Is the ITALIAN food in your region REALLY GOOD?

[marielynn724]

Yes!

North End, Boston!!!! Makes the Jersey Shore look Irish!

http://www.northendboston.com/

don't disrespect my state! the ny/nj area, in my (and millions of other people's) opinion, is the best. it's where the FIRST pizzaria in the united states was established (Lombardi's in downtown manhattan, old little italy) and is still running and serving the best pizza in the u.s.

don't get me wrong, i don't think that other places don't also have great italian food, but i know that what we have here is among the absolute best.

so yea, i have pretty high expectations when it comes to italian food. i agree with the earlier poster who said that the best food comes from the little whole in the wall places run by immigrants. that's absolutely true, we have really authentic food here.

i've been to tony's twice and i really hated the food both times. it's less italian than olive garden. there are other much better italian options throughout wdw.

 

[marielynn724]

Growing up in NY and NJ, you get spoiled on Italian food. Nothing else ever tastes as good.

YES YES YES!!!! everyone here learned to cook from their sicilian grandma

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

Tony's=bad Italian food.Also any chain is not going to be good. If you must do one however, Macaroni grill is better than Olive Garden.

 

[USAswimmer626]

Living less than an hour from both Boston's North End and Providence's Federal Hill, I definitely have my fair share of great Italian restaurants! There are even some great options outside the cities in towns like Wayland, Milton, and Lexington.

 

[B-Ride]

Oh in NYC considering the best Italian places are owned and run by immigrants, it is DELICIOUS!!! The littler, more hole-in-the-wall a place is, the better the food will be.

Having eaten at a couple of Italian places when we visited NYC a few years ago I can definitely concur.

We live in Toronto which has a pretty large Italian community as well, so finding a good Italian restaurant is never a problem.

When we eat at WDW though, we never compare the restaurants to the ones at home. We just enjoy what they have to offer. I can tell you that after a long day of touring the parks I am just happy to sit down to a nice relaxed meal.

 

[tinacaplan]

I think when you live in the Northeast, Boston-NYC corridor, you are surrounded by good Italian-American food. In my small, suburban town alone, there are a few different Italian-American restaurants. I live right near New Haven, and we have the best pizza on the planet, IMO. And NYC is chock full of all types of Italian restaraunts. I don't think I could live in an area of the country where you couldn't get good Italian food and foodstuffs, like Italian bread, imported cheeses, and meats, etc.

I also think the food coming out of my kitchen is pretty good, too. I'm Italian-American, after all. Also, I have to say that my husband and I had a nice meal at Tutto Italia this past February. Maybe not the best place if you're looking for eggplant parm, but our dishes were wonderful.

 

[johamna]

yup! cant beat the amazing italian food in NYC!

 

[mmtska]

YES! But then again I live in a little town where 90% of the population is Italian. My neighbor gave me gnocchi and lady locks for a grad present lol!! There are about 20 pizza places in our town-but only 1 delivers and that's Dominos!! The rest are family owned and so good. Not to mention Vinny's (also family owned) that serves up some yummalicious food!

 

[Jletendre]

Being in the middle of New Haven and Boston there is enough amazing italian places around you could get sick of having it so much (maybe!).

I don't know if I can choose between the original Pizzeria Regina on Thacter Street or Frank Pepe's they are both so incredible. I basically refuse to eat pizza outside of the area as it's just awful. When people think a local domino's is the best bet you know your in trouble.

Sadly I have never found anything of similar taste around WDW. There are some nice places outside of the world (all those NE snowbirds retire somewhere afterall).

Having dined at most of the North End in Boston I'd put some of those plates head to head with anything in the Tri-State area and you can't beat Mike's Pastrys!

 

[goofy4prez]

Here in N.E. Ohio, namely the city of Cleveland, we have an area that is known as Little Italy. This area is still predominately Italian and have passed on their recipes and customs down through the generations. I have traveled all over this great nation and have been to several countries and this place has some of the best Italian food I have ever tasted.

http://www.littleitalycleveland.com/

A little side note that many may not know, Ettore Boiardi started a restaurant in Cleveland back in 1924; it became so popular people were asking him for the recipes and to take it to go. He decided to enter mass production of his foods (I'd have to think it was better then than today) and became known as Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. With that said, I assure you Little Italy is much better than Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

We moved from Boston (fabulous Italian food, particularly in the North End) to Iowa about three years ago, and they have something here that they call Eye-talian food (long I).

Now, I'm really not knocking Iowa, as we love it here, but their understanding of Italian food is, shall we say, somewhat limited. They have also invented several Italian dishes that do not exist in nature. Many of them are actually quite tasty, but they are not Italian in the least (my personal favorite is the chicken kebab marinated in Italian salad dressing, grilled, and served with your choice of potato; that's not a joke, and it actually is delicious, just not authentic). The ironic thing is that the restaurant scene in Des Moines is as good as anywhere I've visited in the country, and they have fabulous restaurants all over the city, but their loyalty to this odd version of quasi-Italian food still confounds me after three years.

