North Italia — Restaurant in Gilbert

North Italia is an excellent tasting modern American Italian grill that keeps an innovative menu loosely based on traditional Italian food standard dishes. The restaurant is open and spacious. The food is delightful. The service is excellent. The prices are a bit high.

Let's get right to the point of North Italia. You like meatballs, chicken parm, chicken with pasta pesto sauce, pasta and good old fashion marinara. You can each of these items, but each time they are super-infused with a twist that both highlights from the base food and supplies a scintillating flavor, texture or surprise that puts the dish over the top. The meatballs and spaghetti for example. The meatballs are large (thank God), zesty flavor, with perfect marinara and a touch of cheese with white cream. The chicken pesto pasta is lovely with strong texture shell pasta, and brilliant flavor pesto brought out on the perfectly balanced olive oil base. The chicken parm is both crunchy coating and perfectly tender chicken. Even dishes like grilled salmon is amazing because the broccoli paired with it is set on a pesto base that swims in the olive oil base again with perfection. Really, I've tried 5 dishes here and everyone was a surprising homerun. Even the appetizers are great.

The restaurant itself is a large single room with an extended bar area and really generous amount of regular dining tables. Additionally, there is a huge patio area, though that is not really an option (even with misting) at the 111⁰ F that is the reality of Phoenix metro area temps. The indoor is the ticket. Generally, there is room available, but you cane experience a wait during top of the dining hours for lunch and dinner. The chairs and booths are comfortable and the entire ambience is well done for any kind of dining.

The staff is great. A couple of times I have had the same server and she was stellar both times. The other times I've been there the staff has been top notch too. Always helpful in explaining things, courteous to help when needed, and generally pleasant to engage with.

The pricing, along with everything else is a bit more elevated. Meals for lunch on weekends will still run you around $20 or a bit more and during the week that drops down to a different menu and prices that are around the 16 dollar range for lunch. For example for a lunch for 4 adults, without any alcohol, our bill was 125 after tax and tip. Not cheap. Dinner has higher prices as well. If you go out occasionally this is a decent value, but more than you'd spend at another chain for lunch. That said, I am not complaining. Everything is top notch...

My wife and I ventured into a bustling North Italia at 9:00 PM this past Friday night, only to be greeted by a series of disappointments that culminated in an overall unpleasant dining experience. The busy atmosphere was no excuse for the lackluster service and substandard quality of the entrees.

Our first encounter with the hostess set the tone for the evening. With an unwelcoming attitude, she informed my wife, "The wait is going to be an hour! OK? One hour!" She halfheartedly suggested high boy tables or a spot at the bar, leaving us to navigate the crowded restaurant on our own.

Seated at the bar, we were handed a single menu, and when my wife requested a second, the bartender rudely replied, "I only have one menu." A simple offer to find another would have sufficed. After an impatient 20-minute wait, we were finally able to place our drink orders. While my Old Fashioned was acceptable, my wife's Sangria was far from it. Despite waiting for the bartender to inquire about our satisfaction, I had to flag her down to address the issue. The second attempt with a prosecco was equally disappointing, lacking the expected fizz and tasting as if the bottle had been left open for hours.

Moving on to the appetizers, the Italian meatballs and calamari redeemed the evening momentarily with their well-executed flavors. However, the positive moment was short-lived as we waited at least half an hour before being able to place our entree orders. Throughout this time, no one bothered to clear our empty appetizer plates, leaving us questioning whether it was worth staying or deeming it a regrettable dining choice.

Opting to order entrees, I chose the Braised Short Rib, where the beef turned out to be somewhat tender but disappointingly dry, suggesting overcooking. My wife's Crushed Meatball Ragu featured meatball chunks that were tough and bordering on burnt, further contributing to our growing dissatisfaction. The meatball appetizers were delicious, but it's puzzling how the crushed meatballs in the Ragu could be so different in taste or quality.

As our hopes for a redeeming experience dwindled, the check arrived without any offer to consider dessert. We settled the bill, left, and vowed never to return to North Italia. It's safe to say this restaurant fell far short of our expectations, leaving us with a lasting impression of poor service and...

1/20/24: quickie review - oh yeah, we are totally going to return to North Italia (but for a celebratory occasion because it was not inexpensive). A bit of a wait so do not expect a fast in and out; savor it.

Not such a quickie: we had not visited before because many of the reviews said it was a very long wait. Well, even getting there at 4:00 pm on a Saturday it was already pretty full. Not too full though, we were seated immediately (the bar top seating is not comfortable, just FYI). We will def go with a booth next time.

The cocktail menu was very tempting, but I decided to opt for a true (edible) dessert vs a drinking one ... until my sister's drink came & I tasted it. Then I was all "to hell w/ that, give me a Julietta". :-) That young, friendly lady who took our drink order did tell us up front the staff switch over was happening so there could be a delay in our service. As we were enjoying the drinks, it was not a problem.

Ruben eventually made it to our table and took our appetizer order. He was polite and kept checking in on us. The grilled bread w/ olive oil & balsamic was excellent: thick, lightly toasted bread, fresh out of the oven. The charcuterie board had a variety of items on it; hell, it probably could have been a meal in and of itself.

The menu was not extensive but it was well written and when the food came to our table, all our mouths started watering. All three of us had different meals, cocktails, and desserts and therefore had many different flavors to sample.

All three of us quickly agreed: North Italia was delicious. Followed quickly with: but for (rare) special occasions (because it was not cheap). Yes, it was not a fast dining experience -- we were there for 1.5 hrs -- but it was worth...