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View Winners → On the Corner, Cozy Cuisine: Avanti
Arcadia Weekly Apr 22, 2015
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The “Branzino” at Avanti Italian Bistro. – Photo by Ea Nicole Madrigal
By Ea Nicole Madrigal
On a Saturday evening, there are about a hundred places to choose to dine in the San Gabriel Valley. Usually, we tend to visit the same places over again, in the same busy strip malls or crowded streets. However, away from the often bustling restaurants in Pasadena is a cozy corner where Sierra Madre and Foothill Boulevards converge. It is here that you will find Avanti Italian Bistro and Bar.
If you have never been, you are not alone. I never dined at Avanti before either, but I learned on a Saturday evening around 6 p.m. that most other residents have already found their way to this tucked-away corner in Pasadena right off the 210 freeway. The restaurant boasts a small patio dining area visible on the corner of the streets and one large inside dining room (made ascetically more appealing with brick facades and full service bar). At this particular time, it is crowded and rather boisterous inside the restaurant, but it makes this place a perfect setting for a night out as a couple or as an entire family.
Avanti started as the Avanti Café in 1987 on Lake Avenue in Pasadena. It is currently owned and operated by Bobby Ghofranian. It was not until the summer of 2013 that the newest location on the corner of Sierra Madre and Foothill Blvd was added to provide “an intimate and sophisticated dining experience” (as mentioned on the restaurant’s website). And as I learned that evening, you should likely call ahead and make reservations, because people love Avanti.
If you have never been, my waiter made three suggestions that you might want partake in on your first visit. In the pasta category: Grilled Chicken Linguini (made with shiitake mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, goat cheese crumbles in a light basil cream sauce). In the pizza category: Touch of Italy (this pizza has fresh tomato sauce, sliced Italian sausage, pre-mix green and red peppers with red onions, parmesan, and oregano). However, I went with my waiter’s entrée suggestion: Branzino.
The Branzino is a Mediterranean baked fish with rosemary garlic mashed yams and broccolini on the side served with a crispy wonton and lemon caper sauce. As always, I venture into foods unknown, but I tend to journey the right direction (yet, another reason to always ask your waiter’s suggestions). The fish was flaky and swimming in the special sauce that provided a buttery, almost honey-flavored taste (ideal to balance the natural salt flavor of fish). For this reason, the Branzino is a sweet fish and the mashed yams provide a sense of Thanksgiving dinner served with fish instead of a slice of turkey. It is a very unique entrée for an Italian restaurant.
Indeed, the Mediterranean touch is not simply in some of the entrees, but also each table is provided pita bread with olive oil and vinegar to start the dining experience. Combined with the scrumptious apricot bread pudding as a desert, I, quite literally, had a “sweet” first experience at Avanti.
And there’s so much more to try. You certainly might decide to visit and stick with the standards of Italian food: pizza or pasta. Yet venturing a bit outside the norm when you dine out can often provide some fantastic restaurant experiences. Avanti proves this point to me, once again.
For more information on Avanti Italian Bistro and Bar, go to their website: http://www.avantibistro.com/index.html – They are located at 187 N. Sierra Madre Blvd in Pasadena. The phone number is (626) 817-9180.
