In the area where I work downtown there is a dearth of decent places to eat during lunch hour. There are basically two options: overpriced restaurants to which business people bring their clients in hopes of impressing them or disgusting food court slop. My little oasis of Italian Food in this culinary desert is a place called Cafe Presto. It is a terribly cute restaurant with a very unassuming name owned by two brothers who welcome everyone warmly and make everything on the menu sound really good.
One of their most brilliant strokes of inspiration was setting up the dessert cart in the middle of the restaurant. When you have been staring at a cannoli for half an hour it doesn’t take much for the waiter to convince you to order dessert.
One of the things I love about this place is how incredibly cheap it is. Main course with a large roll, salad and dessert will only set you back 13 bucks and that is including tax. The menu is fairly limited, there are maybe only 5 items, but everything is really well made and tastes like it was made by an Italian grandmother.
Here is a shot of my salad from the last time I went.
My nice big roll. I had already eaten around half by the time I remembered to take a picture.
I always have the same thing whenever I go: Penne Arrabiata with an Italian sausage.
My friend had meat cannelloni in tomato sauce.
As usual the food was great, we ended up splitting up a piece of chocolate cake for dessert but I forgot to take pictures. Oops!
