Sometimes when you have a special event to celebrate you want to find the perfect restaurant to eat at to help make the occasion memorable. Sometimes guys you just want to surprise your girlfriend with a special romantic evening out to dinner and then dancing or something like that. Bravo Italliano located at 20001 Route 19 in Cranberry, Pennsylvania, and is one of the perfect places to go for a romantic date and to celebrate something special. Bravo is somewhat of a high-class restaurant. It’s above Olive Garden and Red Lobster, but not one where you need a suit and tie for. There is a certain air within the restaurant and when you walk in you can tell t-shirt and jeans is not appropriate attire for the establishment. Bravo also has other locations other than in Cranberry. Bravo is open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. throughout the week, but on Friday and Saturday it is open until 11 pm. You can sit inside, but when the weather permits you are able to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.
The staff is very friendly and personable. They make it a point to make the customer to feel at ease and welcomed, along with being cared for. There wasn’t a time when we wondered “where is the waitress.” Not only did our waitress make sure we were satisfied, but other staff members would ask if things were okay when they passed by our table. It made me feel as though our happiness was more important that anything else. That is the kind of thing you want from a high class restaurant. The appearance of not just the establishment itself, but also the waitstaff were very impressive. I have been to places where the waitstaff just made you feel as if they didn’t want to be there, or that they thought they had better things to do. The staff at Bravo made you feel as if it was their pleasure to wait on us, and that they highly enjoyed their job. When ordering the waitress gave her opinion, but it was more kind and friendly rather than forced and as if it were an obligation. The way she spoke made me want to order the dish she was describing. When I did order something she raved about it and then specifically asked me how I like it and made other comments that made it feel like we were friends discussing the dish instead of customer and staff. I have never had another restaurant with waitstaff that were that friendly and wonderful.
The menu has so many items on it that are mouthwatering. The way the food is described makes it hard to choose just one item to try. Every restaurant describes the items on the menu, but most of the time it is generally just something along the lines of the igredients like for a salad you may see “fresh greens, topped with tomatoe, cheese and chicken,” but at Bravo you would find a salad described as such: Insalata Dela Casa: Chopped greens, cucumber, tomato, bacon, crispy pasta, and creamy Parmesan dressing.” Just the way it is described you want to eat it. While looking at the menu it was so hard to pick just one thing which makes you interact with the waitress to get her opinion. The prices are higher being in a high class restaurant: about 12-15 dollars for the pastas and the prices go up depending on what you get, but you get so much for your money. You get great food and a huge quantity. I ordered the Mushroom and Prosciutto Risotto and I have to say that was the best meal I have eaten. Everything was cooked to perfection and seasoned just right. My boyfriend order the Mama’s Lasagna and it came in a casserole dish. It was the biggest piece of lasagna that I have seen given at a restaurant. He ended up taking it home with him.
With the Mushroom and Prosciutto Risotto, the flavors all mixed together, but then at the same time seperate, so you had this flavor dance in your mouth. All of the flavors in the dish makes you want more. It wasn’t too salty, the saltiness of the Prosciutto was complimented with the mushrooms and rice. Even if you don’t have any of the mushrooms in the bite, you can still taste the flavor, the same goes with the Prosciutto. There is just a constant mixture of flavors, yet they were all distinct at the same time. The lasagna was a traditional lasagna and looked like something that grandma would have made on a Sunday afternoon. There was the perfect amount of cheese and meat with the noodles and the sauce was seasoned perfectly, unlike anything I have ever tasted. It had that good old homecooked taste. The cheese and meat almost melted in your mouth as soon as you tasted it. It again made you want more and was described as having a “meat sauce from the heart of Italy.” Who wouldn’t want to try something that had a meat sauce from the heart of Italy? Both dishes tasted like we were in fact eating in Italy instead of a small town in Western Pennsylvania.
Bravo Italiano is the perfect place to go out to when you are planning a special event or just to take your significant other to for a romantic evening. Even though you are surrounded by other diners, you feel as if you are alone in the restaurant. I have to admit, Bravo helped make my anniversary all the more special and I will never forget it, even though it was our nine month anniversary. Bravo gives you the feel like you have been whisked away to Italy itself and you forget you are sitting along Route 19. Even though the restaurant is along Route 19 it can be a little hard to find and you need to keep your eye out for a yellow building with the sign kind of tucked away above the door. With the food you get, the atmosphere of the establishment, you won’t care that the prices are a little higher. You wouldn’t mind going back for another special occasion because you know you will get good food and good service. So for your next romantic getaway make Bravo Italiano one of the restaurants on your list.
