Category: Rhode Island

There is a great area of Providence called Federal Hill. This is a cute street that has several great bars and restaurants. This is where you will find Massimo.

Massimo is an Italian restaurant that serves ingredients that are locally sourced. It is beautiful inside with lots of reclaimed woods and natural lighting.

I was there for a big group dinner. We had the whole upstairs of the restaurant to ourselves, including a bar. It was great! Since it was a group dinner we were served buffet style. This was perfect because it allowed me to try several of the restaurants dishes.

The evening started with fried calamari. There was a great crispy crunch and the calamari was tender. I really like the fried basil leaves that were served with it. It added an herb flavor.

I enjoyed the appetizers with a Moscow Mule. The lime juice they accented the drink with went well with the calamari.

After a few munchies it was time to find a seat. I could smell all the food getting set up on the buffet. The food certainly does not look pretty on my plate but it all really tasted great.

The chicken piccata had great lemony zing. The chicken was cut thinly and was able to still remain moist.

The eggplant parmesan had multiple layers of soft, tender eggplant. Massimo’s homemade pasta sauce complemented the sweetness of the eggplant.

The pesto rigatoni had a wonderful earthly flavor. The rigatoni was cooked a perfect al dente.

The Caesar salad was pretty standard. I just knew I could not have an Italian meal without having some salad.

For sides dishes they offered a great roasted potato that was loaded with Italian seasonings. And fresh green beans sautéed in garlic.

Now this was a lot of food for dinner. Luckily I did not over eat. So I saved room for dessert. They offered cannoli and tiramisu.

The cannoli had a great crispy shell. and was over stuffed with creamy filling. The outside edges were covered in crushed pistachios.

The tiramisu was amazing. The ladyfingers were soaked in coffee that kept the entire dessert very moist. The custard filling was light and fluffy. It was the right amount of sweetness to complement the bitter coffee. This was one of the best tiramisu’s I have ever had.

I enjoyed everything I tried at Massimo’s. I highly recommend them if you are looking for a place to have a party or large group dinner. I would also go back for a regular meal. Check out their menu at http://massimori.com/

Enjoy!

T

 

The last time I visited Providence I enjoyed a great Irish Pub. This visit I thought I would check out one of the many Italian restaurants. It was a hard choice to make but I narrowed it down to Rosalina. The menu looked fantastic.

Rosalina’s is not far from the convention center. It is a cute restaurant that is not too big on the inside. I would recommend making a reservation. As soon as I walked in I could smell the homemade bread baking in their ovens.

My waiter was very energetic and extremely friendly. He did make a few suggestions on the menu. He brought over a nice basket of the fresh baked bread. The smell of the butter and garlic was intoxicating.

The bread had a crunch to it. The texture reminded me of pita chips. It had a buttery taste that was almost savory in my mouth. I also really enjoyed the crunch. However, the funny thing about the bread was the waiter said the chef cooked it a little too long. It actually was not supposed to be crunchy. It was suppose to be soft. Well I thought it was a great “mistake”. Hopefully by allowing me to try it, they can add a new item to the menu.

For my cocktail I ordered the Limonata. The perfect cocktail starts with perfect ingredients. So this certainly fit the bill.

They used muddled lemons, simple syrup, limoncello, citrus vodka, and topped with San Pellegrino limonata Italian soda. An interesting part of this cocktail was the limoncello. It turns out at Rosalina they make their own. This alone made me happy I ordered this drink. After taking a sip it reminded me of a lemon drop martini. It was slightly sweet, slightly tart, and very refreshing.

Ordering something to share with the table was a must. The waiter recommended the antipasto. When it came out he was not kidding, this plate of meats, cheese, and tomatoes were huge.

There were some awesome items on this plate. The meats included Prosciutto de Parma, and Sopp Resata. These were extremely fresh meats. They were tender to bite into and full of flavor. For cheese, they included Burrata cheese that was tremendously creamy. They had two types of salty olives – Calvestrano and Kalamata. They had a few roasted peppers and a ton of fresh cherry tomatoes. These tomatoes were the star of this plate. These were the sweetest and juiciest cherry tomatoes I have ever had. And when the juices combined with the balsamic vinegar and oregano on top enhanced the flavor even more.

The offered two types of gnocchi on the menu. One had a creamy sauce and the other had mussels in a wine sauce. It was a tough choice but I chose the version with the mussels because that is not normally something I see. This dish was called Gnocchi Vongole.

Their fresh potato gnocchi was sautéed with white wine, roasted garlic, butter, and cherry tomatoes. They used fresh Little-Neck Clams that were drenched in the wonderful sauce. The gnocchi was surprisingly light and fluffy. They tasted so good in the buttery wine sauce. the butter flavor enhanced the gnocchi.

The clams were cooked to perfection. They were super easy to get out of the shells. The meat was tender, not at all chewy. They also were amazing with the butter wine sauce. I felt that the garlic in the sauce enhanced the flavor of the clams. The perfect pairing.

My meal was fantastic at Rosalina. I will definitely go back to try something else. Check out their Italian dishes at http://www.rosalina-ri.com/

Enjoy!

T

When you think of Rhode Island seafood is the first thing that comes to my mind. That is what I was planning on eating until I passed Murphy’s Pub. It was located pretty close to where I was staying. They have been around since 1929 so I knew I could not pass up an opportunity to try a little piece of history.

   

    

They are a classic Irish pub with a beautiful wooden bar. They were pretty crowded when I arrived, but I was still able to get a seat at the bar. My timing was perfect because within 15 minutes of arriving the place was packed and it was standing room only.

I watched the bartender make Moscow Mules and I decided that I would get one, especially since they were served in copper mugs. The taste was perfect and it was nice to see they used a locally made ginger beer.

   

Their soup of the day was Italian sausage. It sounded comforting so I started with a cup of that. The sausage was crumbled in the soup so I was able to get the taste of sausage in each bite.

I ordered a stuffed Quahog to have along with my soup. I have never had this dish before so I was excited to try something new. It was chopped up clams mixed with stuffing, then cooked in a giant clam shell. It was really hot when it came out so I had to let it cool off a little. Once it cooled it did not take me long to finish it. The clams were tender and tasted perfect with the fluffy stuffing. It was a nice balance of both ingredients.

    

I was still a little hungry so I ordered a sandwich. I went for their “City Hall Steak and Cheese”. It was hanger steak sautéed with onions and mushrooms and it was smothered with white American cheese. They served it on a nice Italian roll. It was essentially a Phily cheesesteak but considering I was in New England Patriots country I knew they were never going to call it that.

The sandwich was huge, much larger than I was expecting. The steak was very tender and was even more amazing being covered in cheese. The onions were sweet and the mushrooms added extra texture to the dish. It also came with a side of their homemade potato salad. They use red potatoes which are my favorite.

Based on the constant crowd of customers, Murphy’s Pub is a popular place. I am so glad I stopped in and tried what they had to offer. I would highly recommend anyone visiting Providence to check them out. www.murphysprovidence.com

Enjoy!

T