Chef Emanuele is an Italian chef who trained in New York city and then move to Stittsville for love and opened Poco Pazzo. The first time I went there was close to when I first moved into the area. The decor is very modern, but intimate. Over the summer, the Stittsville location has a patio. He has been so successful at Stittsville, he opened a second location in Kanata. The service staff is always excellent. They are friendly, and very knowledgeable of the menu. I good sign that the food is good, is when the staff eat there often enough to have their own favourites. Most of the time we go, the place is always busy, so a reservation is recommended, but at times, it isn't needed. They will try and fit you in if they can.
For the food, I have been there many times and tried out a few things (and yes, I do have my favourites). For appetizers, their zucchini sticks are one of the better ones I have had. They are not soggy, fresh, and not heavily battered. We have also tried the calamari, eggplant, bruchetta, shrimp in garlic butter as well, all with great success. They also bake their own bread, which always comes out fresh and hot with butter and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. In the end, our favourite of all the appetizers is the mushroom bruschetta. It's a different twist on bruschetta, where on the bread is a mound of mushrooms, and a bit of cheese, with a very light vinaigrette sauce drizzled over it. This has pretty much now become our staple appetizer.
For main courses, there has been a large variety of mains that we have sampled. My mom always gets the spaghetti and meatballs. She loves the meatball spices and the sauce. Simple yet with lots of flavour. Dad loves his fettuccine alfredo con pollo which I have also tried. Very creamy and exactly what I could expect. The boss is always in love with the same dish. She gets the same one, every time, which is the gnocchi sorrentina. The oven baked potatoe pasta reminds her a lot of her youth and was always a favourite of her grandmothers. For myself, the chicken parmigina has always been one of my favourite picks. You get a very large piece of chicken, served with a side of pasta. The chicken parmigina sometimes comes in a variation as a special. They add on shrimp on top with the pasta being upgraded to a fettuccine alfredo. The upgrade is well worth it!! Another special they serve is ground veal served in giant pasta shells in a gorgonzola sauce. It is VERY good. The gorgonzola is a little to heavy for my stomach, but I still order it because it is just that good. With portion sizes at Poco Pazzo, you can expect to have leftovers most of the time.
For desert, assuming you have room or saved room, the tiramisu is very good. We did find that the lady fingers were a little too over soaked, so they were too mushy, but not to the point where the flavour suffered. The "senator pucks" desert, which is a lava cake was also very tasty but over cooked. The lava cake did not ooze out the chocolate as it is supposed to. A little disappointed on that end. They do have a very good selection of wine and liqueurs, with a number of beers in bottles.
Overall, as you can tell by the number of things we have tried there, we do go back, and we do go back often. We have even worked with the chef for a little bit of catering on the side, and he was nothing but friendly, professional and very easy to work with. This is a place that I would recommend for anyone to try.
Review (out of 5):
Food: * * * *
Value: * * * * 1/2
Atmosphere: * * * * *
Service: * * * *
Price Range: $12 - $30
Website: http://www.pocopazzo.com/
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