[Houston] Pronto Cucinino

[Lone Star]

We just got back from lunch at Vincent Mandola’s brand new PRONTO CUCININO on Montrose, and I have to say I was very pleased. Vincent ( or Bubba) grew up with my boss’ husband and he came over to us to speak with her. He said he had been inspired by the “good food fast” concepts of Café Express and Pei Wei to provide the same type of place for his Italian food.

The restaurant itself is lovely, done in rustic colors with wooden tables and chairs, lots of pottery platters on the wall and a chicken/rooster motif. The first thing that catches your eye is the wood burning oven over which the house specialty, wood roasted lemon chicken spins. The smell is amazing!

You step up to one of two cashiers and place your order. It is a little confusing at first, but you get your bearings quickly. You can get a menu from the hostess by the door and peruse it out of the way if you wish before ordering.

The appetizers are:

Fritto Misto, Fried Mozzarella, Zuppa di Pollo, or Pizza squares - Margherita, roasted chicken, Americano or Primavera. (2.75 a sqaure). None of the appetizers are over $5.00.

For Insalata:

A chopped salad of mixed greens, marinated artichoke, pear, roasted peppers, garbanzo beans, gorgonzola, candied walnuts with basil balsamic vinaigrette.

Tricolore, Cesare, Caprese, and Insalata Pollo are also offered. All are $7.00 or under.

The entrees range from Chicken Parmigiano to Speidini and you chose one side with your entree from: roasted garlic mashed potatoes (which must be good - I heard several people commenting on them), green beans with Parmigiana and bread crumbs, sauteed spinach, Fettuccine Alfredo or penne pasta with Pomodoro sauce.

The only entree over $10.00 was the Bistecca Pizzailoa for $11.95.

After you place your order and pay, you are given a number and cups for your drinks. You self-serve your own drink and place your number on a table. You gather your own roll of silverware and napkins and sit down. The tables have a red and yellow chicken on a stand where you place your number and there is fresh salt and pepper grinders as well as a parmesan shaker. Our salad had no sooner arrived than our entrees were presented, so the service is very fast.

We split the Caprese insalata which was very good. They make their mozzarella fresh everyday and the tomatoes were wonderfully ripe. The plate was beautiful in arrangement with the beautiful red and white with shreds of basil.

For entree, we had the Chicken Vincent - sauteed chicken breast coated in parmigiana cheese and topped with artichoke hearts and lemon butter. The chicken was very thin, yet very moist with a delicate crunch and a wonderful parmy flavor. We had sides of the fettucine and green beans which were very good. The green beans were not too crisp, nor overdone. Each dish is served with a square of Ciabatta bread.

The wait staff was very attentive and friendly and looked sharp in royal blue button-down shirts and khaki slacks.

We were in and out, having had a delicious lunch in half an hour.

It was only my first visit, and I did not really check out all of the dessert and wine options, but we were very impressed and pleased that such a great lunch option was now available to us.

Great concept and good food at very reasonable prices. If Vincent’s other establishments are any indication of how PRONTO CUCINIO will do, I am sure it will be a success.

sidebar - After reading so many of the beautifully worded and written posts on the forums, I feel my writing abilities are sorely lacking and are pallid in comparison. My work involves lots of medical and legal documents, and my writing seems to come across as stilted to me, just like the dry as dust documents I interpret. Please accept my apologies

[fifi]

No apologies accepted, Lone Star. You do just fine! (I also do technical writing professionally so I know what you mean. You just have to "put on different shoes." Which you seem to do quite well.)

I am so pleased to see that the concept of "good fast food" is spreading. Your descriptions have added Pronto Cucinino to my list of "must try" places. I will endeavour to support places like this. Cafe Express was the pioneer here I think. Droubi Brothers extended it with their Middle Eastern lunch stops. The Mandolas do good work. If anyone can make this concept work with Italian, it is these guys.

[FoodMan]

I've never even heard of this place, so thanks for bringing it to our attention!

I am also glad that you even gave us instructions how to order, we don't normally recieve such detailed inctruction on the forums in that department. Must be the Technical side coming out .

Sriously though, I am not a big fan of Cafe Express and definitly not Pei Wei but this place sounds like a must-try. Hmm...a place that serves decent frito misto and Caprese with good tomatoes cannot be bad.

Thanks again,

Elie

[FoodMan]

Here is the restaurant's website as well. It seems brand new too, it opened this wednesday the 23rd, according to B4-U-Eat.

Click Here

Elie

[FoodMan]

From today's digest:

Less Price, Less Spice

Robb Walsh reviews the new Madola fast-casual place “Pronto Cucinino”.

I guess according to him and if you have time, it is best to pay the few extra dollars and get a better dish at Vincent's.

Then again, fast-casual is what it is, we get what we pay for, and if the Olive Garden regulars venture into this Houston restaurant instead of the "all you can eat soup and salad" then it has served a noble purpose.

Elie

[jess mebane]

We just got back from lunch at Vincent Mandola’s brand new PRONTO CUCININO on Montrose, and I have to say I was very pleased.  Vincent ( or Bubba) grew up with my boss’ husband and he came over to us to speak with her.  He said he had been inspired by the “good food fast” concepts of Café Express and Pei Wei to provide the same type of place for his Italian food.

sidebar - After reading so many of the beautifully worded and written posts on the forums, I feel my writing abilities are sorely lacking and are pallid in comparison.  My work involves lots of medical and legal documents, and my writing seems to come across as stilted to me, just like the dry as dust documents I interpret.  Please accept my apologies     

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sidebar to sidebar- Dude, your prose is slammin', not pallid, and I think it's been about 10 yrs since I even put such um, good words to great use. Pallid! righteous.

Why is it, in light of recent threads, do Houstonians as a breed love the Mandola family and revile Fertitta? I don't even think the Ragin' Cajun is near as good as it used to be, but stopping in for a softshell po-boy and seeing one of "the family" gladhanding the patrons just makes me happy, go figure. But I guarantee you the next time I'm down the Bayou way, I'll have to investigate Pronto Cucino just to see the Mandola mojo in action.

[jscarbor]

I think Houstonians hate Ferttita because he has made a few wonderful places that were near and dear to are hearts and made them aweful. His restaurants can't even boil shrimp properly for christ sakes.

The Mandola family is more hands on in all thier operations.

And I think the Ragun Cajun isn't all that as well.

[fifi]

. . . . .

Why is it, in light of recent threads, do Houstonians as a breed love the Mandola family and revile Fertitta?  I don't even think the Ragin' Cajun is near as good as it used to be, but stopping in for a softshell po-boy and seeing one of "the family" gladhanding the patrons just makes me happy, go figure.  But I guarantee you the next time I'm down the Bayou way, I'll have to investigate Pronto Cucino just to see the Mandola mojo in action.

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I think you hit the nail on the head with that comment. I used to frequent the old place on the Gulf Freeway (now closed). Mama used to hang out there some. I had many discussions with her on the finer points of cole slaw and her marinara. I think food passion genes are firmly entrenched in that family and it shows. Sure, they are out to make money. But they seem to have a philosophy that if you have the passion and the skill to put that passion on a plate, the money will happen. It has worked for them. (I will also bet that some of the clan has some serious business chops as well.)