Risotto

To celebrate the first snowfall of the year, we made our reservations. Nothing warms you up like a large plate (bowl) of carbohydrates. And no one does that better than Risotto *(in my limited experience here).
Sadly, I don’t come here enough. Mostly because they are really only open for dinner and it has more of a «date night» feel. Which is good… when you are on a date. :) Oh, and good for small groups that are more quiet. No rowdy crowds here.
The space is small, but dark and cozy. The high ceilings make the restaurant feel open and the décor is warm and inviting. The servers are always the same — maybe they are friends/​family? Either way, they are helpful and attentive.
Currently, our favorites are (in english, so look at the descriptions): the Tenderloin and porchini mushroom entrée, and house risotto with spicy sausage, shallots and asparagus. And these are consistently good, so I am confident recommending them.
However, the sauteed calamari isn’t so consistent. We had it once and it was amazing, and then for this list visit, not so much. A waste of calories for my risotto.
All of their wines are delicious, but if you are unsure, your server will definitely be able to help.
Their bathrooms are super nice too — that always makes me feel better. And, I just learned… they do take out! SOLD!
So it was a great evening sitting by window, watching the snow fall, and warming my belly with rich, creamy risotto.

I went to risotto while home in MN for a few days over Thanksgiving. Great success! The food here was quite tasty with the notable standouts being the zuppa di pesce, chicken risotto, and sauteed mushrooms. The wine and beer list was solid and the prices were quite reasonable given the product.
Our server was friendly and really went the extra distance to accommodate some specific dietary requests. The interior/​ambiance was relaxed and welcoming. But then again none of this really matters because the food was so good… they could have punched me in the gut on the way in and I would have gone home happy. My only suggestion is that they make the zuppa available in an entrée size as it’s currently only an appetizer.
Other reviewers have commented that this place is often only half-​full and that was indeed the case during our meal… and I’m really not sure why. Excellent food+friendly service+nice ambiance+fair prices = win. Should I be lucky enough to move back to Minneapolis I’d definitely dine here again.

My girlfriend and I decided to stop in here on a Friday night at about 5:30 PM for dinner. When we arrived, the hostess said «Do you have reservations?»… I said «No, do I need them?»… She then says no and takes us to the table closest to the door and says «We are expecting a full house tonight»… She was not friendly nor did she seem to be interested in helping us.
We sit down and start looking over the menu. Our server was great and very attentive. He made sure my wine was full and that we had enough bread for our appetizer. We ordered the calimari appetizer, I had the mushroom risotto, and my girlfriend had a pasta dish. All of the food was good but the risotto was the star of the meal. It was well prepared and had a great flavor to it.
While we were eating, we watched as the café never got more than ¾ full. We began to wonder why we were seated near the door when there were plenty of other tables available that weren’t near the door on this cool fall night.
Something about this place made us feel unwelcome. It wasn’t the server or the food but it was the hostess. I will be back to this restaurant but I will make sure I call ahead just before we walk down and make «reservations» to ensure a seat that is not in front of the door.
I have been by this place dozens of times and thought to myself, «that restaurant looks empty»… Well, I think I now know why…

Risotto is something I have tried to make at home, and I always thought I did a pretty good job, but after coming here, I am just going to concede to the experts.
The inside of Risotto is really small and intimate with dimmed lighting, and the service I recieved was very attentive and friendly. They also have a decently priced wine list. All good reasons to go to a restaurant.
Mostly, though, the risotto here is really, really good.
I had the risotto with saffron, sausage, and I think leeks? Maybe asparagus? I don’t know. What I do know is that it was delicious and creamy-​almost like pudding. Much better than any other risotto I have had before. My mom had one with chicken and mushrooms, and that was also tasty.
One thing to note here is that the portion sizes are HUGE. I got two big meals out of my order.
Because Risotto is across the street from my apartment, next time I have a craving for the stuff, I’ll drop that wooden spoon and chicken broth and walk over here. I know when I’ve been beat.

I love risotto and after eating in this place, I have been searching everywhere for something similar.
The waiters suggest well, and i loved my dish.

