Wild Truffle Pizzeria and Italian Bistro opened July 13th 2009.  A few weeks ago,  my wife had lunch at Wild Truffle with a friend.  She liked it and suggested we go back for dinner.  Since the grand opening was only a little over a month ago,  I had not heard much about the restaurant.  I was not sure what to expect ,so I asked around on twitter.  I heard positive feedback from happy patrons of  Wild Truffle and from the  Olive Cellar, which happens to be a supplier to the restaurant.  If you are interested in learning more about the Olive Cellar or Taste of the Fox Valley, you can  follow on Twitter  @theoliveceller or Taste of the Fox Valley at @wallaper.  Back to business, so we arrived at Truffle around 7:30.  A little late for most, but that is when our childcare arrived!

Atmosphere: As we pulled into the full parking lot my wife said “you know this is the only business in this new strip mall right?” Really?  This busy this late on a Thursday night?   This is a good sign and we are in no particular hurry to get home.

We were greeted by the hostess who took our name and said it would be about a 20 minute wait.  At this point, we thought no problem, we will be at the bar.  20 minutes is the perfect amount of time to wait for a table.  This is exactly when things got interesting!  The hostess informed there  is no bar available for patrons waiting for tables.  Ok, now I am in shock.  This is Wisconsin people.  No bar is like a night without stars, a day without sun..  ok, you get the picture.  There is  a lovely outdoor seating area and the weather was comfortable, so we said, we will have a drink on the patio.  We were then told that the patio is reserved for diners enjoying their meals..  We were then asked to step outside, yes I said outside to the parking lot.  They said a waiter would come to the parking lot to take our drink order.  So we stepped back outside and joined about 6 others standing around.  Luckily they sent a waiter out to take drink orders while we waited.  I have to say that we did get some decent laughs out of this experience.

Let’s talk about some of the specifics of the restaurant..  Well from what we can remember as we are in the parking lot : )  As you enter Wild Truffle, you will be immediately greeted by a hostess in the main dining area.   Unique tile covered tables fill the room until you get to the  far end where there is a good size white granite bar for diners.  What is awesome about eating at the bar area is the wood fired oven and the chefs are right there making the various entrees.  Every entree is prepared in the wood fired oven, which is a great feature.  The chefs preparing the entrees and pizza serve as a great source of entertainment.

The walls are painted a rich color of green with framed artistic art of various food related items.   The ceiling is also unlike anything I have seen locally. It reminds me of a pergola you would see above a outdoor deck with lighting above that, very nice touch. Everything is new and impressive. There is also some big band / Frank Sinatra music playing in the background.  There is a large outdoor seating area which is located off of the main dining area.

Food: From the home page of Wild Truffles website “Our mission is being known as the finest artisan pizzeria in U.S.”  The menu here is not large but it sure is great. While glancing over the “starters” you see items like sweet Italian sausage, goat cheese and wood fired shrimp. They have salads, a few pasta dishes like butternut squash ravioli and lemon shrimp spaghetti…yum!  The main portion of the menu as you would guess is pizza.

We decided to start with an appetizer before our dinner arrived, tonight our choice was Wood-Fired Tomato & Wisconsin Goat Cheese Fondue with smoked garlic-rubbed crostinis. Other then the crostinis being a little hard and chewy it was a great appetizer.
My wife ordered the baby spinach salad consisting of wood roasted crimini mushrooms, balsamic onions, roasted red peppers, white truffle champagne vinaigrette, herbed ricotta and toasted pine nuts.
I had to try the pizza so decided on the Sweet Italian Sausage pizza. The toppings are roasted crimini mushrooms, balsamic onions, fire-roasted tomato sauce, whole milk mozzarella, imported Italian grana, padano and Italian parsley. Makes me hungry just remembering it!

Both meals were delivered and looked beautiful. Well, a salad is a salad but my pizza looked amazing! The first thing about the pizza that catches your eye is the crust. It was a perfect golden brown, puffy and what looked like a thin layer of butter on the crust. I had to dig into it before I could even snap any pictures. Click the pics for a larger view. The pizza was good but I was not wowed, there was just something missing. It needed a little sweetness or some saltiness, just something to make your mouth wake up and say yum! Dont get me wrong, this pizza was good. Just not as good as it looked.

For desert we ordered Mt. Vesuvius Italian Red Raspberry Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Gelato. This was delicious in every way, nothing but happy.

Conclusion: This Pizzeria has alot going for it and we will definitely be back. Service here was great, and the prices were reasonable. An appetizer, 1 pizza, 1 dinner salad, desert, 2 beers and 2 glasses wine was a total of $60. Take a look at the menu links below for more details.

I was lucky enough to talk to the owner during out visit and I asked him what he is doing about the lack of a waiting area  and the lack of a bar for patrons.  He mentioned that there is more room next to the current restaurant and they are considering an addition.  I could tell by the look on his face he has heard that question a time or 10.

Wild Truffle information:
Web site - wildtrufflepizza.com
Phone Number - 920-733-3330
Fax - 920-733-3447
Address - 5120 W. Michaels Dr. Appleton, WI 54913
Hours - Mon - Thur 11:00am - 10pm
Fri - Sat 11:00am - 11:00pm
Menus (pdf) - Main Drink
Google Map

Brian $9-$15, Casual, Italian

Luigis is one of the restaurants that I have never been attracted to, but I am not sure why. Maybe its the location, or the fact that I have never heard much about them, either good or bad. A few weekends ago my brother in law got engaged and they decided to have a party at Luigis to celebrate.   I thought to myself great, a perfect excuse to give this place a try, maybe I will find a gem close to home.

