Casalinga Ristorante Italiano, Mini City Market Place, 4538 Capital Blvd., Raleigh

Casalinga is my favorite Italian restaurant in Raleigh. Crappy location but amazing food. First off, they bring out the most wonderful bread basket I have ever seen: 2 slices of Focaccia, 2 Garlic Knots and 4 slices of Italian bread. When we asked for more, the waitress even offered to customize it for us and let us pick and choose which breads we got! The "Focaccia" was more like slices of Sicilian pizza without the cheese/toppings. And that's just what you get for free!

We ordered an Antipasta salad without anchovies (prosciutto, soppressata, salami, provolone, artichokes, roasted peppers, tomatoes, olives, and onions) to start. It's definitely a good size to split into 2 small salads. However, we were used to antipastas being served with dressing already on it and we were given the choice of dressing which I think just confused us. Tried the olive oil and balsamic vinegar which wasn't the right choice. It was $13.95 for the salad.

We also ordered a Sicilian square-pan pizza. It is probably their best value. For $14.95 you get a one-size-fits all (and then some) cheese pizza. We added pepperoni to ours for an extra $2.25. You get 16 huge pieces. Well, it's not that they are huge but they are DENSE. Two pieces and you're full. I think we got like 6-7 meals out of this thing. Check out our leftovers:


I don't like Pizza Hut's deep dish pizza because I think it is too greasy, so although this looks greasy, it's really not all that bad. And it tastes amazing. You better check this place out.

Website and menu: http://www.carlocasalinga.net/
Speed: Quite fast. We had just finished our salad when the pizza was coming out and our service was amazing - our drinks never ran low.
Price: $7.95-$23.95/plate
Hours: Mon—Thurs: 4:30pm—9pm; Fri/Sat: 4:30pm—10pm, 5pm-10pm; Sun: 5pm-9pm
Overall: 5/5