Drew K.
Yelp
I was so happy to see North Italia sneak a second location into CityCentre, taking over the previous Tasting Room space. If you're new to North Italia, it's worth dropping by for a bite. They are an elevated Italian restaurant that still runs fast for professionals on lunch, with a myriad of delicious traditional and not so traditional offerings, including some excellent pizzas.
We've been fans of the Post Oak location for some time, and their new locale borrows hard from the original's aesthetic but is using their larger space to smooth over some of the complaints surrounding the original's cramped layout. Lunch will be a beast here, since it's Citycentre and adjacent to so many work spaces, but our first lunch visit was a fairly smooth one. Yes, front of house is still working out the kinks, and hiring servers anywhere is still a problem for Houston, BUT overall it was a good first dry run.
We started with the Chef's Board, Cacio e Pepe Arancini, and the Italian meatballs for the table. Everything came out fairly quick and tasty. I ordered the Chicken parmesan Entrée portion for my main, and it did not disappoint. It was more than I bargained for, portion wise, so I even made a second meal out of it by taking it home. All of my tablemates were happy with their orders. Nothing was forgotten, cold, or downright off, so I'd mark that as a win.
Service was a little bumpy, but the staff is clearly new, and they got things figured out shortly after the original confusion of who was on first. I don't see this being a repeat problem.
I haven't made it back for dinner, but I've already added it to my lunch rotation for work events, and look forward to a follow up visit.