“Restaurant Review | Minico's Italian Restaurant: Veteran's touches enhance specialties at new venture”

Restaurant Review | Minico's Italian Restaurant: Veteran's touches enhance specialties at new venture

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 05:54 AM PST

For anyone who mourns the loss of Ricardo's Restaurant, a new connection exists: Joe Vittorio, a member of the family that ran Ricardo's, recently bought Minico's in Westerville.

Best accessed via Rt. 161, it is situated in an unassuming space on S. Sunbury Road.

Pizzas are a big deal on the menu.

The all-the-way pizza ($13.45 for a 10-inch pie) is just that, without being overloaded. The cracker-crisp crust carries the right amount of cheese; a judicious amount of tomato sauce; reasonable amounts of mild Italian sausage and thin pepperoni; and a surprisingly nice quantity of sweet peppers, onions and mushrooms.

The sauteed chicken ($11.45) is another pleasant surprise. The thinly sliced meat is sauteed in olive oil along with broccoli, cauliflower, onion, sliced California olives and dried herbs - including parsley, basil and oregano.

The application of toppings isn't heavy-handed. Want cheese? The traditional old-time shaker of grated cheese is on the table, along with the equally venerable shaker of hot-pepper flakes.

Each table also has a bottle of the house-made Italian-American dressing to go with the house salad (iceberg lettuce, carrot, cabbage, pepperoni, California olives and pepperoncini) that comes with each entree (or $2.95 a la carte).

The white spaghetti ($9.35) is a throwback to the days when it was a daring dish to offer in an Italian-American restaurant - when garlic wasn't as ubiquitous. The Minico's version is authentically light on garlic and mercifully light on oil and cheese.

The dish can be enhanced with several shakings of the grated cheese.

The lasagna ($11.95) is truly multilayered, with a half-dozen or so sheets of pasta separating layers of ground meat and creamy cheeses, including a smoked provolone that provides a slightly smoky flavor.

One big plus: The pasta isn't overcooked. The modest amount of plain tomato sauce on top lightly seasons rather than smothers the dish.

The traditional meatball, dense and mildly flavored, is included with certain entrees or as an extra-cost side ($1.10).

The extensive list of sub sandwiches includes a "super sub" ($8.45). It takes the traditional Italian ingredients (capocollo, salami, pepperoni, tomatoes, hot peppers, lettuce, onions, Italian dressing and cheese) and adds crumbled mild Italian sausage. The decent sub bun is strong enough to hold everything together.

The key is the time that the sub spends in the oven, which melts the cheese with the sausage and gives the bun a slightly crusty texture.

The short wine list has decent pours of Straccali Chianti ($5.75) and the always-reliable Ecco Domani pinot grigio ($5.75). The Da Vinci Chianti ($6.75) costs a little more than the Straccali but is worth it.

jac@iwaynet.net

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