DC Anonymous

Food: 2/5  Vibe: 3/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 2/5  Overall: 2/5

OAK CLIFF PIZZA BATTLE PART DEUXXX:

If the other one was the first, this was the second. This particular episode was inspired by our recent visit to Vitto Italian and the fact that we hadn’t given Eno’s a shot yet. I also thought that perhaps our rather disastrous pasta run could be redeemed with an excellent showing by Vitto in a pizza battle. In the end…

Round one: THE NAME

Vitto: My Italian is about as good my Spanish, so let’s say that if Vitto is a word in Italian it might be related to tires or something. I still think it is more phonetically pleasing to say Vitto Italian-o, but apparently that still isn’t the name of the place.

Eno’s: As far as Eno’s, I don’t know what that means either. Presumably there is someone or some inanimate object named Eno that inspired some part of the restaurant, but who knows? Admittedly, if you search for both of these online you’ll find a menu for Eno’s – convenient and if you leave out the apostrophe you’ll find other interesting businesses in Dallas.

Round one: draw

Round two: THE SCENE

Vitto: Well, the staff is very, very friendly. Really you can’t complain that they don’t try to make you feel welcome when you show up at the place. However, there’s not really any kind of lounge area and there are no ‘grown up’ drinks available unless you want the barrel stuff you get with an entrée. As a result, if your phone’s web browser is stuck on something like “The UKs Sexiest Ambulance Driver,” you’re probably going to be staring at the walls for a while.

Eno’s: They’ve got the requisite big screen TVs, a decent bar set up and some fakey distressed wooden lawn furniture. In combination with the chalkboard wall hangings it only feels somewhat manufactured while slightly straining for some sort of comfortable neighborhood feel. Overall, kudos on the beer selection and the wines by the glasses aren’t too bad, either.

Round two: Eno’s – wide margin

Round three: THE SERVICE

Vitto: Super friendly and accurate. However, if you’ve called ahead there’s not much they can do for you other than point you to a table.

Eno’s: The guy at the bar is enthusiastic about his selections, although I think almost everyone in the place tells me at least once they have Dogfish 120 IPA. Yeah, I like a hoppy brew once in a while too, but like acetaminophen and the characteristics of your favorite gender there’s too little, just right and just too damn much. This beer is a G cup.

Round two: Eno’s slight edge since they actually had something to offer.

Round four: THE FOOD

In this battle, we pit an Eno’s Original up against a straightforward Vitto pepperoni mushroom. The Eno’s Original is topped with tomato, salami, mushroom and sport peppers. I don’t know why they aren’t sporty, just sport. The Vitto pep+mush is pretty much self explanatory.

Eno’s: There’s definitely a sharp tang of garlic in the aroma of this one. The result is a decent sized pie that has been cut in to smallish squares. The crust is super thin, like a few sheets of ruled paper thin. It begs the question how thin is so thin that what we’re eating here really is a fancy cracker and not a pizza any more? However, it has a slight crunch and the toppings are first rate. It isn’t particularly greasy, either. So, whether this is a pizza or you’d want to call it something else, it’s a decent snack.

Vitto: When I picked up this pizza I imagined that I would be writing lines like “in an amazing turnaround from the pasta debacle, Vitto slayed Eno’s with a dead horse head of a pie.” However, it was not to be. The Vitto offering is about the same size as the Eno’s, but it is cut into the more traditional shape of Jennifer Aniston’s face: pointed, triangular and irregular. The crust is a thicker style that in the first couple of bites isn’t too bad, but with a couple of minutes it takes on the consistency of a sloppy facecloth. The pepperoni is all right, I suppose, for chain restaurant pizza. I hoped that my previous mushroom experience would have been rectified, but I find it has not. They’re just too watery to have come from someplace other than a can.

Round four: Eno’s

Battle: ENO’S

I know when it comes to pizza the crust issue is a big deal for some of you. Thin, thick, Roman whatever style is a very personal and sometimes painful decision to make. In this case, I think it’s a little like asking who’s sexier: Lil’ Wayne or Scarlett Johansson. Forgetting the overall debate and focusing on this particular battle, despite what I would say is a blatantly obvious choice there will be some of you who will disagree to the end.

I also couldn’t necessarily tell if either place had the minimum acceptable number of New York state rodent digits and fecal matter for authenticity.

