I heard this new Coast restaurant was as good as Italian in NYC. It lives up to the hype.
When I heard there was a new Italian restaurant in Pascagoula, I knew I had to check it out as soon as I could get there.
A friend of mine, who spent a good deal of time in New York, told me the Italian Bistro in Pascagoula was the best Italian he had since he was last in NYC. That’s quite a recommendation.
The Italian Bistro is located in the heart of historic downtown Pascagoula. It has high black ceilings and ochre-colored walls. With that pleasant Italian background music, it is a very pleasant place indeed to have a meal. There is plenty of seating, and I counted more than thirty tables and a small bar as well.
The restaurant opened in December. After a few successful months of dinner service only, a smaller lunch menu was added. I visited for lunch and found the menu well balanced. It starts with five appetizers, including cheese sticks and bruschetta, one of my favorite appetizers made with toasted bread, chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil and a good marinara sauce. Stuffed mushrooms are followed by fried calamari (a dish that test the skills of a good chef), and mussels marinara, another of my favorites. This really is a place where I could make a very pleasant meal out of three or four appetizers and a nice glass of wine.
The lunch menu continues with four salads, and I’d always go with the Greek salad, made with mixed greens, tomatoes, olives, red onions, cucumbers and feta.
The remainder of the lunch menu is a selection of six pasta dishes, of which I would choose the meat sauce, meatballs or Italian sausage pasta. If it is a cold and wintry day, I just might go with the lasagna because it is comfort food at its best. The dinner menu includes all of the above, with the addition of three veal dishes, four chicken dishes, eleven seafood choices and a children’s menu.
It was a chilly day when I visited, so I did go with the lasagna, and I was not disappointed. The red sauce they use is simple and not over seasoned, the lasagna had just enough cheese and the pasta was perfectly cooked. It made me wonder why it has been so long since I had a good lasagna.
The only downside to my visit to the Italian Bistro was that I could not try everything on the menu that looked really good, and it was a long list.
If you go to Italian Bistro
Address: 641 Delmas Avenue, Pascagoula
Phone: 228-471-5106
Hours: Open for lunch Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; open for Dinner Monday to Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
