Regulars at Ronaldo’s
If you’ve been reading my blog regularly or know me, you probably know that I love Italian food. So I have a mental list of go-to Italian restaurants for when the cravings hit. My husband and I have a couple of great take-out Italian options (great food, but no table service, or else no atmosphere in the restaurant) and we have a couple of delicious upscale Italian options (great food, but too pricey for regular visits). We moved to this area in the spring, but we had yet to find the perfect mid-grade Italian restaurant – a place with great food, good value, and a nice atmosphere.
So, last weekend, when the pasta cravings came on full force – I closed my eyes and saw nothing but delicate strands of angel hair floating in front of me – we put our thinking caps on. Surely there had to be someplace we hadn’t tried yet…then I remembered Ronaldo’s, an Italian restaurant on route 1 in North Hampton, NH – we drove past them all the time and swore we’d try them, but never had.
So we ventured off to Ronaldo’s. They were smaller than expected inside and running a long wait, but despite our ferociously growling stomachs, we decided to go the lounge area and wait. Despite being small, and a little noisy, the restaurant had a cozy atmosphere and a comfy lounge. Once we were comfortably seated in the lounge and entertained by a hysterically funny and attentive bartender, we decided to stay put and eat dinner there.
As our eyes were growing bigger than our stomachs, we over-ordered. We started with Bruschetta Italiano, which while not your typical bruschetta, was some of the best we’ve had. It’s basically large hunks of garlic bread smothered with sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, mozzerella cheese, and prosciutto. I can still taste it almost a week later – all of the flavors were in perfect harmony and the bread was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside…perfection. It was a generous serving size, too, so we ate half and packed the rest up (though we could make a light meal out of the bruschetta alone).
We probably wouldn’t have ordered the bruschetta if we’d known that a big bread basket was coming our way, but I’m still glad that we did. Normally I wouldn’t eat bread and bruschetta, but this wasn’t ordinary bread…it was heavenly. It was perfectly chewy, soft, bready, doughy, tasty with a crunch exterior…forget the bruschetta, I could make a meal out of their bread basket. We packed some of that up, too.
For dinner (with appetites waning), I had cheese ravioli with a pesto sauce with plum tomatoes, and my husband had the Italian Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu. My ravioli was wonderful – filled with soft ricotta, it had the perfect texture. And, it actually tasted like cheese unlike so many cheese ravioli that are bland white masses. The pesto was delicious, too, a little chunky with whole pine nuts scattered throughout – it was well-seasoned and the addition of the plum tomatoes kept the sauce from becoming too one-note – it added nice texture and sweetness to the sharp pesto. My husband’s dish had a great tomoto-cream sauce that was just creamy enough and just tomatoey enough. I didn’t love his stuffed chicken, but, then, I’ve never really been a fan of ham. We ate half, and, you know the drill…packed the rest up.
I also had a great glass of Montepulciano by Dragani – it was fruity and dry and delicious.
Finally, because everything else was so good, I had to try a dessert. We split a piece of Ronaldo’s cheesecake, which we were told was made in-house. The flavors vary and it was a plain cheesecake in a raspberry sauce on this particular night. Following suit with everything else, it was superb. It was firm but creamy, fresh, and the raspberry sauce added a nice sweet-tartness to it. Only this time…I didn’t pack any up.
We’ve found our mid-grade Italian spot – mid-grade on price with a casual atmosphere - but not mid-grade on quality. I think we’ll be regulars.
For about $60 we had an appetizer, two entrees, a glass of wine, a vodka tonic, and a piece of cheesecake – and, better yet, we got two meals out of it. Dinners also come with a choice of soup or salad – we never received ours, but I think this was a blessing given how much we ate – next time, though!
Tags: bread, bruschetta, cheesecake, chicken cordon bleu, lounge, montepulciano, north hampton, ravioli, ronaldo's, value
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