I’m out with the harshest critic I know, my 13-year-old daughter, and we decide to get a bite at a brand-new restaurant. Friends have said how great it is, and since we are nearby, we visit the Pellini Italian Eatery, an Italian fast-food concept that works like Chipotle or Subway where they build your order in front of you as you move down the line. It’s a brightly painted, but with a cement floor, sparse and modern looking, with an indestructible indoor dining area and umbrella covered tables on an outdoor patio. We are the only customers and I feel it is best to confess that I’ve never been there before and need to know how it works. The staff are very friendly and show us all of the options including how to customize an order to be anything we want it to be. It’s simple – there is a pasta bowl to which you can add tons of ingredients and choice of sauces like creamy vodka, marinara or Alfredo; there’s the Pellini, a flatbread wrap they fill at your direction; and there are soups, salads and other delectables crafted to your specifications. In the short time it took to hear the instructions, a line of 20 people formed behind us.
Your order is assembled quickly as you slide down the line naming your toppings and ingredients. You pay at the cash register and take your tray to a comfortable table. I look around at all the happy families with children, and all of the young adults sharing dessert, and before I even take a bite, I begin to realize part of the attraction to this restaurant. Adults can have an upscale Italian dinner while their kids happily eat spaghetti or macaroni and cheese without having to have a toy with their meal. It’s fast, it’s convenient, it’s delicious, it’s not expensive and no damage done if there’s a spill on a cement floor.
All of the dishes are served in paper bowls with disposable utensils. You fill your own drink cup (sorry, no booze here) and clean up after you leave. Our first visit was so successful, we returned for a couple visits so we could try all these options: Pasta Bowl Vegetariano $5.55 Angel hair pasta cooked al dente with your choice of meat or vegetables, sauce and toppings. I really wanted to try the Alfredo. In my opinion, Alfredo is the mark of an Italian restaurant. If the Alfredo is
good, everything else will be as well. We added grilled vegetables and stopped there though there were 19 other ingredients we could have added. This was my favorite dish, and yes, the Alfredo was perfect, creamy, mild and freshly made.
Pellini Chicken Milanese $6.55 Warmed piadina flatbread, chicken Milanese, angel hair pasta and anything else you want to add. I am not a wrap guy, and you can call it whatever fancy name you want but this is a wrap, Italian-style. Basically, it’s a flour tortilla and we chose a crunchy chicken Milanese, which had been breaded, fried and diced into bite-size pieces. We added angel hair pasta, tomatoes and artichoke hearts. This turned out to be a wrap I can eat. Very unique and it all blended together nicely.
SpinachArt ichoke Dip $4.25 Served with piadina chips. You are handed a warm plastic bowl of creamy dip and a paper sleeve of toasted piadina sliced into chips. It has a creamy texture with chunks of artichoke. It’s tangy and garlicky and the piadina adds a nice crunch.
Italiian Crepe (complimentar y, not on the menu) Warmed piadina flatbread stuffed with Nutella, rolled and served with fresh whipped cream. This wasn’t on the menu that I could see and I think they were just testing it out. The owner, Chris, brought it to our table and called it an Italian crepe. Nutella, for the uninitiated, is a hazelnut and cocoa spread that was invented in Italy in the ’60s and is very popular in Europe. I first had it in Israel, where it was served on toast for breakfast. Nutella is an acquired taste in my book. It is thicker than peanut butter, is syrupy sweet and is more hazelnut than chocolate. My daughter acquired the taste long ago and was eager to dig in. I watched her eyes roll back as she took her first bite. The whipped cream was very fresh and obviously homemade. If I did the math right, I think this dessert is the equivalent to six candy bars, seven when you add the whipped cream.
Creamy Tomato Soup $3.95 Rich puree of tomatoes, basil and cream. This was one big bowl of soup. Again, you had the option of 19 ingredients to add, but we only chose freshly grated mozzarella. Loved the consistency and the warmth but didn’t detect the cream. It was a bit bland, but then, we were the ones who refused 18 other ingredients to add. Next time, I will spice it up. The serving was so large that the two of us couldn’t finish it.
Side Salad $3.95 Fresh greens with choice of veggies and dressing. They mix this right in front of you in a chilled metal bowl. It was fresh, cold and crisp. We asked for Caesar and the dressing was delightful.
If you don’t count the Italian crepe, the Pellini Italian Eatery is a much healthier, tastier alternative to traditional fast-food restaurants. There’s a bambino’s menu that the kids all seemed to enjoy. The crowd demographic trended toward families and young adults the times we went. It’s not a date place (unless you’re 16), but it is an unbelievable value in a very low-pressure but upscale environment. It’s adjacent to the Scottsdale Quarter and parking is easy.
Contact A. Noshman at a.noshman@azjewishlife.com.
