Melissa B.
Yelp
HOW have I not reviewed Mino's yet?! I went there pretty much right before the pandemic officially "began" in our area, and I loved it. I think I got the bolognese? I remember finding the food delicious. Everyone at the table agreed about their respective dishes.
Flash forward to seeing them available on Resy, and I knew it would be an outstanding choice for my birthday dinner. It really was!
The only negative here is that the parking is limited and, as a result, annoying to find. Even so, we ultimately found parking and walked over in the 95 degree heat. The restaurant is a bit dimly lit, but not where you can't see the menu or other people! It also has a refined, sophisticated feeling, but not pretentious or stuffy, so families, date nights, friend outings, and such are all common here.
Our waiter was very nice - I think his name was Roshan, apologies for misspelling. The service here is personalized and well coordinated - no one bringing out plates and wondering who gets what (when that happens at restaurants, it's not a problem, but it's cool that here it's so seamless).
We ordered a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (red) wine, one of our favorite types. (We are not experts but we like what we like!) It was good but not amazing. Even so, it didn't need to be - the food stood out here anyway.
We started with a Caesar, my husband's idea. It was portioned for each of us before arriving at our table. The parmesan was delicious, and the dressing was light - and lightly dressed, nothing overwhelming.
Our main courses were wonderful! My husband liked his margherita pizza. I went with the rigatoni; it seemed like a fun way to celebrate. It was incredible! The sauce was flavorful, the pasta was al dente without being crunchy, and everything came together beautifully. My husband is not a big pasta eater but tried some...and kept trying it!
Our waiter asked us before dessert if we had any dislikes. After discussing this, after a bit, we got a lovely birthday dessert: apple crostata...and a serving of pistachio gelato! The crostata was amazing. The dough itself was delicious, and the filling with apple and rhubarb (plus tons of spices, possibly clove, some nutmeg?) screamed "fall" - very comforting. The pistachio gelato was not super sweet and instead went well with the roasted pistachios embedded in it. Still, we were pretty full and directed our focus to the crostata.
This is definitely a restaurant worth visiting!