Overall I thought this small place was very loud and noisy. The prices were $ 2-​$ 3 too high per entrée and the portions were a bit small for an Italian place. The rigatoni was the only red sauce item on the menu as I recall and it was barely red. The rest of the menu items were pretty much in the white/​cream specialty sauce family which were not of interest to me.
The small portion of bread came in a napkin and was cute except that they had to keep bringing napkin after napkin of bread to to us since we ordered the cheese appetizer which required some carbs to pare with the cheese (which was very good). The rigatoni was just OK and the beef tenderloin was small but good. They were having trouble with the fancy soft drink machine that night and we went through several glasses of flat soda before we got one with soda bubbles in it.
Overall I felt like the place over charged and under achieved but in a non fatal way.
On the positive side, the server and host were very nice and attentive and the space did have an appeal of quaintness.

The atmosphere (and the bean soup!) reminded me very much of being
in Florence. If you’re Tuscany-​deprived, be sure to stop by.
I had the sausage risotto, it was very nice, a mild dish. I would like to try more of their menu!

A few years ago my wife and I had some very mediocre appetizers at the wine bar that previously occupied this space. This however was our first time at Risotto, and we shared the «costiglie di manzo brasate» risotto, and the rigatoni «ai sugo di carne e funghi» (but replaced the funghi with garlic, as funghi are evil). They were quite good.
My wife didn’t know what kind of wine she wanted, and so the server brought out sample after sample for her to try until she found one she liked, and even brought another sample after that! Fantastic.
Successfully used an Entertainment 2 for 1 entrée coupon, saved $ 18.

For a girls dinner we went to Risotto. The staff was very helpful and nice, and the service was excellent! We all tried something from each of their entrée sections. I ordered the spicy sausage risotto and it was just ok. It wasn’t anything to rave about. My salad on the other hand was very delicious. I ordered the apple, almond, rasin sald and it was very simple, yet good.
I would maybe try Risotto again, but it’s not at the top of my list.

We went there for lunch on Saturday afternoon. The first thing that we thought when we entered the place was how small this place is, but it’s not cramped. It’s simple, cute, and cozy.
There were only two tables while we dined in there, so the service was nice and attentive, and we didnt have to wait for food that long. I ordered Zafferano e Salsiccia Risotto, which was sicilian sausage with saffron, asparagus, and sauteed shallots risotto. My bf ordered Penne alla Carbonara.
I have only had risotto a few times, so I have no idea how it is made in Italy. All I know is the risotto that I just had here was good. First of all, the portion was huge. It was a big plate full of creamy and cheesy arborio rice. I find the texture was perfect. It was soft but not mushy. You can see the grains of rice were still intact. The flavor was also nice. It was not overly cheesy and not overly salty like how I had in my previous experiences. My bf’s carbonara was also nice. It was also a pretty generous portion. It was creamy and flavorful. Penne was cooked perfectly al dente.
Overall, very good food and very good value for the money.

So-​So. The restaurant is tucked away and when entering the mood is casual and romantic. Atmosphere is nice but unless they have seating in the back it is small and may be hard to get into on a busy night.
the menu has several items to choose from, My boyfriend and I both ordered a Risotto dish. Both were cooked to perfection, texture was a hit. His was a sausage, mushroom, and asparagus risotto, the sausage had some nice spice but the risotto and broth just tasted like Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. Not necessarily a bad flavor but not something i want to pay $ 16 for. I ordered the vegetarian which had sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese, artichoke hearts, and shaved almonds. And … well it was kind of bland :(I was hoping for a great ‘kick’ from the goat cheese, but it melted away and provided no flavor, it just tasted like tomatoes… The artichoke hearts were extra ‘earthy’ and i couldn’t handle them.
between a appetizer and 2 risotto plates we spent $ 50 on a dinner for 2 (no drinks) The service was excellent and the atmosphere is great, except i want more flavor for the money. So not a bad experience; just a 3 star.

First impression, this place is tiny! More a store front than a restaurant. We were greeted right away which was good as there is no hostess station just a bar in the center of the room. We had Friday night reservations, but at 7:30 there were plenty of tables. We were offered our choice of tables, with recommendations to the best ones. Shortly after we sat down (and had ordered drinks) another couple left, they had a table by a window, and we were offered the ‘more appropriate and cozy’ table. very surprising level of customer service; nothing I have ever experienced before.
Both the bf and I ordered the risotto figuring that had to be the best given the restaurant name and waiting the warned 20min for our food to arrive. We had the right amount of attention from the two waiters in the place (drink refills? bread refills? etc). When the food arrived, we were surprised at how large the plates were. Another huge plus was both plates were steaming hot! Always good to eat food that hasn’t sat under a lamp. We hadn’t planned on eating dessert but there were cannolis on the menu. There are only 3 places (that I can find) that serve cannolis in MN. I grew up on the East Coast so although this was a great find, I was admittedly cautious as to the quality. Risotto has a great East Coast cannoli. The risotto was great but to have a impossible to find and great tasting dessert really topped the evening off.
Two alcoholic beverages, two entrees and one dessert = $ 60 bill. Great food, superior service and a decent price made this an incredible dining experience.

