Aromi d'Italia = Aromi di Rip-Off

Something just doesn’t smell right at Aroma D’Itlalia, a little Italian restaurant in twenty mall at the crossroads of Route 20 & 155 in Guilderland. Myself, Mrs. Freak and Little Freak went to eat there the other night and decided it didn’t quite come up smelling like roses, not to mention Italy.

Little Freak ordered a sausage orzo soup to start. The sausage was plentiful, and in irregular chunks, like it was hand formed, and was obviously home-made. I found it to be the most redeeming quality about the soup, which was otherwise very salty and contained an abundance of crushed black pepper. I tend to use a lot of pepper on my food but even this was a bit much for me and definitely too much for Little Freak, who rarely leaves soup left behind.

Mrs. Freak ordered a crab stuffed portabello mushroom, which we all agreed had enormous potential but failed miserably in the end. Both the mushroom and the crab were of good quality, but there was so much cheese covering the plate that the food was just lost to it. This appetizer started out in theory as a gourmet treat but dish ended up as a leftover 50’s appetizer that was completely non-committal and unmemorable, over-cheesed and unfinishable. At this point I was feeling pretty good about NOT ordering an appetizer.

For dinner I ordered a grilled pizza. Out of all the pizza on the menu (around 10) one of them was billed as grilled pizza, simply adorned with cheese, fresh tomato and basil. If anyone has enjoyed grilled pizza, it is quite simply a unique smokey treat. However, I came to discover the crusts are pre-made, boboli-type things, and this hard disc of a crust was just thrown on a grill for a second for grill mark effects, then loaded with the toppings, and baked to melt. To make a long story short, I have had better frozen pizza in my time. The crust was dry, hard, and despite someones previous efforts to over-salt everything, virtually tasteless.

Little Freak ordered linguini with white clam sauce, an all-time favorite. Kudos to the chef for the generous amount of whole clams that adorned the plate, around ten in all, however this dish did not stand up to the test as well. Neither little freak nor myself could eat it, other than the clams. The sauce was absoutely tasteless, devoid of any seasoning and sat at the bottom of the bowl, lifeless and unwilling to coat the pasta. This leads me to believe they must rinse the pasta in water, or add oil to the end to keep it from sticking. Mind you the pasta was not over cooked, just not cooked right.

Mrs. Freak’s sausage and sweet pepper penne on the other hand had so much potential. The thin, red-based sauce had a rustic quality packed with flavor and not over-salted at all. The peppers and sausage melded together for an authentic taste but once again, the sauce refused to coat the pasta. Both dishes were bowls of pasta in water and suffered miserably.

We ordered a pint of gelato to go, as I couldn’t bear to stay any longer. With one wine for the Mrs and I, this meal came to over $70 before tip! Yikes and ouch! This was the real kicker! I make pizza at home as well as clam sauce and it’s ten times better than this. This is why I have such trepidation when it comes to dining out. I just can’t stand to waste my money (and my time) in this manner when I can cook these things myself.

I cannot reccommend Aromi d'Italia, unless you are go solely for the gelato, which proved to be quite good, but not that good for $8.99 for the pint. You have been warned by the Freak.