Racanelli's Cucina Original Pizzeria & Bar

Racanelli's Cucina on the Delmar Loop in University City is owned by John Racanelli who also owns all of the Racanelli's New York Pizzeria's. Racanelli's Cucina isn't just a fancy name on one of their Pizzeria's, it is a full service Italian restaurant with a completely different menu. They offer appetizers, salads, soups, pasta, burgers, grilled foccacia paninis, desserts and 12 inch stone oven pizza's. They all so have an extensive wine list.

I started off with a small house salad. It had mixed greens, tomato's, cucumber, red onion and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I'm not big on "mixed greens", those two words can sometimes mean weeds in my book, but these weren't bad. The rest of the veggies were cut into small cubes. The salad was served with the dressing on it, but not tossed. Overall the salad was very good. I was hungry and started eating the salad before I remembered to photograph it, so no photos. My Fellow pizza eater ordered a Mediterranean Chopped salad, it had mixed greens, feta, kalamata olives, red onion pepperocini and house made vinaigrette.

In the 4 weeks prior to eating at Racanelli's Cucina I had pizza 7 times, so for pizza I ordered the Magherita, not the sort of thing I would normally order, but having had a lot of pizza I was open to something new. The Margherita is the classic pizza, just tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella. The hand tossed crust was very good, both crisp and chewy. The combination of tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella works great. I have had cheese pizza before and it's OK, but this no cheese pizza. The Margherita was surprisingly good, I believe the fresh mozzarella makes a big difference. I will definitely order it again. We had leftovers but I didn't store them properly and they got a bit dry, next time I will be a pig and not bring any home with me. My fellow pizza eater didn't get pizza!!! He was paying so he could get what he wanted. He got the Panini Portabella (roasted portabella, fresh mozzarella, spinach, roasted pepper and pesto). Even though it was pizza I did sample it and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It's differently not the kind of thing I would order, but I was glad my fellow pizza eater did.

There will be a next time. I was pleasantly surprised by Rananelli's Cucina, both the food and service were very good. I need to try the "Action Jackson" pepperoni, sausage and onion pizza. I also need to try the "Johnny's Famous Pound cake Sandwich" (house-made pound cake, chocolate hazelnut spread, strawberry jam, griddled and served with fresh whipped cream and powdered sugar) , it sound like a sugar rush.

Racanelli's Cucina Original Pizzeria & Bar is located at 6655 Delmar Boulevard (the Loop) in University City, MO. You can reach them at (314) 727-8880, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW