I saw this on an Andrew Zimmern show on the Food Channel. It said if you wanted old school Italian, go to The Hill. If you wanted new and edgy Italian, try Pastaria. I guess Mike and I aren't new and edgy. We much prefer "old school."
This is a casual restaurant. Most people were in jeans. That is OK and appropriate as it is also a pizza place. We had read good things about the pasta, so we decided to forego the pizza.
We each started with a cocktail. It was fine, but not especially good. It was also overpriced...we noticed later when we got the bill.
Most people comment about how your NEED to try the risotto balls. It was even on the TV show. So, we tried them. They were tasty. I liked the marinara sauce that came with them, but neither Mike nor I liked the aioli. It was very bland and just tasted of oil and parsley. The weird thing about them is that I expected them to be like arancini (the rice balls of Italy). They look like that from the outside. I also expected to taste pieces of rice inside, as risotto is made of rice. I really don't know how they make these balls as the inside is the consistency of mashed potatoes. I do think it has a little cheese in it and maybe some mashed rice, but they weren't like arancini and they were just OK.
They also hand out complimentary bread with oil and cheese. The bread was too heavy for my taste. It comes in a big lump of a piece. It was warm...which is nice but just too much.
Mike got the tagliatelle Bolognese. A Bolognese is typically made with beef, but this had an odd bacon/ham smell to it. It wasn't bad, just odd.