Looking for a nice, if casual, Italian restaurant for a nice dinner with the wife and calling back…read moreto a recent trip we made to Italy. North Italia looked like it fit the bill. There were bright elements in our visit, but overall, I was disappointed.
FOOD & DRINK: We ordered a couple of cocktails. The S'mores seasonal cocktail was mostly about sweetness (a not uncommon thing here). My Diabolo cocktail had what might have been a pleasant, lightweight fruit flavor, but that was overwhelmed by Calabrian chilis (which also threatened to overwhelm the apps). Both more or less matched the description on the menu, but the execution was underwhelming.
I later had a glass of Chianti, which was nice.
We had some Cacio e Pepe Arancini, which did not remind me at all of Cacio e Pepe, and were sort of gooey, though the pesto aioli was a nice touch.
We split a Caesar salad which was a good idea because (a) it was huge and (b) it was the tastiest thing we had -- an excellent, garlicky dressing, with a good blend of lettuce, parmesan, and house croutons.
My lasagna came in a little metal baking bowl that, duh, it was baked in. It looked very nice, and was a generous proportion, but it made actually cutting up and eating bites of the lasagna a bit awkward. The savory of the sauce in the lasagna was mostly swamped by the sweetness of the ricotta mixture.
My wife had Short Rib sauce on Lumache pasta. It was tasty, but not as flavorful as the short ribs or the rest of the menu description hinted. That was an overall flaw of most of what we had -- interesting-sounding items that seemed to have the flavor turned down to 3.
For dessert, the salted caramel Budino was fine but too sweet. That also described the Tiramisu.
The coffee was good.
SERVICE: Though it took a couple of minutes for them to decide on a table for us (though we had reservations and were there on the dot), everything else about the service was outstanding -- our waitress when we needed her, not there when we didn't, and overall very friendly and pleasant. Bravo.
AMBIANCE: The restaurant was clean and nicely decorated. The chairs were surprisingly comfortable and nicely narrow in profile (though wide enough for comfort) so that moving them around and maneuvering past them wasn't a problem.
Biggest issue here was that, at 5:45 and for the duration of our meal, the noise level was such that my wife and I could hardly hear each other over the table we were at. Most of the noise, though not all of it, was Happy Hour folk in the bar, and North Italia clearly does a land office business with that cohort. For me, I'd make a point to dine later, if that fit the rest of the plans for the evening.
NET-NET: Being in Cherry Creek, parking is always an issue. The adjoining hotel gave us valet service for $14, which was worth it for the convenience.
Not counting that valet, or tip, the tab worked out to about $90 each for the two of us which on the one hand I would expect for a higher-end restaurant in the area, but on the other hand seemed a bit steeper than the food experience we'd had.
I wouldn't turn down an invitation from a friend to dine at North Italia again -- it wasn't a *bad* meal -- but I wouldn't recommend to a friend as a place to eat. There are a lot of great restaurants, even just in the Cherry Creek area, and I'd rather try (or revisit) one of those, given a preference.