Zucchero

• Cuisine(s): Italian
  Hours: Mon-Sat 11:30am-11pm
  Price: $$$$
• Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
  Attire: Casual
  Features: Kid Friendly, Patio/Sidewalk Dining, Private Party, Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible
• Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Reservations: Accepted, Not Accepted
  Parking: Meters, Valet

Description

João "Juca" Oliveira, chef/owner of Tutto Pasta and Tutto Pizza, advances the same sprightly salads, homemade pastas, and simply prepared meat, seafood, and poultry entrées at his swankest effort to date. Yet with most appetizers in the $12 to $15 range, all but two pastas $15.95 to $18.95, and entrées $18.95 to $24.95, Zucchero lacks the value that the Tuttos tout. Still, the ambiance is pretty, the staff amiable, and the food fresh and tasty. Start with a plate of crisp calamari rings, crab cakes, and small spheres of the creamiest baccalà croquettes. Also a popular appetizer: thin-crusted pizza fired in a 700-degree wood-burning oven. Pasta is the best repast to feast upon, whether it be thick strands of homemade spaghetti tossed with basil-strewn marinara sauce and four Kobe meatballs, or inky black ravioli bathed in shellfish sauce. Spinach-thyme ravioli come alongside an entrée of pan-seared salmon with bay scallops and mustard sauce. Sliced flat-iron steak braced with Malbec demi-glace exuded a delicious char-grill flavor. Do not miss soffiato di guayaba, Zucchero's signature dessert, a flourless dome of guava cake oozing a caramel-like fruit center. Homemade cream cheese ice cream flecked with sweet bits of guava pairs deliriously well with the soffiato. Each night a three-course meal (with choices) of "Chef Oliveira's personal signature dishes" is offered for $19.95. Wednesday evenings bring 50 percent off bottles of wine. On Thursdays, every pasta plate goes for $10.95. That's more like it.