Michaelangelo’s

Over the last twenty-five years, this Murray Hill space, set back from the street has had a number of owners and food themes. Prior to current ownership the place was called Villa d’Este. A number of years prior, Canterbury Ales was one of our favorite casual dining haunts. Michaelangelo’s is miles away. The place is now an elegant, yet simple room serving some of the best Northern Italian food in the area.

We’ve been to this restaurant a number of times. In each visit we’ve sampled the heartier offerings on the “meat and fish” side of the menu. On today’s visit we decided to try the pasta. This proved to be an excellent decision. While Michele has enjoyed the menu’s Bass and the fresh offering of the day and Jeff raved about the rack of lamb and veal dishes, the pasta certainly held its own.

Michele ordered the Tagliolini, a bowl of “square” pasta wrapped around jumbo shrimp, olives, and roasted tomatoes in a Pinot Grigio sauce. The bold tomato flavor was augmented with a spunky, spicy sauce. Jeff had the Tortellini. This was a classic veal-stuffed pillow served with prosciutto, peas and Parmigiano Reggiano cream sauce. Both were fabulous, so good in-fact, we kept asking ourselves why we’ve stuck to the “other side” of the menu for so long.

We did not have appetizers during this visit, despite wonderful Caesar salad, escargot and Kobe beef carpaccio in the past. We decided instead on trying the daily dessert special Chocolate Ganache “Bomb”. This was a decadent mount of chocolate, surrounded by blueberries, raspberries and chocolate biscotti. We scrapped the plate clean.

We like this restaurant. The food is great, the staff is professional and the atmosphere is classy. Give it a try before the orchestra or for a relaxing evening.

Please note: Thursday November 12, 2009 is their special Black Truffle Wine Dinner. For $100 each, they are offering a six-course dinner, all featuring in-season black truffles along with wine pairing. The menu looked great, especially if you like this rare foodstuff.

List Status: Existing

http://www.mangelos.com/ 2198 Murray Hill Road Cleveland, OH 44106 216-721-0300

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