Aglio e Oglio is located in what is dubbed the 969 District. This is a building that houses 4 different restaurants: Aglio e Oglio (Italian), Chilango Bar & Grill (Tex-Mex), La Habicuela Guisá (Puerto Rican), and El Fogón Del Rey (steaks and burgers). This last will will join soon, from what was explained to me. Basically, these 4 restaurants share the same owner. He bought the building and decided to move them here. I guess it's easier and cheaper to manage all under one roof. What also makes this neat is that no matter which restaurant you choose to eat at, you can order from the menu of either place. No more arguing over what/where to eat.
This restaurant is the first one in this District we've tried. Based on our experience, we ware willing to give the others a shot. The restaurant is nice. It has two floors. On the first you have the kitchen, few tables, and a bar. Upstairs tou have a larger dining area and bar. There is also an outdoor patio. A previous reviewer complained that the first thing you see when you walk in is the kitchen. What you really see is the pizza station, which I think is cool. You get to see the pizzaiolo preparing and cooking the pizzas. Our son loved this. Behind the pizza station is the kitchen.
We started with a Provoleta Napolitana. We'd never had Provoleta before, which is a popular Argentinian dish. Think queso fundido but with Italian flavors and bread instead of chips. It seemed like a deconstructed pizza. It was interesting and good. For the main course I had the La Pesto pizza, which had pesto sauce, prosciutto, sun dried tomatoes, and peppers. Excellent. Tasty crust that had a nice balance of crispness and chewiness. The pizza was medium sized, so it can be eaten by 1-2 people, depending g on appetite. My wife went with the ossobuco with mushroom risotto. It was also excellent, especially the risotto. If you like mushrooms you'll like this risotto.
The reason I take a star away is for the service. Don't get me wrong, the servers were nice. Unfortunately, there were only two servers that night (Sunday). Talk about being short staffed. Hats off to them because they were hussling and wearing several hats: servers, bussers, and bartenders. Even though they did a good job, we did have to wait a lot for service. Hopefully, this is t a running issue because not everyone is patient. Food was worth it, though. Also, they do brunch on the weekends with unlimited mimosas. read more