DiFabio's — Restaurant in Louisville

My date and I neither one are huge pasta fans but so much wanted to visit DiFabio's Casapela because it seems so quaint and inviting from the outside. The evening we visited we sat on the porch, which had been enclosed and had a space heater. The setting and ambiance were ideal. We ordered as an appetizer the calamari fritti. It was tasty. My date ordered the veal marsala with the mushroom, Marsala wine and cream sauce served over angel hair pasta. I ordered grilled aioli salmon with sauteed squash and zucchini. I thoroughly enjoyed my vegetables which were perfectly cooked, and I enjoyed the taste of the salmon which was presented with an excellent temperature and a rewarding taste. My date felt the veal was undercooked so sent it back to be cooked longer and upon receiving it the second time was satisfied. However, either because she and I are not familiar with the dish or otherwise, we felt the sauce had been cooked too long and left an unpleasant almost bitter taste to the her Marsala veal meal - and that was even before she sent it back. She felt the sauce ruined the meal even when the veal she thought was undercooked. My date ate her dinner reluctantly only not to waste it, but it was not a pleasant experience for her. I, too, did not enjoy the taste of her meal and I felt bad for her. We were both very hungry upon arriving to DiFabio's Casapela. She asked that we order tiramisu so she could have a good taste to close out her meal, but we were both disappointed with the tiramisu because it tasted as though it had been frozen and then thawed too quickly and had kind of a watery texture with the cake cookies that was not typical of the tiramisu she and I typically very much enjoy. I did thoroughly enjoy my meal but I cannot say the same about my date - maybe it's because we don't know just how the Masala dish is...

Overall Review: It was a homey (almost homely) place, with high prices and ok food. We probably won't go again unless they change their prices or get a new chef. I had been excited after reading the reviews, but left disappointed.

Pros: Calamari was great! The live music was a nice touch

Cons: Main dish quality was akin something you would get at a Perkins for double the price. (See dish descriptions below) The portion size for the price was very small. We could have gone to Olive Garden and for the same price receive double the amount of food. The atmosphere felt half-baked. You could tell there was some effort put into it, but with no direction. Also each of the menus we received (drink, dessert, and main menu) were stained and in desperate need of a reprint. Now this is obviously a personal preference, but if I'm going to put up with a hole-in-the-wall decor I expect the food to make up for it.

Meal review: I got the shrimp scampi. It was about a cup of thin spaghetti (not angel hair) with 5 large shrimp placed on top with a mediocre lemon wine sauce. It was then sprinkled with some panko bread crumbs (no Parmesan) then baked (not sure why since there was no cheese to melt.) The shrimp was cooked well, but that was the only thing that was pleasant about the dish 1.5/5 My husband ordered the peppercorn filet. It was about a 6 ounce filet minion that was served on top a balsamic concentration sauce with a side of zucchini cut to resemble fries. So the filet was ok, but unfortunately the only pepper was a few flakes sprinkled on before it was served. The zucchini was good, as long as you are ok with a very buttery flavor (think movie theater...

Super impressed with everything that we ate that evening, which was our anniversary. We wanted to try the escargot appetizer, unfortunately they were already sold out. However, the calamari fritti was exceptionally good, very lightly breaded, tossed with banana peppers and sundried tomatoes. I had never had fried calamari that way and we both really enjoyed it. The bread that came out was light on the inside and had a nice crust. My wife got the Caprese Pasta with Shrimp which had a very nice sauce, the shrimp were cooked perfectly, and the balsamic reduction set it all off. I decided to give the Grilled Aioli Salmon a try. My fish, was again, cooked perfectly and the sauteed Zucchini and Squash was not overcooked, they still had a little bite to them. My only complaint would be that I wanted a little more of the vegetables, as I seemed to run out of those a little over halfway being done with the salmon. Since it was our anniversary my wife decided to try the flourless chocolate fudge cake, which was divine. Every part of our meal was brought out very quickly and served piping hot, with the exception of the cake of course. We will definitely be going back to try the escargot, but there were a number of other menu items that caught our eyes. I highly recommend giving...