It ended up being a crazy week of pasta for me. We stopped by Tony and Joe’s for lunch during the week. You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but it’s not just a pick-up joint here… they actually have an adorable little dining area inside.

T went with the eggplant parm. Biggest plate of eggplant parm I’ve ever witnessed in my life. HA! Those veggies aren’t just plain… they were loaded with garlicky and buttery goodness!

R went with her trusty old standby – ravioli.

I ordered the rigatoni. The only rigatoni on the menu was rigatoni abruzzi… which was supposed to come with sausage in a spicy sauce. I ended up with plain old rigatoni with a red sauce. It was fine and all, but plain as all get out. I don’t know what happened… You also get garlic bread, which was pretty good. And soup or salad… we all got salad. My russian dressing was really really weird. Service was pretty good. All the pasta was made to order so it took a bit of time, but not tremendously long. It’s a nice hidden option on Conshy’s main strip.

R had been talking about From the Boot for the past few weeks… insisting that we go there for lunch. We stopped by the other day and had a nice low-key meal. It’s a small BYOB italian place in a horribly unassuming strip mall in Lafayette Hill. It looks like just a crappy takeout place from the outside, but inside, it’s cozy and there are a small number of tables. It’s right next to a depressing looking sushi place.
The pasta lunch specials come with these garlic rolls. Oh my dear goodness. Piping hot… garlicky… parmesany… delicious! Man, these were worth the entire meal.

R got the cheese ravioli. I think there were 5 humongo ravioli. The pasta entrees also come with a house salad.

T got the penne rustica, with had chicken and portobellos in a cream sauce. Everybody liked their pasta.

I got a meatball parm sub, or half of one. This was good, but also friggin hot, and I burned the roof of my mouth. Oops. Service was good, our waitress was extremely nice and friendly, but she herself could have used a sandwich or 12. From the Boot was a nice surprise.

From the Boot
517 Germantown Pike

Lafayette Hill, PA 19444

(610) 834-8680

I’d been hearing about La Viola all summer long. Everyone had been raving about it. It’s not a new place, but it seemed that everyone was discovering it this summer. There are two locations, both on south 16th, the original La Viola and the bigger and slightly nicer Ouest location. Because we had a big party, we had to go to Ouest on the west side of 16th. Hence the name. Please keep in mind that the Ouest dining room apparently has more items on the menu and that dishes are about $1-2 higher than the regular La Viola. In the original La Viola, it’s much smaller and more crowded.

La Viola Ouest does not have a sign. So good luck finding it. It’s basically in a row home, so it’s a long and narrow dining room. It’s decorated very simply. Real Italians, with accents and all, are the waiters there. It’s a BYOB, so bring your own booze people! No corkage fee either, which is nice! They give you free sourdough tasting bread that is warm, and (hopefully) home-baked. I quite enjoyed it.
The prices are quite reasonable. These veal dishes above were $14, as were most of the other veal dishes. There were plenty veal dishes to choose from. I don’t know what the first one is, but it certainly looks damn fancy. Are those veal medallions? The gnocchi was only $9. What a bargain.

I went with the lobster ravioli. I absolutely love ravioli so I try to order it whenever possible. And I especially love lobster ravioli. There were only five, but they were large. I wished there were 50 more! So yes, I liked them alot. In fact, everyone loved their food! There’s so much to choose from here, I definitely have to come back and try more dishes out.

La Viola
253 S. 16th St
215-735-8630