So, short answer is no, not particularly great Italian food where I live. On the flip side, I also don't consider the Italian food in WDW to be particularly good or special, either.

 

[ipodluvr287]

Not gonna lie, The Olive Garden is quite good here.

 

[snowy76]

Another Philly guy here... We have so much good Italian food around here that "Olive Garden" and "Macaroni Grill" are swear-words. There are so many little hole in the wall little Italian places that sometimes it's hard to choose. Not to mention that the wife and I are both pretty excellent Italian cooks in our own right (I'm Italian, she's Polish, but has picked it up very well, and easily surpassed me).

For that reason, we stay away from Italian food when we go to WDW, because it's something we're completly inundated with around here, and feel that we should try the different things Disney has to offer as opposed to something that we can get any time we want it.

Ditto, except replace "Philly" with "Syracuse." We have a big Italian community and there are so many mom-and-pop Italian places, considering the size of the city, I could probably eat at a good place every week and never touch OG. I avoid it at WDW too -especially pizza!

Authentic Mexican food, OTOH, is a rare species. My DH, who lived out west for a few years in 90s, said he could find a good Mexican place on every corner, but had to rely on Olive Garden for Italian.

 

[cdtommie]

I think when you live in the Northeast, Boston-NYC corridor, you are surrounded by good Italian-American food. In my small, suburban town alone, there are a few different Italian-American restaurants. I live right near New Haven, and we have the best pizza on the planet, IMO. And NYC is chock full of all types of Italian restaraunts. I don't think I could live in an area of the country where you couldn't get good Italian food and foodstuffs, like Italian bread, imported cheeses, and meats, etc.

I also think the food coming out of my kitchen is pretty good, too. I'm Italian-American, after all. Also, I have to say that my husband and I had a nice meal at Tutto Italia this past February. Maybe not the best place if you're looking for eggplant parm, but our dishes were wonderful.

Frank Pepe's!!! Sally's!!! Modern Apizza!!!

 

[ickeynickey]

I am sorry. This topic always humors me when people talk about what is more authentic as far as Disney restaurants goes. My mom was Sicilian and my father from Bari. I live and work as a chef in Turin. I have eaten all over the United States and have tried much Italian cuisine there. This should be titled "Best Italian-American food" because very little actually resembles true Italian food. I challange anyone to find chicken parmesan as an entree in Italy. Don't get me wrong, I have had some very good food in the States but not true Italian.

 

[LisaxMarie]

I'm from the North Jersey/NYC area. Soo, YES

 

[karrit2000]

Is Macaroni Grill considered good Italian?

Actually, we used to have one wonderful Italian joint but they closed a couple years ago.

(Bostonian PP, we vacationed in Boston last month and I caused us to nearly miss our plane home because I insisted on "just one more" lobster tail and cannoli from BOTH Mike's and Modern ... not to mention the actual restaurants. The North End is my idea of heaven)

Give me Macaroni Grill over Olive Garden any day. I'm 1/2 Italian & I love Macaroni's. My nieces prefer Olive Garden because they think the salad & half cooked bread-sticks are the best, their mom (my SIL) is Italian too. They obviously didn't get their taste buds from our side of the family.

I prefer my Italian food when I dine out to have something other than a tomato based sauce. For tomato based sauces I rather have home made that doesn't have lumps of tomatoes & other unidentifiable veggies in it.

 

[wendy1974]

I'm from Louisiana and while there's a decent sized Itallian population in New Orleans and further South along the coast, we're not known for great Italian food. There's a local place in Baton Rouge, where I live, called Gino's that is run by a family that immigrated here from Italy and they have wonderful food. The last time I ate at Tony's I wasn't impressed, it may have been what I ordered but I wouldn't even put it on par with Pizza Hut.

 

[tinacaplan]

Frank Pepe's!!! Sally's!!! Modern Apizza!!!

ABSOLUTELY! Pepe's is my personal favorite of the three, but they are all amazing.

I am sorry. This topic always humors me when people talk about what is more authentic as far as Disney restaurants goes. My mom was Sicilian and my father from Bari. I live and work as a chef in Turin. I have eaten all over the United States and have tried much Italian cuisine there. This should be titled "Best Italian-American food" because very little actually resembles true Italian food. I challange anyone to find chicken parmesan as an entree in Italy. Don't get me wrong, I have had some very good food in the States but not true Italian.

Which is why I purposely referred to everything as Italian-American food, in my post, but no need to nit-pick on a Disney food board that is clearly talking about what people in most of the United States.

 

[drenalin'junkie]

Thanks ickey mickey for reminding or enlightening everyone.

True Italian food is in Italy,the stuff here while excellent food is compromised by our tastes and regional subtleties.The Italian in my area is good food but the NY'ers dislike it and guys from Philly think the NY'ers are as wrong as we are.The guys from LA can't believe you can't fing a vegan white pizza here...go figure.The folks from the Midwest are happy Ragu makes takeout available in grocery stores.

Most of the fare in WD is good food but about as Italian as Kaft salad dressing.