I really hate to say this and I wish it wasn't true but Pronto really sucks. The menu is pretty weird. They're really emphasizing their rotisserie. OK, but every supermarket now has good, whole rotisserie chickens for like 6 or 7 bucks and if I buy one of those I get to keep all the leftovers so what's my enticement for getting one at a restaurant? And then their pride and joy is their "authentic Italian rotisserie roast beef". Since when is that an Italian specialty? Roast beef? Oh yeah, I loved that roast beef pizza I got in Naples. Then they have a bunch of sandwiches, a bunch of salads with tons of bacon and cheese the way everyone likes, but which bummed me out because I wanted something healthy. It was tough but I managed to find two things which didn't sound totally bad for me. I got the polenta pomodoro. If I'm not mistaken (which I often am) pomodoro is usually a sauce that has pretty large chunks of fresh tomatoes. This was three big pieces of polenta with raw, grainy orange Roma tomato chunks on top, giant chunks of RAW garlic, and thin ribbons of basil. The only visible sauce was some thin tomato water at the bottom. Mmm soggy polenta. I like garlic OK (I think it's pretty overused) but I hate eating raw garlic. I had also gotten a tomato soup (I wanted the white bean soup but it had bacon and I was trying to eat just one goddamn meal without bacon in it). It was a gorgonzola tomato but I asked for no cheese on top. Well, from the orangy look of it it either had cheese in it or it was a cream soup. GW got a chicken sandwich and asked for dark meat. They rang her up but then came over to inform her that the sandwich could not be made with dark meat. At a place that has visible whole roast chickens spinning behind the counter? She doesn't like white meat so she got a grilled proscuitto sandwich which was really good and came with house made potato chips. Good, but a greasy gut bomb.
They offer beer and wine. On tap they have Fat Tire, Blue Moon, Bud Light and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (I can feel the rage boiling through Smiller right now). They offer a few red and white wines by the glass and they're reasonably priced. They also have sangria for four bucks a glass (aahh, I remember the day in Naples that I washed down that roast beef pizza with a tall glass of sangria, the Italian national drink), so I had one of those. It was OK. One glass got me a little buzzed.
The place was pretty empty and we were there from seven to eight so it may go the way of Hukilau eventually. If they were smart they would offer more cheap pasta. They barely had any on the menu. I'll go back one more time to try one of their salads.
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12 comments:
I recently got a search for "porky piggin photos", the ever-popular "cameltoe contest" (when are network tv execs going to figure out this goldmine of a show idea?) and a very peculiar fetish, but good luck dude:
patricia heaton eats corndog
I was just saying "where can a man go in this town to get a Fat Tire?". Curse you Markstein & your 5 beers!!
-miller
in Italian, "pomodoro" means tomato.
OK, so wrong as usual like I said. I've just never seen Italian roast beef anywhere but Pronto. I never order roast beef anywhere and won't be ordering it here. And pomodoro just means tomato, huh?, so I guess this gross dish lives up to its name! It's just tomatoes thrown on top of polenta.
I tried Pronto last week. I ordered the "summer pasta", which basically is a capellini pomodoro. It was sitting in a huge puddle of oil. I had to drain the oil out and pat it down with a paper towel...but it was still soggy. Disgusting. Plus, it had about three tomatoes and a couple sprigs of basil. I like LOTS of fresh basil in my pasta.
In my opinion, that's the problem with Paesanos food, too (and they are owned by the same people, right?) some of the pasta is decent but it's all soaking in oil or a cream sauce or both.
I was just saying "where can a man go to in this town get some oily cream & a Fat Tire?!".
-miller
yep,
both owned by the same people. as for Italian roast beef I just discovered a recipe for a larded roast which I guess is pretty common in Italian meat roasting and involves making little slits in the top of the roast and then stick pieces of panchetta in the slits. mmmmmm.... I doubt that, that's how they prepare it tho.'
porky piggin'....
sheesh,
liv
Yeah, after trying the bacon wrapped meatloaf I left disappointed. They also close ridiculously early, 8:30, while at that same time Nishiki is still doing great business on their patio. Although, I will go back to try their rotisserie chicken cause that does sound good. Does this qualify as a legit place to give a bad yelp review?
Deal!
what a whiner... if you had any brains you'd realize that Italian food encompasses many different kinds of meat. Get educated.
Ha, joke's on you-I have a doctorate in Italian meatology. That's what my lab studies-the evolution of salami. You probably don't even know that all cured meats evolved from one common ancestor called the meat man. He was basically a proscuitto with arms and legs.
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