I was here a while ago and their risotto was really really good.
Note both my BF and I really know risotto: he is from Milan the home-​city of risotto and so is my father and we all love risotto, so we both can cook very good risotto at home. Risotto is pretty hard to make, and I don’t even dare trying it at most restaurant: somewhat mysteriously it ends up being overcooked and undercooked at the same time and never quite as creamy as it is supposed to be. When we were told the chef here was Italian we decided to give the place a try.
We started out sharing a frittura mista which was all right, then we each had a risotto. We could have skipped the appetizer and waited patiently for the risotto… The portions of risotto are pretty huge and if you are on a budget you can definitely be happy with eating just that. The rice was cooked to perfection. It was creamy and flavorful the way you get it when you cook it from scratch for every order. That is also the reason why you wait for it so long. If you want sticky, badly cooked risotto they can serve it in 5 minutes, if you want perfectly cooked creamy risotto… well you’ll have to wait at least 20 minutes.
Anyway, we talked to chef that told us he has an incredible number of different recipes for risotto and that he will keep rotating them seasonally (I think he changes the menu monthly).
Also I heard from a friend that pasta is very good, and the entrees seem also very appetizing.
I think I’ll have to go back and try some more dishes!

I went here last night with a couple of friends. We started off with a bottle of wine it was the Vintiano, a really smooth cab/​sav/​shiraz blend, it was quite lovely at $ 30 a bottle. We snacked on fresh baguettes and olive oil while skimming the menu… and even though other posts have said this they did not limit the bread at all.
My two friends tried the salad ($ 5) there, both were good but nothing to write home about. I had the crostini ($ 8) which was bruschetta but instead of tomatoes being the main ingredient it was cannelini beans… it was delicious! It also had lots of garlic and proscutto in it, very yummy!
We all shared the zafferano rissotto ($ 17) — home-​made Sicilian sausage, pinto grigio, shallots, asparagus and a hint of saffron. Very creamy and amazingly tasty… I will say it was a bit salty for me and I am a saltaholic! The waitress/​chef was very nice and split it 3 ways for us and didn’t charge us extra. Let me tell you it was sooo much food! I would definitely recommend sharing a risotto or planning on taking it home.
We all left full and happy after our delicious meals, I would go back if I’m really in the mood for risotto but the prices were a little steep for me.
And they only had beer/​wine that’s why they got one less star.

I’ve been waiting to try risotto since they opened last summer and finally had my chance on a recent Tuesday night.
I was surprised upon entry i must say. I’m not even sure what I was expecting but I can say that I am/​was not wholly impressed with the stark atmosphere that can come across as cold and unoriginal. Risotto certainly makes due with the small space that they have and they achieve a bistro sort of style… but something… something I can’t quite put my finger on, falls a bit short.
The food; however, is a different story. Although there is not a HUGE variety presented on the menu, everything I tasted was delicious. I had a yummy, spicy glass of Malbec and started with the green bean casserole. Really delish and just the right size… for one.
My friend and I split two risottos and they were PERFECTION. I’ve had risotto in italy… served by people who couldn’t speak english and what I had in minneapolis was pretty darn close to that! My friend had the sweeter butternut squash risotto… it was perfectly creamy and married flavors both sweet and savory. My mushroom/​leek/​chicken risotto was also fabulous. Not too mushroomy, just a hint of white wine and the perfect, creamy risotto consistency. At around 17 $ a dish, with certainly enough leftover for lunch the next day… i think Risotto is a steal!
Its a great spot for a casual, quiet evening out with excellent food.
The staff there is also über friendly! My absent minded self left my wallet on the table and when I came to get it the next day the owner (i assume), who we had a lovely conversation with (well, really, my italian speaking friend did… in italian) told me that he lived within 2 miles of my house and was going to drop the wallet off himself if I didn’t come in! now THATS what i call service.

