I had heard that Bartolino's had opened a new restaurant at the corner of 141 and Big Bend. The area is called Twin Oaks. It is kind of a new development. There is a big apartment complex and shopping center there and the Bartolino's is the bottom floor of the aprartment complex.
Mike had tried to get us a reservation on Resy and they didn't have any times until later in the evening, so he called them on Friday night and the lady who answered said "Yes, they had an opening at 6." Well, we didn't get any kind of a confirmation text (we didn't know we were supposed to get a confirmation text). So, when we got there, they didn't have us in the system at all and it was kind of a mess. So, it ended up we went to the bar and had a drink. I had some kind of a berry sour margarita and it was quite good. Mike had a gin and tonic, of course. We got a table in about 25 minutes.
The tables all seem to be around the center bar area and that tends to make the entire place rather loud. When we mentioned that to our server, he said we actually were there on a quiet night, because they often have live music in the bar area and it is loud in the whole restaurant.
We started with the arencini appetizer. They were really good. The rice was super smooth and almost seemed like mashed potatoes rather than rice. I wonder if it was mashed rice?? The sauce was a pink sauce, not my favorite, but it was good.
We ordered a bottle of Decoy, which we knew we liked. It was funny, there were two couple dining right next to us who ordered a bottle of Decoy almost at the exact same time as us.
I ordered eggplant parm with angel hair pasta. It was really very good. The egg plant was cut very thin and fried. I could have done without all the basil on top, but that's ok.
Mike had veal parm with a side of rigatoni. He wished he could have had spaghetti instead of rigatoni, but that's ok.
We finished with a trio of canolli. They were crisp and good. Mike had coffee.
This is closer than the Bartolino's that is on Hampton on the way to the Hill. It is nice to be able to make a reservation. I'd go back.