Truthfully, my preconception leading up to this battle was that I wouldn’t really care for the Eno’s scene and that Vitto would really pull out a victory here. However, in the end, I’d go back to Eno’s for a bite, a drink and some chill time. I really don’t know that I’ll be back at Vitto until they start offering up some new ingredients and a decent drink. I think Vitto still could offer something different here considering that the pasta offerings at Eno's are pretty limited. Find some local produce and bring us some wine, please. Moving on…

10 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Food: 2/5  Vibe: 3/5  Service: 2/5  Value: 2/5  Overall: 2/5

There are the nights when you don't feel like traveling far from home. The occasion that we visit Vitto Italian is one of those evenings. It's taken much longer than necessary to make it back home. This is largely because I have been behind some F150 adorned with stickers of Mexican Calvin urinating on a Chevy emblem whose owner has been absolutely gunning the throttle trying to make it up one of the hills alongside the Trinity. I wish there was a "shift down" light somewhere I could activate.

So, rather than becoming a 'case of the week,' for some questionable mid-cities hospital we decide we'll have snacks someplace local and new to us.

This Vitto Italian place was closed for some time - renovations or whatever and as a result, we thought it would be worth a shot now that they are open again. In full disclosure, I'm not crazy about Italian. I also think that any Italian restaurant essentially should be Simpsons style with red and white checked table cloths and some Luigi lookin' guy asking you if-a you want-a some mozzerella-(a?).

However, such is not the case at VI. It's a nice enough looking place with hardwood not American Apparel style panels on the walls and an uncomfortable rise in the middle of the room prime for tripping if you're wearing a heel more than an inch.

The menu is a mish mash of pasta and whatnot including a back page for pizza. I sense another Oak Cliff pizza battle - maybe Eno's vs VI, but that's for another night.

There's no wine list or wine options. If you order an entree in the English not French sense you get free wine! White or red, no brand provided and we aren't sure if there is a volume limit. After trying it, we decide it's ok if you are limited to one glass. I would imagine this has something to do with the screwed up liquor laws around here but the net effect is pretty pathetic.

They bring us some small buns in a metal mixing bowl. These buns were baked sometime between yesterday and April 18, 1997. They are, however, slathered in a half inch of olive oil and preserved chopped garlic. Corrugated cardboard would have also sufficed with these toppings and may have been superior to the buns.

Dinner conversation returns to more recent business related events. Rather than bitch like every legislative action ever taken is some civil rights injustice we consider some new ways to stay profitable...

Then the dishes!

She's ordered angel hair pasta with chicken and veg whereas I took the advise of the server who's been there less than a week and went for spinach fettucini and feta.

The plates are huge bastard Star Destroyer shaped things! I have problems with this. First I don't like taking food home because we never eat it and the car gets to stink like whatever. Secondly I don't care to make myself sick trying to finish the stupid plate.

Well, my thing is a slippery slimy collection of green objects with chunks of Kroger level feta that combine to make a dish devoid of all hope for the future. I would have hoped to have some idea that the pasta was leafy vegetable related other than the green. I guess just like the Hulk, green does not equal spinach flavour.

Her angel hair plate is marginally better, although by either accident or design there are two different sauces served with the pasta. I also have serious doubts about the age of the veg. The mushrooms in my dish taste like tap water and aluminum cans. Her broccoli and carrots are suspiciously exactly all the same size and taste equally like nothing. I sense the hands of mechanical devices.

Too bad. Despite not being crazy about the Italian genre, I think I could have been ok with some nice fresh mushrooms where you can smell the loam of a darkly soiled patch of fungus or had a crunch of a carrot who wasn't waterboarded.

They don't bother to ask if we want dessert.

Oh sadness for this event. The food just wasn't very good. I hope they decide to turn this around somehow since it is so conveniently located, but we'll see. Maybe they'll do better in the pizza battle.

10 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

micastio Anonymous

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 4/5  Value: 4/5  Overall: 4/5

Great place, used to live in oak cliff and came by often and had it delivered often. Our favorite is the spinach salad with honey mustard - big pieces of bacon, cheese and mushrooms - and the pizza's with sundried tomatoe and fresh sausage. Eating in the restaurant they have these big pieces of bread smothered in oil and garlic...very tasty.

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )