LaCascio's Scratch Italian — Restaurant in Lindale

This was an exceptional lunch dining experience! How this restaurant isn’t listed as the number one restaurant in Lindale is beyond me.

The atmosphere is elegant, and could be found in any major city. Tasteful, beautiful fixtures, linen napkins, comfortable seating.

Our waitress was amazing and allowed us to order in courses. Beyond being attentive, she had TASTED the dishes and was able to describe them accurately and make helpful suggestions.

Homemade mini loaves of bread were brought and the crumb was perfect. Honestly, the best bread I have had in a restaurant in years. The attention to detail in the bake was evident. A really delicious bite.

We started with the crab cakes which were beyond delicious. The sauce was so good I would put it against any sauce I have ever had in a five star restaurant. I would love it with steak. The crab was large lump, well seasoned, and perfectly cooked. Crisp exterior, soft interior. The dish contains just the right amount of heat. The dressed greens and the house bread helped us to soak up every bit of the sauce.

Next was the meatball slider. The house made chips were perfectly seasoned and had a hint of garlic. The meatball was flavorful, moist, tender, generous. The bun was toasted and added to the dish instead of just being a meat vehicle. I would prefer a side of the sauce to dip the slider in as an option other than the chips, but understand why the chips make sense.

The lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry compote were outstanding.just the right amount of ricotta, lemon, powdered sugar, and blueberry. Well executed, light while being substantial, and balanced. It came with house potatoes that were delicious but extraneous. If this was the only dish I was eating I would want them but as a course, they were just extra. They were well seasoned, the red bell paper added good flavor, and the cook was crispy outside yet creamy inside. We took them home and I will add a couple of over easy eggs on top in the morning for a quick breakfast.

We ordered all of the desserts. The affogato and the cannoli for the table and the cheesecake with banana pudding and tiramisu to go for dinner that evening.

The good: the affogato was so good I am counting the seconds until I can order it again. I might place a to go order just for it. $7??? A steal. Consider how much people pay for bad coffee drinks at Starbucks. If you like coffee, you have to order this. I cannot rave about this enough. My daughter didn’t like the amount of almond extract in the biscotti. We have been blessed with a palette that is hyper sensitive to extract. When you dip the biscotti in the espresso to soften it, I didn’t find the extract overbearing.

The cannoli was beautiful, delicious, perfect. I am so tired of Sysco desserts being served at restaurants. The cannoli was crisp, the cream well formed, the cherry syrup bright. Clearly homemade and well made. If you like cannoli, you will like these. Also there are three so easy to share for a final sweet bite.

The not so good:( I was excited about the tiramisu since it contained rum which meant it would be handmade and with a traditional recipe. The ladyfingers lacked coffee. The ratio of mascarpone cream to ladyfinger was off. This was like eating a dry dense rum flavored ladyfinger square with a smidge of cream. I would try again to see if this pan was just off.

The cheesecake has topping options and my daughter selected the banana pudding. Our waitress described it was the way banana bread batter tastes and she was right. Unfortunately this was a miss for us. A bit gritty, a little slime from the banana, sort of lumpy, looks like gruel. although many people love to eat raw batter, we do not. We found it unpleasant. The graham crust lacked salt. The whipped topping too sweet. A miss.

Overall this is the best restaurant we have eaten at since moving to the area. A+. Atmosphere 10 Service 10 Food 10 Prices 10

I don’t leave Google reviews but I broke my rule because of the lack of reviews - people should know...

Everything was delicious.Our Table enjoyed The Italian nachos as a starter. The dish was unique and delicious, with the right balance of cheese, sausage and peppers. It was enough to share and we still took a little bit home. Meat balls were wonderful ! Almost as good as Mama's☺️ I could tell they were homemade. Perfect texture and seasoning. Lasagna was excellent, again a great balance of delicious sausage and perfectly seasoned cheeses really reminds me of the homemade recipes growing up in an Italian family. Pasta Caccitolo was delightful with light wine sauce and roasted veggies perfectly done pasta, very pleasing. I took leftovers home and paired it with grilled salmon.🤤Amazing!Crab Benedict was also delicious. Generous lump crab with perfectly poached eggs. Only one slight complaint on that dish was the homefried potatoes were not cooked properly. The seasoning and flavor were spot on, but some of the potatoes were completely undercooked while others were on the verge of being mashed🤔something happened there...not a deal breaker, though. The service was high end. We wanted for nothing. She kept our drinks filled and performed table side boxing on our leftovers. I was impressed also impressed with the interior and exterior seating and design. Everything was comfortable and clean. I am looking forward to my next visit. Hopefully, I can save some room...

Ordered from here this evening for delivery. Our order included TWO entrees. The spaghetti is ok but the meatballs are delicious. The reason for my review is we received one bread. Now I don’t know any Italian place that skimps on bread but we had to share one piece of bread for dinner along with one meals. It would have been a great gesture to assume that with two entrees, you’re serving two people even though we ordered for delivery. The same service should apply. Such an oversight in my opinion because otherwise this would have been a far better review. I would suggest going to dine in maybe instead. I do feel for the amount you receive the prices are a bit out of touch. We didn’t say omg this is the best spaghetti ever. It was just ok. Props on the meatballs though. While I appreciate the response from the owner, I do still feel that when you order multiple entrees there should be equal amounts of bread provided. Sometimes the “cost” is worth providing the best service possible consistently. As business owners, these “costs” come with providing exceptional services. It is far more important to show your customers we are valuable. This is the reason for the low review. It isn’t about the...