Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Central Foodie: Bacio's

Adam and I have become quite the foodies over the last few years, and for what other reason than we just like to eat! We like to try new restaurants from our little town, to nearby Kansas City, and any time we go to other cities or states, I'm always Yelping the best restaurants in the nearby areas for good eats. One of the worst things I have ever seen is tourists walking through Times Square carrying McDonald's bags. WHAT? You're so close to a plethora of choices, and you go with McDonald's? I don't get it.

Anyway, I'm going to start reviewing new restaurants (you can also check out my other reviews on Yelp: My Yelp Profile!) and I'm going to start with Bacio's.

Bacio's is brand new in Warrensburg, open for only a few short weeks. I was instantly irritated that there is nothing in the local area that even mentions Bacio's. No press release, no Facebook/Twitter social media presence, no website. The only reason I knew it was open was because of their sign flashing "NOW OPEN". But people driving by don't even know to look there- because it's in Monetti's old location and without knowing a new restaurant was there, how would they know to look for updates?

But Laylan likes italian food. Especially pasta. So I was paying attention to that sign. And when it said, "NOW OPEN", you can bet your sweet potato bottom I was in line for some pasta.

I just mentioned that Bacio's (pronounced BAH-CHEE-OHS) is housed the location formerly owned by Monetti's. Anyone who went to Monetti's would call it the quintessential Italian restaurant: loud "Italian" music swooning in the background and a kitchen that you could see right into-to watch your food be made. Lots of pizza dough flying, frantic chefs in white clothing, lots of yelling orders.

We walked into Bacio's and were greeted with a pleasant new color scheme and decor. It has changed into the mob-like Italian restaurant you would see in a mafia movie, with the kitchen closed off, white linen tablecloths, and little vases with fake flowers on the table. (The Italian music is still there).

The menu is expansive- five or six pages of options! I didn't know where to start, but I ordered the Pasta Albanese- spinach fettuccine alfredo with chicken breast (10.95) and Adam ordered the Pasta Siciliano- chicken breast, spaghetti noodles, lemon butter, capers, and artichokes (12.95). We also ordered house salads with Caesar for .99 cents more each.

The bread came out first- soft bagel-shaped bread with parmesan on top and a bowl full of foil packaged butter. These were okay- but the bagel idea kind of threw me off.. they weren't cut so they were to be pulled apart to have butter spread on them. Seems like they could have gotten the bread aspect with a loaf or rolls instead.

The salads weren't good- freshly watered iceberg lettuce (meaning dripping with water), black olives, onion. Unremarkable.

Our pastas came quickly- and were HUGE portions. Mine came with 2 whole chicken breasts! I was a little put off by the pasta because it came out looking like pesto- bright green sauce covered my noodles. I realized that it was fine chopped spinach (likely frozen) blended into the sauce to give the appearance of being very green. When I ordered this, I envisioned fresh alfredo with wilted, fresh spinach folded in. My second complaint is that my pasta had an immense amount of butter/oil on it. So much that it was pooling in my dish! Now I know alfredo. I know it has three ingredients: Parmesan, Heavy Cream, and Butter. I'm wondering how many sticks were used in my dish alone!

However, it was very, very good. It was very well seasoned and I didn't need to add any additional salt or pepper. I ate half and took half home- and I encountered the oil issue again at home. I had to physically soak  excess butter out of my bowl before eating it.

Adam's dish was good, but he tried to order something "new" this time, and didn't care for his dish. It was also a large portion- two chicken breasts and a mound of pasta. I tried it and thought it was flavorful and fresh.

Overall, I'd try Bacio's again for the pasta fix- and really, you can eat two meals for $11.00 because the portions are so big! You can't beat that!!

Side note: I asked the waitress why they didn't have a social media presence. She said, " Well we just opened". To which I replied, "I know, which is exactly why you need a Facebook page!" She said she'd let her manager know... but it's been a week and I see nothing! Get on it, Bacios!

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