Still giving this place 5 stars for making their namesake so perfectly. It compares at par with risotto made in Italy.
On my most recent visit, flash fried calamari was so tasty that we ordered a second plate of it.
But this place may not last; on the 30^th they barely had 4 full tables.

Went here with hubs one night on a whim. I am seriously running out of places I’d like to eat in Uptown. Can I get a witness? Anyway, I guess Risotto is the newest tenant that has replaced the restaurant with the little boat logo. Nobody seems to last long here.
We tried ordering the beef tenderloin appetizer but found they were out. Next, we ordered the calamari and waited. Pretty soon we were notified they were out of calamari too. It was 6 pm on a Saturday night, so 86ing two out of four appetizers on the menu was not boding well for Risotto. Thus, our server began a long night of retribution, making up for the shortcomings and bad planning of his employer.
First off, when our apps weren’t available, he suggested some others and made them sound like good enough replacements. Sometimes a server just says «we dont have that» and then stares at you dumbly until you manage to ask for the menu back. This guy was helpful and offered up clams in wine sauce (not on the menu). They were good.
We also got a tasty, albeit overpriced, frittata. They label it as a soufflé but a proper soufflé involves beating egg whites until they form peaks. The thing that arrived on the table was as flat as a pancake. I believe the correct word for that is «misnomer». After that, our server kept us in a steady supply of bread the whole meal. I think we might have eaten 4 small loaves before the night was over, and I would like to commend him for his attention to our bread basket.
The risotto was good, but that’s to be expected. We shared one plate of risotto and it was plenty for both of us. Nothing overly spectacular beyond that. OK beer selection.

I’ve been meaning to try Risotto for a while… it’s that place that I always see but it never comes to mind when I’m trying to think of a place for dinner. Not any more!
We had reservations for a party of 6 on a Saturday night — our table was ready upon arrival, and throughout dinner, our service was impeccable. We didn’t order any apps, but the bowls of risotto were HUGE. All 6 of us got the risotto — I mean, how can you go to Risotto and not want to eat it?
Mmmmm… definitely some of the better risotto I’ve had. What was even better — despite the cozy décor and great service, our bill was not expensive at all. I believe my risotto and salad was $ 21, plus the wine we brought and paid the corking fee on.
I can see myself visiting several times this winter if I can get a seat in this warm little place, and I can’t wait to see what type of risotto the chef will be serving next time :)

Can you really go to a restaurant called Risotto and not have risotto? That would be like ordering a steak at the Olive Garden.
Anyways…we had a great dinner here on Friday night. 6:30 and NO wait! Bonus points. The décor is missing something… I think it’s the bare concrete floors.
We shared the lobster salad to start — the lobster was overcooked :(but overall had very nice light flavors. The risotto was where it was AT. I had the Pomodoro e Zucchini and wow. So many flavors that worked really well together. Highly recommendeded. Hubby had the scallop and mushroom risotto, he mentioned the scallops were cooked perfectly which made up for the lobster. The portions were HUGE.
Had the canolli for dessert — skip it. Nothing to write home about. Crust was a little thick and hard to cut. Wasn’t memorable.
Overall it was good! However, minus a point for what the salt did to my feet. They looked like bread loaves in my stilettos after :(

Decided to do a last minute dinner with another couple and my fiancé so I called around 11:30 am to make a reservation. «we only take reservations for groups of 6 or more but we can put you on the call ahead list. Your max wait on the call ahead will be like 15 minutes.» Ok — I can handle 15 minutes.
Get there are 7:30 on the dot and the place is packed — all 50 seats and 4 of the 6 at the bar are taken. We get slightly ignored by the staff when we walked in but in their defense there were 3 people working the front with one acting as bar tender/​waitress and one as host/​waiter. Get checked in — «should only be about 15 – 20 minutes.»
45 minutes later we get offered a free appetizer. Well that is kind it’s going to be awkward to share an app with 3 other people without a table to set it on. We defer to the time when we actual see seats.
20+ minutes later we get seated. Prompt service from this point forward. It took about another 40 minutes before we saw food (we did all order a different type of risotto)…but once we got the food I quickly forgot the annoyance of the wait.
UNBELIEVABLE. I love risotto — probably one of my favorite foods and this place does it properly. Huge portion (was dinner and lunch the next day) and just plain old delicious.
minus one star for the rediculous wait time but otherwise we will be back for more!