|
ZAGAT
SURVEY
1999-2001-2002
GOURMET
MAGAZINE
2002: Top 10th
Italian Restaurant in Maryland, Washington DC and Delaware
BALTIMORE
MAGAZINE
1996: Best Restaurant for late-night noshing
-
"Best restaurant for late-night noshing
Owner/chef Riccardo Bosio's newly opened Sotto Sopra has become the
destination for sophisticated late-night dining. That's because this
piazza-like restaurant has real urban verve, with lush murals and
ocher-glazed walls, and a light Italian menu that includes
arugula-and-prosciutto-topped pizza and made from scratch gnocchi. And
though the Wednesday to Saturday valet parking pulls in well-heeled
suburban clientele all through the evening, it's usually the
after-theater crowds and local Mt. Vernon-ites whom you'll likely find
lingering over biscotti and conversation into the wee hours"
1997: One of Baltimore's 65
Best Restaurants
-
"Sotto Sopra Usually it takes a while
for Baltimore to cotton to a new place, but Sotto Sopra hit the
ground running when it opened earlier this year, and it hasn't looked
back. No passing fancy, this. The city's beautiful people continue to
flock here for the sophisticated environs (the Murals are fantastic) and
chef Riccardo Bosio's cosmopolitan Italian cooking. With good reason.
His house made gnocchi is the stuff of dreams, feather light and
interestingly sauced. His homemade pastas-buckwheat, ravioli, fettuccine
draw consistent raves. His vitello tonnato, an a la minute
version, is richly flavored with the dish's signature tuna mayonnaise.
And his red snapper, crusted with potatoes, is perfectly cooked and
garnished. Some complain that the highbrow crowd is breeding a touch of
snobbery among the wait staff, but hopefully such an adolescent response
to success will soon be put aside, and the restaurant will assume its
rightful place as an egalitarian crowd-pleaser".
2000:
Best Homemade Pasta
-
"Homemade Pasta Let historian
debate the origins of pasta while we settle in for a beautifully sauced
bowl of the best around. Homemade with loving care at Sotto Sopra. Shell
pasta with shrimp, calamari, and scallops; ribbon cut pasta with wild
mushrooms; fettuccine with smoked salmon and zucchini in a rose vodka
sauce... with such choices we have a debate of our own to settle".
2002:
One of Baltimore's 65 Best Restaurants
-
"Sotto Sopra is carefully casual with its bistro
dish mosaic tile floor and colorful mural of a dinner in progress. The
food, too, is carefully constructed. This Italian kitchen knows how
to honor high-quality ingredients. Even a simple dish fried calamari
transcends the genre, with a surprisingly spicy salsa to complement the
squid's briny flavor. There is a stunning terrina di Melanzane- thinly
sliced grilled eggplant wrapped around a mixture of goat cheese, roasted
red peppers and black olives- and marvelous meat and fish dishes. But
house made pasta is the real story. Tender ravioli filled with duck and
ricotta cheese and dressed in a lush porcini mushroom sauce; spaghetti
alla chitarra (cut into a square shape on a stringed tool) with pesto,
dried tomatoes, and spectacular shrimp-you won't find better. Do indulge
in the luscious house made gelato for dessert. Our only quibble: The
quality of the wine list is in inverse proportion to the quality of the
cooking."
2002:
Best Italian Restaurant in Baltimore
CITY PAPER
2000:
Best Dessert
-
"Something about Sotto Sopra makes us feel
we've stopped into grand opera. Maybe it's the classy decor, or
those high, vaulted ceilings. The fact that the food is Italian helps.
And much as we dig the snappy appetizers, the artfully arranged salad,
and the picture perfect pastas, it's the dessert that really knock us
out. The semifreddo (sorbet), in tropical flavors, explode on the
tongue. Bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream, dripping with crème
anglaise is like all the dessert your server will display almost too beautiful
to put a fork or spoon to. Do it anyway."
|
