GLORIA'S LITTLE ITALY

Where: Gloria's Little Italy, 1 E Center Street, Provo

Who Went: Owen and Chelsey

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Butternut Squash Ravioli with Side Salad and Gnocchi with Rosata Sauce and Tomato Basil Soup

What It Cost: $44.71

What We Thought: 

For some reason, I keep trying Italian food even though you know how I feel about it...But hey! Let's see if this one was worth the cost! Gloria's in downtown Provo is like one of the nicer restaurants in the area, but it's looking like it could use a little refresher. I don't know. The accordion player was kind of fun, but the girl clearing tables in basketball shorts and flip flops kind of ruined the mood...

Plus the accordion player never came to our table and asked what we wanted him to play! Totally bummed. I had a great song picked. Also a bummer - this salad. Why do restaurants insist on putting unmixed salads in bowls that are reallllly hard to mix in? Beats me. But the salad was boring, and I didn't really even eat it because, well, I'm already bored talking about it. Let's move on.

Owen started with the Tomato Basil soup, which was much more exciting. In fact, yeah I stole it from him. The soup was creamy and wonderful, and may even be better than Zupas. I know, hearsay. But it was really great! Definitely the highlight of the meal for me!

I got the butternut squash ravioli with sausage and four cheese sauce. The sauce did look like it had kind of been sitting a while, but the ravioli were really flavorful and delicious. It was a little weird though, because it totally reminded me a LOT of this pasta...Not sure who the original is, but our server assured us that they make all of the pasta in house, so I don't know...anyway, it was good. The sausage was flavorful and the sauce was certainly cheesy, and it was just a good all-around comfort meal.

Owen's dish was also high on the comfort-meal scale - I guess that's kind of an Italian food thing? I don't know. But he got the gnocchi in their signature sauce -- a creammmmy tomato sauce with cream cheese mixed it. Wowza. It was hearty. The gnocchi was pretty good. I think it was boiled and pretty sfot, and I really like it pan-fried for a bit of texture contrast, but that's getting nit-picky. It sure was a lot of pasta, and we took a good amount home, which is always nice.

We thought about getting dessert, but tried some of the gelato and found it to be icy and weirdly-flavored (and I normally totally dig gelato...), and the other desserts looked like they had been on display for a while, so we opted out.

What You Should Do: Pretty good, but $45 worth? I don't know. I think we probably made some of the best choices (I know, I sound super full of myself here...) with our meals -- ordering Italian options that can't be made as easily at home, which made the cost seem more justifiable. But still, it's a pretty expensive choice. I definitely think this would be more tasty on one of those chilly winter nights when you just want some comfort food, and make sure to order the tomato basil soup and put in an accordion song request for me, would ya?

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