Atmosphere:As I drove up to Luigis I was not overly impressed but I have learned from past experiences to not let that sway me, food is king! When I walked into  Luigis,  I was surprised by how much larger it looked on the inside then it looks from the outside. I noticed a nice fireplace, a tile floor and overall the place looked clean. There is a large bar and plenty of seating. You can see the bar as well as a standard table setup from the pictures below.

Since we had a party of about 20 we grabbed a large table and began studying the menu. Quickly we came to the conclusion that we were going to order pizza and the largest size available was a 30 incher! My wife and I do not tolerate poor service when we dine out.  As a matter of fact, if a restaurant has excellent food, but poor service we will not go back.   This experience was starting out to be the same. After waiting too long for someone to take our drink order I decided to walk up to the bar.  This turned out to be a mistake as I stood there and waited forever to place a drink order.  There were no more then 6 people sitting at the bar so I was not sure why they were unable to fill a drink request.  Since this was our first time visiting Luigis I will let it slide, any place can have an off night.

Food: Lets move on to the good stuff, the food! The menu is quite extensive, including hot italian sandwiches, italian pasta dishes, seafood and pizza.  Below  is a link to the menu and location information. Everyone in our party decided to order pizza so that is  what I am going to talk about. Pizza’s can be ordered with traditional toppings or more creative items such as peppercinnis, fresh garlic, shrimp, and anchovies. We ordered two of the 30 inch football pizzas which easily was enough for our entire party. They had no problem with us customizing the pizzas to individual likings.  This time the wait was not too long before the pizza was delivered and to our surprise it was delicious! The toppings tasted fresh, the cheese was good and everyone at the table was very happy. I myself was thrilled to find another pizza place in the area that I thought was really good! Normally if my family wants pizza we always hit our current favorite , Stuc’s. Below you can see a picture of the pizza that I was working on, obviously I had to sample a few slices before I got my camera out.

(click pic to enlarge)

Conclusion: Overall we were very happy with the food,  but are still on the fence with the service. Since this was only our first visit I would like to go back again and try some of the other entrees. I did notice that there were many tables that filled up as we spent the evening there.  I would  like to see Luigis publish a web site that is a little easier to find and has more information then this one. Not even a google search could find that page, I had to call the restaurant and ask before I could find it.

Luigis information:
Hours - Sun-Thur 9am-9pm / Fri-Sat 9am-10pm
Phone Number - (920) 722-8000
Fax - (920) 722-8002
Address - 332 Ahnaip St, Menasha, WI.
Google Map
menu’s - Pizza / Italian Dinners / Salad & sandwich
Coupon - $2.00 off a meal of $20.oo

Brian $9-$15, Italian

About:
This is our first review  and  am  happy to report  say that it is on one of our favorites,  Cannova’s Pizzeria.  Cannova’s  is located downtown Neenah and is owned by Kyle and Debbie Rasmus. You can find contact information you might need below our review.

Atmosphere:
As you walk into Cannova’s you are greeted with a very comfortable atmosphere. It is decorated in warm colors, nicely lit, and accompanied by a beautiful wood bar backed by a large brick wall and exposed ductwork above.  In the back of the restaurant is a slightly open kitchen where diners can get a glimpse of the pizza making.  If you end up at a table near there it is entertaining to watch the chef’s work their craft. If you are seated at the front of the restaurant you may get lucky enough to get a table by the window or get a seat close to the live music they offer, often a 2 man band playing the bass and piano. During the summer months there is a patio out back where you can dine.
Casual wear is appropriate.

The Food:
Cannova’s Pizzeria prides themselves as a pizzeria with fine Italian dining. I have to agree the  pizza is truly a  unique experience.  The specialty pizza’s offered are not the regular pizzas that most are familiar with.  The pizza’s have little to no sauce, instead the pizzas are covered with chucks of sweetened tomatoes like you would find on bruschetta. This to me is a very refreshing change from the norm. I have not tried all there pizza’s but my personal favorite is the “Sicilian”, here is a direct quote from there menu. Olive oil, mozzarella, sliced italian sausage, pepperoncinis, and tomatoes. Winner of Best Traditional Pizza, “Pizza Today” 2001, Chicago.

Other then pizza Cannovas also has a limited menu of items such as Lasagna, tenderloin, veal and a few seafood dishes. My personal favorite is the shrimp Alfredo, my wife’s being the cheese tortolini with tomato basil cream sauce.
There is a full bar including a nice martini and wine list.

Conclusion:
Like stated at the beginning of the review, Cannova’s is one of those great restaurants with the right price, the right atmosphere and great food. If you have not given it a try yet we would highly recommend it. As I am finishing this review I wish I would have taken some pictures to give you a little better look into what the atmosphere as well as the entree’s look like. I will make sure to grab some snapshots for future reviews.

Cannova’s information:
Website - http://www.cannovaspizzeria.com/
Phone Number - (920) 886-0325
Address - 113 Wisconsin Ave. Neenah, WI 54956
Menu’s in PDF Form - Lunch Dinner
Google Map

Brian $9-$15, Italian