Casa De'angelo
9385 Mentor Ave.
Mentor, OH 44060
440-974-1914
To be fair to Casa De'angelo I'd like to start this post by letting you know that I don't fancy Italian food. Well, now that I think about it, I do fancy some Italian dishes. I guess what I don't fancy is pasta. I also don't fancy the word fancy, although you'd never know it. Honestly, I think pasta is a scheme hatched by the dairy and vegetable industry to sell more cream, butter, cheese and tomatoes. When you really think about it, restaurants could serve marinara and alfredo sauce over wet paper towels with little noticeable difference in taste.
I probably link pasta and Italian food because, well, who the hell doesn't link pasta and Italian food? At any Italian restaurant over 75% of the menu are pasta dishes. Its as if there are no animals in all of Italy. If that was the case, how did Mario Batali get so big? Explain that to me! What's unfortunate for me is that everyone else I know just loves Italian restaurants which is how I ended up at Casa De'angelo last Sunday. Thank you very much Jason.
I was in a bad mood as it was from the pathetic performance displayed yet again by the Browns, so eating at an Italian restaurant just made the day complete. We arrived around 7:00 p.m. and the place was emptying out for the night. I believe we were the last table in the door. We were seated by a friendly waitress who provided excellent service throughout the night and quickly brought fresh bread and butter once we were seated.
The menu at Casa De'angelo was vast and varied. I'd guess there were at least 50 different entrees, although most were pasta dishes. Unfortunately for me, they don't serve their sandwiches after 4:00 p.m. which is a complete load of crap if you ask me. As if they go through the kitchen and remove all of the sandwich bread and buns when the clock strikes four. After a long and thoughtful decision I chose the quattro formaggia, yes, a pasta dish. I wanted some meat, but I thought prices of $14-$17 were a bit out of line for the entrees containing animal muscle.
The quattro formaggia is essential macaroni and cheese for adults. You get to pick which type of pasta you would like and they cover it with a luxuriously thick coating of a 4 cheese sauce. The four cheeses were parmesan, mozzarella, provolone and gorgonzola, but if there was gorgonzola in there I sure couldn't taste it. Even for a guy that doesn't like pasta, this stuff was pretty damn good. The sauce was rich and creamy, when you pulled out a piece of pasta there would be strands of cheese following it to your mouth. As a matter of fact it was a bit too rich, I could barely eat half which is a rare site when dining with me. The portion size was excellent, but at almost $10 I think the price may have been a bit too high.
On a side note, this might not be the best dish in the world if you are watching your cholesterol, have heart problems or trying to avoid buying a new belt. The next day for lunch I microwaved my leftover quattro formaggia and the sauce broke. I kid you not, there was at least a half a stick of melted butter left on the bottom of the bowl. I hate to even imagine how many fat grams I consumed by eating this.
The others I dined with all really liked they meals, so I'd have to say that Casa De'angelo qualifies as a very good Italian restaurant. While I thought that the prices were a bit high, when compared to a place like Bravo or Brio they may actually be a bit low. Who knows. What I do know is that although I hate pasta with a white-hot passion, the quattro formaggia at Casa De'angelo might be enough to convince me to go back. Not any time soon, but eventually.
Some other posts you might enjoy:
