Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Visual Freedom
5 Best Italian Restaurants in Maryland
2021-06-17
amirali mirhashemian/Unsplash
If you love Italian food, check out these Italian restaurants in Maryland. These spots have received excellent ratings from review sites, with customers returning time and time. So check out these delectable eateries!
1. Aldo's Ristorante Italiano, Maryland
You might feel like you're dining inside a palazzo lined with tapestries or outside on a romantic piazza if you sit at Aldo's. The second floor has Art Nouveau dining rooms and boardrooms with millwork. All the woodwork in this restaurant is handcrafted by our chef, Aldo Vitale, a carpenter before he took up cooking. Vitale's native Calabria heavily influences the restaurant's menu, but it also includes traditional dishes such as linguine with clams and saltimbocca. Among the house's many signature dishes is foie gras-wrapped tournedos Rossini in a black truffle sauce with wild mushrooms, while the tender osso buco runs a close second. Aldo offers a "degustazione of pasta" - pick two to three pasta or order a half portion as an appetizer. The wine list includes intriguing Italians.
Location: 306 S. High St., Baltimore, MD 21202
Website: http://www.aldositaly.com/
Phone: 410-727-0700
Store Hours: Daily from 5-10 pm
2. Birroteca, Maryland
Unlike other "destination" restaurants, Birroteca isn't an expensive, blowout anniversary dinner resort. Instead, beer and pizza are its primary offerings. Nevertheless, its foodie buzz has prompted foodies to explore the stone mill building tucked into an industrial area near Jones Falls. Additionally, the restaurant offers thin-crusted designer pizzas, elegant small plates, charcuterie, and pasta. If you don't like the Duck, Duck Goose pizza with duck confit, fig-onion jam, and a cooked duck egg, try the garlicky, lemony grilled calamari, or the pappardelle with wild boar sauce. The stone-walled dining room can be noisy, but it's always convivial, and the paper-covered tables are perfect for doodling. Who knows, your artwork may join the framed sketches displayed on the wall.
Location: 1520 Clipper Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211
Website: http://www.bmorebirroteca.com/
Phone: 443-708-1934
Store Hours: Wed-Thurs 4–10pm / Fri 4–11pm / Sat 12–11pm / Sun 12–9pm
3. Cafe Gia, Maryland
A descendant of Sicilian immigrants, Gia Fracassetti still lives in Little Italy, the heart of Baltimore's Italian community, with her four generations of family members. Each of these Southern Italian classics is a personal favorite of a different family member, explaining the family's traditional menu of warm-hearted fare. Cafe Gia isn't your typical Little Italy red-sauce joint (all the family members are probably working in the front of the house or the kitchen). If you want to branch out from the OK eggplant Parm and noodles with white clam sauce, try fresh salmon grilled with lemon, rosemary, olive oil, or the excellent Veal Francese. The setting is breathtaking: every surface glistens with hand-painted frescoes and sponged-on color. Sit on the romantic second-floor balcony with its elaborate ironwork when the weather is nice.
Location: 410 S. High St., Baltimore, MD 21202
Website: https://cafegiabaltimore.com/
Phone: 410-685-6727
Store Hours: Mon-Fri 5–9pm / Sat 4:30–9:30pm / Sun 4–9pm
4. Ristorante Ottaviani, Maryland
Whether you choose to eat meat, seafood, or choose vegan options, the food at Ristorante Ottaviani will leave a lasting impression. Scallops are worth trying, trust me. Luigi Ottaviani immigrated with his family to America in the early 1900s to seek his fortune. In Western Pennsylvania, Antonio made his fortune mining coal and raising six children named Antonio.
Aqapito Romano, also from Italy, arrived in America about the same time as Aqapito. Eventually, he married Mary DeFigio, also a coal miner. Firenza was one of the couple's ten children.
Location: 25 North Centre Street, Cumberland, MD 21502
Website: http://ottavianis.com/
Phone: 301.722.0052
Store Hours: Tues-Sat 5-9 pm
5. Carletto Pizza & Pasta, Maryland
There's something cozy and delicious about Carletto Pizza & Pasta. Queen Anne's County residents claim this is their favorite restaurant since the food and service are always on point.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.