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Two Guys from Italy (Authentic Italian Cuisine): Apple Valley, MN
This location is currently closed pending remodeling and a “new theme”.
Tonight Kim and I finally headed out to Two Guys From Italy (recently referred to on our site by commenters as TGFI). As many of you know, I have been closely following the opening of this restaurant here. I have also made mention of it numerous times before.
Figuring I might be asked to leave Kim decided for me that she would go inside and get the meals to go. She had spent some time online looking at their menu before we left and I took a quick glance too. I decided on their Gnocchi Gorgonzola (a dish with gnocchi, gorgonzola, ham, and asparagus) and a cannoli. Kim had chosen their pizza by the slice. Kim was confused by their menu’s wording on “Pizza by the Slice”. It mentions sausage, pepperoni, special, and cheese. She thought that “special” meant that she could get a slice of any of their “pizza specialties” and not just the “Two Guys Special” but that wasn’t the case.
After a few minutes Kim came out and said that the meal, even to go, would be 35 to 45 minutes. So that she decided it would be ok for me to come inside and sit down.
My meal came out 10 minutes after the order time on the receipt. Kim said the guy behind the counter was new and obviously was a little generous in his timetable. Works for me. While I got mine first, we sat waiting for Kim’s pizza and our silverware for 5 minutes. Finally they came with our cannoli and Tiramisu first. Still no pizza and no silverware. After bringing the silverware that we requested we were told that we’d still have to wait on the slices.
Kim immediately dove into the dessert and said it was pretty good and had a strong coffee flavor. After a couple more bites she changed her original statement and said it was a little overpowering. Being caffeine free I steered cleer of the tiramisu and saved my “kick” for the cannoli.
While waitng on these items Danny was circling the thin crowd and everyone was giving him compliments like:
“Best Italian food in the Twin Cities right here” and “We absolutely loved our meal.”
Based on the way the woman who said that it was the best Italian food in the Cities was acting and how she was moving around the restaurant, I would guess that she is somehow related to the business. The other commenter was from a woman that requested that Danny come out of the kitchen to take a photo with her friend sitting at the wine bar.
Kim’s meal finally arrived and we got started. My gnocchi was acceptable and the cream sauce was good. My only real complaint was the utter lack of ham and asparagus. I was seriously surprised to see as much gnocchi and as little everything else. I enjoyed the garlic bread and when I got to the bottom of the bowl I was a little disappointed at how shallow the bowl was for $8.95.
Kim’s pizza was authentic enough at first taste. I thought I would actually come here to eat that again but after a while I thought that the tomato sauce tasted canned (I have a feeling it wasn’t) as it was entirely too salty. It was better than most pizza available in the Twin Cities but it wasn’t even close to authentic.
After I finished my dish, I took a single bite of my cannoli. I had been looking forward to this from the moment it came to the table. At first glance the cream looked a little funny, seriously as if the cannoli cream was curdled and as if it was filled with nuts (Kim felt they were pistachios). Obviously Danny is using the same inferior cannolis that he did during my negative experience at his previous failed venture Viva Italia. I just had some excellent cannoli cream cake in NY last month and I was thankful that I had the proper way it should taste fresh in my mind. I’m quite comfortable in recommending that you do NOT order the cannolis.
Kim ate about 3/4 of her Tiramisu and left the rest. The coffee taste was just too much for her. She always looks forward to dessert and when she can’t even be bothered to finish that I know the entire meal is a bust.
We seriously spent the entire ride home taking turns going “blech” while talking about the meal.
The prices were a little high for what we got. The Gnocchi was $8.95, the pizza was $3.25 and $2.80/slice (pepperoni and cheese respectively). The tiramisu was $5.95 and my lame cannoli was $2.95. The total was $24.98 and was certainly not inexpensive for what we got.
While I’m not at all surprised by the lack of quality based on the comments posted in the other thread, I was still VERY surprised to hear the positive comments from the others in the restaurants. Kim asked if the people giving the raving review to Danny were shills… If they weren’t they certainly don’t have a clue what good food is, let alone good Italian food.
See all the pictures from tonight here (camera).
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