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At Angellino's, it's quantity and quality
The accent is on generosity, but the quality is what impresses. With a few minor exceptions, this small chain's got a winning menu.
By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 28, 2000
[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
The hearty fare at Angellino’s in Palm Harbor includes bruschetta, left, and spaghetti Bolognese topped with whipped ricotta and a rosemary sprig.
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When a place has a reputation for big helpings, you're torn and so am I. Experience has made my head skeptical, but my tummy fears it's missing out on a good thing.
Give in to your paunch at Angellino's if you're ready for too much of a good thing. Not great or grand, but good.
You'll be stunned at the size of the platters that come to the table, probably eat too much and still lug out an embarrassingly heavy take-home box. (When I tried to weigh the remains of seafood fra diavolo at home, the needle of my Weight Watchers scale went as far as it could and gave up.)
I shouldn't make too much about quantity; Angellino's takes amplitude as a matter of course. After the entrees, servers return to the tables like pit crews, their trays loaded with take-home boxes, and start collecting. (You'll need an extra seat to stack them up.)
The gag is that what's on those plates and in those boxes is surprisingly good and ambitious. Lusty and spicy you expect, but fresh and sophisticated, like a salad of ripe tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella or linguine with veal and asparagus, I didn't.
They don't call it vitello, by the way, or put on many other airs. Northern or Southern Italian? Call it Connecticut Italian, a long list of favorites with the accent on generosity. The owners have a small chainlet of four restaurants up there, and it shows on the menu in one small corner that lists fries with clam strips and sea scallops from the kettle fryer.
Angellino's doesn't claim to be an Ipswich outlet (although they get 'em on occasion), but the standard issue clam strips are still worth a week's fat budget.
Menu's overwhelmingly Italian, all the usual ravioli, manicotti, parmagiana, marsalas, marinaras and such plus creativity, not in cream sauces but in sautes and baked combos. You can have chicken with broccoli and red peppers over penne; veal, shrimp and tomatoes with mashed potatoes or various mixtures of squash, mushrooms, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and so on.
Eggplant stuffed with ricotta and sausage works great; veal with asparagus and artichokes in white wine and butter was as rich and tender as at high-priced joints (I'd add lemon). One failure was veal, chicken and sausage in marinara. This could have been a lusty pigout with some good mushrooms and herbs instead of peppers and cocktail olives. Pork chops with Gorgonzola were dry, but I'd gladly try them again.
Angellino's is sufficiently committed to the standards that our server unhesitatingly recommended the spaghetti Bolognese, seemingly the dullest of pasta. Not here. A six-inch mountain of veal, beef, and pork in tomato and basil under a snowcap of whipped ricotta was anything but dull.
Linguine and clam sauce had the right light broth and a few whole cherrystones on top. Mussels marinara and seafood fra diavolo were in traditional form; the latter had the right fire and abundant mussels, calamari, scallops and tough shrimp. Seafood disappointed twice, once in a salad special that promised grilled calamari and delivered pickled rings with little hint of the grill; the other was a starter of mussels with chorizo, a great peasant idea, but the mussels were tired and the chorizo wimpy.
Dessert should be out of the question, but the toasted almond confection of nuts and cream is worth a fork for everyone at the table.
I'd like to see Angellino's incorporate fresh fish, bone-in chicken and heartier mushrooms for a still lustier flavor, but I'm glad to find a neighborhood place with proper cheeses, pretty good bread and balsamic vinegar on hand.
The owners opened the first restaurant in the former Kally-K's in Largo two years ago and the second early this year in a building that had been Nino Monte's and O'Charley's in Palm Harbor. They turned both locations around, although the Palm Harbor location is newer and shinier; it also had a sharper wine selection, including Atlas Peak sangiovese by the glass.
In both spots, the food's hefty, the bill's modest and the gimmicks few. That's pleasant proof that everyday Italian, one of our favorite foods, doesn't have to come from big chains.
RESTAURANT REVIEW
Angellino's
13883 Walsingham Road, Largo; (727) 595-8382; 33180 U.S. 19 N; Palm Harbor; (727) 772-7874
Hours: In Largo, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday. In Palm Harbor, 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, Saturday; noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Reservations: Accepted for parties of six or more.
Credit cards: AE, D, DC, MC, V.
Details: Full bar, non-smoking section provided
Wheelchair access: Good
Prices: Lunch (Largo only), $4.50 to $7.95; dinner entrees (both locations), $6.99 to $15.99.
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