The Hoppy Okapi

Fun, Food and Beer in America’s Finest City

Eating my way through Little Italy… April 20, 2008

The quest to sample all the restaurants in our new neighborhood officially began last week with dinner at Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, with pizza and beer in a classic “fear-the-falling-Chianti-bottles” setting. Since we’d been to several (three?) of the other Filippi’s locations around San Diego, that was more of a known (and longed-for) experience. This week we started the true exploration with a visit to Mimmo’s Italian Village on Thursday evening. The weather was mild and the outdoor patio was full, so we headed inside and found ourselves feeling like we’d stepped into a Disneyland ride. (Really…even though it was a replica Italian village, I found myself singing “Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me” for the first 10 minutes.)

I started dinner with a cup of Lobster Bisque, which turned out to be a pleasing orange-cream color. The soup was savory and just creamy enough without being too heavy, although the chunks of lobster were a bit chewy and I was wishing for a shot of sherry to add an extra sweetness. The true revelation of the evening was the Linguini Pomodoro - so simple, and yet so brilliant, the pasta perfectly cooked, the goat cheese adding creaminess and tartness, a dose of salt from the kalamata olives, and absolutely glorious fresh tomato flavor. It’s going to be hard to eat my way through Little Italy if all I ever want to eat is this linguini pomodoro…

 

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