Thursday, December 29, 2016

Cafe Italia ~ Grapevine, Texas


Latest visit: Dec 2016

First visit: 2004

Our last two visits are noteworthy. The last was for the official RJG's Mom's birthday. It was way too crowded. It was between Christmas and New Year's Day of last year (2016). The time before that was we chose this restaurant to celebrate the RJG obtaining his new job in Baltimore (Nov 2016). Of all places... And we haven't been back since.

Cafe Italia is probably the epitome of the type of Italian food you're likely to run across in NE Tarrant. And one can argue that it may be the best of the Eastern European owned Italian eateries in the area. We've been going to Cafe Italia almost since we moved to the area in 2003, though not on any kind of regular basis. All the same, it's surprising that we're just now getting around to posting about it. In the early days, because of its popularity, there was usually a line out the door. So they further opened a second "overflow" location a few miles south near the Grapevine ISD football stadium. This overflow site eventually became a full-blown restaurant unto itself, and now they enjoy full crowds (with lines) at both locations - especially on weekend nights.

Cafe Italia is a hybrid of northern and southern Italian cooking with white, red, pink, and sherry wine sauces to choose from. They have some ambitious specials, so if you're looking for something beyond the tried and true, definitely consider a visit here. I've talked about other such Italian restaurants in the area previously, so not a whole lot of other things to discuss here. It's BYOB as is the (fortunate) norm, and the service is generally impeccable. Their pizzas look good but we haven't tried them. Both locations are well decorated, and offer a warm welcome. Cafe Italia can be a destination as a date restaurant or a good place to bring friends.

3/21/08; 1/20/12 (new entry); 12/12/13; 12/29/16

2 comments:

Donna said...

Such a great and informative post about Italian Restaurant. This will really help people to choose the best one.

RJG said...

This is a subtle way for a competitor to leave an advertisment. If you click on Donna - you will be taken to the website for Napoli's restaurant, also in Grapevine. We went there once and liked it, but these kind of messages are uncool and does not endear me to Napoli's. Hard to say who's behind the message though, so I don't want to blame the restaurant outright. But it's definitely a lame thing to do.

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