka and cream. The spaghetti Bolognese of beef, pork, onions, red wine and tomato sauce was also a winner. We liked white clam sauce with the clams and linguini and found the dish to have a great flavor of the sea. The lobster ravioli was fine with its baby shrimp and tomato cream sauce though somewhat thin – not a “pillow”.
Rosario’s offers “Old Country Specialties”, served family style for two or more. They are chicken dishes and the star of the list was the chicken country style with sausage, peppers, onions, potatoes and mushroom – a taste of the old country, indeed.
Have veal any of 11 ways, we elected to sample the piccata – sautéed nicely with lemon, white wine and capers- really a treat. From the simple dish, we tried the veal la vigna – sautéed veal with diced tomato, prosciutto, fontina cheese and a tomato cream sauce A complex dish with great taste.
We note a half dozen seafood selections, all served with either the house or Caesar salad, plus a side of either penne or spaghetti. There are six choices of fresh vegetables on the menu, as well.
The ala carte menu noted above is in addition to a $26.95 4 course pre-fixed menu featuring all of these listed dishes.
The dessert this day included Italian cheesecake, (cream and smooth), New York style cheesecake, cannolli, tartufo ice cream, biscotti and a superb tiramisu and a superb Napoleon – both fantastic!
With their full bar to serve you, they also list 11 white wines and 27 red wines by the bottle, some six reds and six whites by the glass as well as 8 house wines by both glass and bottle. Both food and drink are realistic in price for quality offerings. We were impressed by the food, service and ambiance and suggest you…Go and Enjoy!
