On Top of Spagetti, All Covered with Cheese...

The weather outside is definitely frightful these days but that hasn't stopped me from bracing the cold and wind and snow to cross restaurants off my list! My most recent adventure took me to the West Village for some great Italian comfort food. Piccolo Angolo has been on my list for a while and it's one of those restaurants that has been around for years so you know it has to be good.

Walking in on a freezing Thursday night, I felt like I was walking into an Italian family Christmas dinner. The restaurant is small, probably only 20ish tables and there were three huge parties going on. Brittany, Kristen and I were seated in the back near the kitchen and was greeted by the nicest waitress I've had in a while. Turns out she's not just a waitress but the owners daughter and had great recommendations for us and was extremely accommodating with our preferences. You can tell right away why this place is so popular. The staff is all one family and they're main goal is to please the customer. The daughter ended up leaving to walk her dad home in the cold, but she got our order in first.

We started with the highly recommended meatballs. They were 2 softball sized balls with marinara sauce that was great for dipping the garlic bread into. We wanted to finish the whole plate, but needed to save room for the two pastas we ordered next.

We got the gnocchi with bolognese sauce and the lobster cannelloni with their vodka sauce. It's hard to beat my mom's meat sauce, but Piccolo's was really good. It was more meaty than saucy and tasted great with the gnocchi. The serving size was definitely good enough for sharing if you're a girl and maybe a little small if you're a guy who likes his pasta.

The cannelloni was good, but for sure came in third place. There were lots of chunks of lobster and the vodka sauce was good, but it just didn't compare to the other two dishes we got. Finished off with a reasonably priced bottle of Pinot, it was a successful reunion with friends!

I loved the homey feeling of this restaurant but don't try going if you don't have a reservation. There is no room to wait inside and if it's winter time in the City, I doubt you'll be wanting to wait outside, no matter how good the food is.