INZO Italian Kitchen ~ Roanoke, Texas

Latest visit: Apr 2018

First visit: Mar 2012 (as Brix)

So what was the final destination for the RJG before leaving DFW? Yep - INZO. Strange choice, but once again, it's somewhat random I guess. You can tell as I update this blog for 2018, we revisited a lot of our favorites before going back to Colorado. And it was for dinner - which as the note below explains - is something we hadn't done with INZO before recently. Bye-bye DFW, we'll miss you!

---7/24/17 update

For years we've been going to INZO for pizza at lunch. This time we went for dinner and Italian. We've been missing out! Now we have a new Italian favorite!

On this visit, we started by ordering a bottle of Cabernet. At $20, it's too cheap to pass up (yes, of course we know we can get it cheaper at the grocery store, but that's not the point). This was accompanied by fresh baked artisan bread that was served with an olive oil/black pepper mix, red wine vinegar, and fresh soft butter. We weren't hungry enough for an appetizer, but there were plenty of attractive choices. Straight to the menu we went, and both us were in a Secondi mood. I went for my staple dish - Chicken Parm, and Mrs RJG went with one of her standby's Chicken Cacciatore. Both of us settled on a Caesar Salad for starters. We both liked their version, which featured a light, not too powerful dressing, and fresh romaine lettuce with shaved parmesan cheese. And just the right amount of salad. As for the main meal, Hooray, an Italian restaurant that actually knows how to make Chicken Parm in DFW! The lost art. It's a simple dish rarely made correctly. INZO gets it right. A healthy portion of a thin cutlet, breaded properly, and baked crisp in the pizza oven. This comes with a zesty and smooth red tomato sauce. Served with a side of al dente spaghetti. Absolutely perfect! Meanwhile, a sideways glance at Mrs. RJG demonstrated her own glee with her Chicken Cacciatore, that featured a light sauce, plenty of mushrooms, and well cooked chunks of chicken breast.

Tarrant County has been ill served by Italian restaurants in the past, primarily only offering two types of Italian in the past (a Yugoslavian variation of New York Sicilian pizza-pasta, and high-end old fashioned "Northern Italian" restaurants with $$$$ prices). That seems to be changing rapidly, and INZO has been at the vanguard of this movement. No longer does one have to trek all the way to Dallas to get decent Italian food. (yes, we know Roanoke is in Denton County, but it's right over the county line)

INZO's menu looks loaded with RJG favorites like Penne Arrabiata (which has the right ingredients if the menu holds true) and old school spaghetti and homemade meatballs. More than that of course. We'll be back to try them all!

According to their website, they've been open since 2007. And we've been going on and off since then. Hard to believe it's been that long! You'll find INZO right in the heart of Roanoke's "Restaurant District", that is rapidly expanding. There's outdoor seating and a bar area that features a nice selection of craft beers and fine wines.

---original 3/10/12 review (as Brix)

This past summer while in Denver, Mrs. RJG had a craving - a craving for the kind of pizza you get in Italy, and really all throughout Europe. Fortunately artisan pizza places are starting to crop up all over in America, one of which is Campania Pizza in Southlake (RIP) So we visited a few places in the Denver area, and our favorite ended up being a small local chain called Proto's Pizza. (We specifically went to the Lafayette location for a nice drive - and a long way from our former townhome in southeast Denver). We by no means exhausted the area, and all of the restaurants in this category were satisfactory.

I wasn't quite sure where to go, as Campania is the only Neapolitan pizza place I'm aware of in NE Tarrant. There are other inventive pizza places like Coal Vines, which pays homage to the old New York styled coal oven places like Lombardi's. Cavalli's is receiving high praise over in Irving, close to Las Colinas. I was about to head over there, when my eye caught INZO. In fact, I had just been up in Roanoke to try Outlaw Burger, so why not head back and this time go to the main street and try it? INZO has a fairly simple menu of appetizers, pizzas, salads, calzones and Italian pasta dishes.

Obviously they double as a wine bar, though the Mrs. and I weren't in the mood and settled on a beer (they feature one Texas micro - Real Ale's Fireman #4, which is refreshingly becoming somewhat easy to find).

We were there for pizza, and on both visits we each tried a different one. I've had the Meat Lovers and a simple Margherita with Italian sausage added. Mrs. RJG tried the chicken and onions as well as one with Italian sausage, which I'm not finding on their internet menu. We also shared a garden salad, which is mixed greens with an excellent vinaigrette dressing. A small pizza is plenty for one, and the Mrs. had to take the last one home. For our money, we prefer the pizza here to Campania. The key is the crust, which has a wonderful flavor with the right amount of crisp to chewy ratio. I believe the sausage is homemade and is excellent as well. The only negative was the chicken pizza, and that was really our fault as we didn't realize it was a "white" pizza (no tomato sauce). And that's what we wanted. So our bad - the crust and the cheese were still cooked to perfection.

3/10/12 (new entry); 11/9/13; 1/24/16; 7/24/17; 4/28/18