Ristorante L'Italiano, High Point, NC

Mistaken Identity? (His View)

Before I get started I need to let you know that my wife and I are not out looking for bad restaurants. We are not trying to nit pick for the soul purpose of creative writing. A good meal, at a good price is all we are asking for. Between the two of us we make an honest living, but we are also on a tight budget like the rest of you. It would be nice to go to a white table cloth restaurant every time you go out for dinner, but good food doesn’t just hang out in the polished kitchens of a fine dinning establishment. I mean, I love a good “hole in the wall!” A place where the china only matches if you’re blind, the tables have survived 2 World Wars, and Aunt Mabel is still bringing sweet tea to the table with a smile. These are the places that I search for. The food is always great, the service…..hey.. it’s Aunt Mabel, and the atmosphere is like a scene out of Mayberry. A place like that knows who they are and they don’t change.

A pet peeve of mine is going to a restaurant that wants to be “high class” and doesn’t pay attention to the details that come with those high expectations. With the case of Ristorante L’Italiano they need to find their identity. Let me pause for a moment and paint you a picture. Imagine a black and white linoleum tile floor, old “Burger King” style booths with white table cloths, 5 waitresses running around with 5 different uniforms (I believe we only saw ours twice), and we can’t forget the standard Italian restaurant staples; old movie posters of Frank Sinatra and “The Godfather.” Now imagine paying $17 for the chicken parmesan (a $2 pre-breaded chicken breast with 50 cents worth of marinara and cheese) with your choice of frozen overcooked vegetables (25 cents worth) or pasta (maybe 10 cents). Yes, I said you have to “choose” pasta at an Italian place. The Caesar salad was a make shift blend of iceberg lettuce, assorted vegetables, and processed white cheese cut into little squares with the dressing on the side (about 90 cents total). The garlic bread was bread minus the garlic and butter (we won’t even go there). That whole description was my wife’s plate. I insisted on ordering gnocchi, the standard dish that I measure all Italian restaurants by. I got the same gnocchi I could buy at any Italian grocery store (maybe even Harris Teeter) and the same “so called” Caesar salad ($14, no vegetables just gnocchi and sauce). Just to stir things up a bit, they bring a nice lemon sorbet to cleanse your pallet between courses (10 cents tops). The sorbet is presented in a soft plastic 2oz cup that you would put your ketchup in at Arby’s (2 cents for the cup, watch out!). Overall the food tasted good for what it was, a small Italian “hole in the wall”, but the details and cost showed that L’Italiano has lost their way.

Goosby's Calabash

Out to Sea (Her View)
On a whim we decided to test the waters at Goosby's Calabash seafood joint. I use the word joint because it is only one step above "a dive" and a far cry from being considered a quality establishment. The decor reminded me of a nightmarish mega-buffet you'd see at the beach complete with gigantic buoys scattered about the front lawn. When we pulled in the parking lot at 7pm there were a grand total of 3 cars!! RED FLAG!!

Let's move onto the food. This place is not exactly a health food paradise. The menu consisted of a buffet loaded with fried fish, fried scallops, fried calamari...you get the point, it was a veritable smorgasbord of artery clogging concoctions. I was not pleased!! The one item on the buffet not deep fried in a vat of lard was the "blackened" tilapia. Folks let me cue you into something...blackened should not be a fancy cover up for BURNT!! The only saving grace was the cole slaw - but then again how hard is it to chop some cabbage and mix it with mayo! The most painful part of our dining experience was when the bill arrived. $38 was way overpriced for the quality of food.
Sorry Goosby's but its time you pull up your anchor and ship out to sea!!

Ship Wreck!! (His View)
Ooh Goosby's. We probably should have ran for McDonalds when it took us 5 minutes to decide if they were open or if the three cars parked in the lot were just part of the scrap metal collection on the front lawn. I had hoped for such good things, but then again how often can you find good seafood this far inland. Little did we know there would be crispy critters lurking inside. I think Goosby's should change their motto to "when in doubt, fry it!" Holy arteries! I have never seen such a heart stopping (not in a good way) display of fried sea creatures in my life. They did attempt to provide some type of nutrition by trying to blacken some type of fish. Usually you blacken with spice and a hot skillet, not cooking yesterdays fish until it surrenders every ounce of moisture and begs for mercy. Overall, stay away. FARRRRR away. Just a little pirate humor to make light of the fact we paid $38 for 5 years worth of damage to our artieries.

Our Mission

Our Mission!! (His View)
Culinary troops unite! The Opinionated Cafe is designed to provide you (the culinarian) with a professional (mine) and an amateur (my wife) opinion about food in the Triad. Our mission is to keep you from wasting your money on "wanna be" food professionals and their bad experiments that they call cuisine. I have been a chef for ten years. I will tend to be a little more critical on the overall experience and the professionalism of the restaurant as a whole. On the other hand my wife, who has been enjoying pretty good food for some time, has grown into a little food snob herself. Her side, for the most part, will be a little more foo foo and focus on.....well I will let her tell you. Together we enjoy good food, great company, and a good bottle of wine. We hope that reading our reviews and tit bits of information will help you make the correct choices when dining out.

Our Mission (Her view)
Food snobs unite!! Unlike my husband I am not a professional chef but am a critical consumer of quality cuisine. My perspectives on food come from years of benefiting from my husband's exceptional culinary skills - did I mention he is an award winning chef! My goal is to provide you with a vibrant description of flavors and presentations of food served in local Triad establishments. You can call me the Rachael Ray of Jamestown!