Via Italia
8644 Hunters Village Rd.
Full disclosure: This is kind of go to place for us when it comes to Italian. I have a friend who is from the northeast, and on arrival in Tampa, it was a mission of his to find the best Italian place. After sampling some well-known places, he decided this was the one. He had us out for dinner one night there, and quickly realized that his find was quite accurate.
From the outside, the place doesn’t look like much. It is in a North Tampa strip mall, near a First Watch, a Starbucks, a shoe story and a Sprouts market—it doesn’t exactly have a Little Italy feel to it. In fact, North Tampa is probably about as far from an old country vibe as you could get. But this location belies what is behind the door. It is a little noisy, but the booths and décor give the place a comfortable feel.
The food
For an appetizer, we often start with the Caprese Tricolor. This appetizer makes me hungry for what is to come. This Caprese has a beautiful presentation-3-colors as it’s name indicates. Those colors are made up of the fresh white mozzarella, red tomatoes and fresh green basil. The balsamic glaze adds another color but quadcolor doesn’t quite have the same ring to it that tricolor has. Either way, these multiple ingredients combine to give the dish a delightful combination.
There is an interesting thing about the entrees at this place. Most of the time, when I go to a restaurant I like, there are one or two dishes that particularly appeal to me, and I will usually order one of them. It is not that the rest of the food isn’t good, it just doesn’t have the over-the-top appeal of the couple I really like, dishes that by themselves could make the restaurant special. This little rule doesn’t hold in this place. At Via Italia. I have ordered probably 7 or 8 things on their menu, not to mention having gotten pizza. I have yet to taste on that I thought was inferior or not as good as the others. I should mention here that as an American, I have fairly adventurous tastes when it comes to the cuisines of various cultures, but I would not necessarily call myself an afficionado of Italian. But I do know fresh. I do know how combinations of flavors can make a simple dish complex. I have a good knowledge of ingredients like olive oils, balsamic vinegars and cheeses, so although not super knowledgeable of the cuisine as a whole, I do have quite a bit of experience with the various constituent flavors.
So the latest dishes we got was the Rigatonia Alla Norma and the Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese. (My partner in this excursion got the later. She had wanted to get the Penne Pesto Genovese but they were out of that pesto so the waiter suggested the Spaghetti Con Pesto Alla Siciliana, but arugula pesto didn’t appeal to her.) What we got was excellent? I know…what does excellent taste like. Fresh home made sauce, for one thing. Fresh spices for another. Pasta cooked just right. Mine had breaded eggplant in it. Fried eggplant can be problematic because it might be hard to digest, but the chunks of eggplant in this dish soaked up the sauce nicely, and in spite of some of the knocks on eggplant, my stomach seemed perfectly happy.
Finally, this place has pizza and it is good. I have had it before but on this night we stuck to the Italian entrees and will review the pizza on another visit.
Verdict
I didn’t mention the prices. For an Italian dinner that really feels elegant and complete, the prices in this place or more than reasonable. Many places that aren’t nearly as satisfying are more expensive. So add that to the list of reasons that Villa Italia is a good choice.