iggy’s

"Matthew and Ryan Poli have taken their talents to Wedgewood Houston with a 70-seat dining room laser-focused on inventive Italian cuisine. Expect the unexpected. An open kitchen allows guests to watch as the chefs prepare brioche garlic bread with whipped cheese, confit chicken thigh ravioli, and the snail-shaped pasta lumache with Maine peekytoe crab, sea urchin butter, Japanese red chiles, yuzu, and roasted seaweed. Gluten-free pasta is also available as a substitute for most dishes." - Ellen Fort, Jackie Gutierrez-Jones

"Matthew and Ryan Poli have taken their talents to Wedgewood Houston with a 70-seat dining room that’s laser-focused on inventive Italian cuisine. Which is to say, expect the unexpected. An open kitchen allows guests to watch as the chefs prepare housemade brioche garlic bread with whipped cheese, confit chicken thigh ravioli, and lumache with Maine peekytoe crab, sea urchin butter, Japanese red chiles, yuzu, and roasted seaweed. Gluten-free pasta is also available as a substitute for most dishes. The restaurant recently launched an in-house market where guests can take home the restaurant’s handmade pastas and sauces to make at home. —JGJ" - Jackie Gutierrez-Jones, Ellen Fort

"The pressure to provide dazzling conversation on a first date is no joke. At Iggy’s, you can let the restaurant do most of the talking for you. Book two seats at the chef’s bar in the back—not only can you watch the kitchen crew pulling together dishes like the wild mushroom tortellini and rigatoni bolognese, but they’re happy to banter a bit in between cooking and plating. See the room to the right? That’s where a dedicated pasta chef rolls, crimps, and cuts dough, sometimes with the help of a fancy machine. And if you’re still scrambling to fill in any conversational lulls, you’ve got some extra talking points with the funky cheetah-print chairs, wall murals, and other interior touches. " - jackie gutierrez jones 2

"If we had a dollar for every time somebody asked us, “What are the best places to eat in Nashville?” we could buy a bar on Broadway. We could even splurge to solder the chairs to the floor of the rooftop. An easy response to this question is Iggy’s in Wedgewood-Houston, where the Italian food is simple, creative, and mind-blowing all at the same time. It’s a place we’ve trusted with ultra-important dates, but also somewhere that’s perfect for dropping by on a random weeknight for a life-changing bowl of gnocchi. Their Roman-style semolina version with Burgundy truffles is easily one of the best bites you can have in the city—we’ve often scraped our finger across the plate to ensure no singular drop of taleggio fondue gets washed down the drain. " - jackie gutierrez jones 2, carlo mantuano, ann walczak

"Iggy’s has a whole room dedicated to making pasta. You can easily peer into the room where their dedicated pasta chef rolls, crimps, and cuts dough, sometimes with the help of a fancy machine. That tells us that Iggy’s takes its food really seriously, but that it’s also a lot of fun. Bring a date and book two seats at the chef’s bar in the back—not only can you watch the kitchen crew pulling together dishes like the wild mushroom tortellini and rigatoni bolognese, but they’re happy to banter a bit in between cooking and plating. You’ll want to place two orders of the garlic bread that’s oozing with cream cheese: one to devour with your dinner and the other to enjoy the next morning." - jackie gutierrez jones 2