Trattoria da Vinci

400 Sibley Street
St. Paul, MN
651-222-4050
http://www.trattoriadavinci.com

Category: Italian

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 6
Service: 5
Ambience: 6

Recommendation: Average to Good. We recommend Trattoria da Vinci for a weekday lunch (if your work in the neighborhood) but for dinner, there are several other top notch Italian eateries we’d head to before going back to this one.

Owned by Diane Mattaini and Executive Chef Angelo Volpicelli (a native of Rome), this Italian restaurant is located on Sibley street in St. Paul on the lower level of an office building. We celebrated a friend’s birthday here recently, before catching a show at the Ordway which is 6-8 blocks away. Our overall experience was average but we thought a few dishes were done really well. If you work close by, Trattoria da Vinci makes a good location for a weekday lunch, but for a great Italian meal, there are better restaurants such as La Grolla, Arezzo, Al Vento, and Campiello. The décor was whimsical…exposed brick walls, high ceilings, wood floors but the Da Vinci touch…an airplane hanging in the middle of the dining room. However, several other random local hockey paraphernalia made this place feel more like Doolittle’s than a cozy Italian eatery. The cafeteria style pasta bar was a little tacky for our tastes. In addition to the standard menu of authentic Italian dishes, the open pasta bar has a variety of meats, sauces, and vegetables that can be used to make your own pasta. There is a kid’s menu with a handful of dishes such as Pizza, Chicken Fingers, and Mac and Cheese. Happy hour is from 3:30-6:30pm and offers a couple of appetizers. They also have live jazz on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Gnocchi di Patate ($14) was good but didn’t match up to our favorite gnocchi in the Twin Cities, which is served at Arezzo. The sauce was great but the dumplings weren’t the “melt in your mouth” kind. The Capellini alla Checca ($13), which was a simple dish with angel hair pasta cooked with garlic, fresh tomato, and sweet basil was surprisingly good. Our favorites were the Spaghetti and Meatballs ($14) made with homemade meatballs that were juicy and tender and served with a delicious, tangy tomato sauce, as well as the Ravioli di Funghi Crimini ($17), a crimini mushroom stuffed ravioli served in a sun-dried tomato cream sauce with artichokes, asparagus, and portabella mushrooms. The cream sauce was just the right consistency and the dish had a nice earthy feel to it. The Penne al Whisky ($15), pasta mixed with bacon, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and walnuts in a whisky cream sauce, was recommended by our server but it didn’t impress. We thought the cream sauce was heavy and overpowering and the individual ingredients were out of sync. Our least favorite was the Risotto allo Zafferano ($16) - chicken, mushrooms and asparagus in a saffron-butter sauce. It was downright awful – the risotto had a starchy, gummy texture to it – not something we would ever want to put in our mouths. Desserts were ok – we tried the Tiramisu and the Tartufo. Service was slow and although the bread and butter were really good, they took a while to replenish.

$$-$$$. Free parking on weekends and evenings on north side of building. Plenty of street parking available.