A Long, Flavorful Evening at Ricco’s Italian Bistro

A bubbling baked penne, a wood-fired pizza emerging from a real oven, a forkful of fettuccine Alfredo: Ricco’s Italian Bistro gives a dinner table plenty to work with. The menu travels through familiar Italian comfort food, seafood entrées, salads, appetizers and desserts, so a meal can be as simple as soup and pasta or as expansive as drinks, starters, pizza and cake.

The room has the cozy, close-in character many people want from an Italian dinner, with indoor tables, a bar and patio seating all in the mix. It can make sense for a date night, but the restaurant is not confined to hushed dinners for two. Solo guests settle in at the bar, friends gather over cocktails, and larger birthday tables have made an evening of it.

The pizza oven is not decorative. Ricco’s serves wood-fired pizza, a useful option when one person wants a pie while another is intent on a pasta dish. Pizza also makes an easy centerpiece for a less formal meal at the bar or a patio table.

The baked pastas have their own appeal. Lasagna comes with meat sauce and offers the deeply familiar, layered sort of dinner that does not need much explanation beyond a side of garlic bread.

Baked penne is a fuller, cheese-forward choice built around noodles, sauce and Italian sausage. The sausage links are cut into smaller pieces rather than left as a single large addition, so they show up throughout the plate instead of disappearing after a few bites.

Manicotti is another worthwhile stop for diners in a baked-pasta mood, bringing together a flavorful filling and sauce. It is the sort of entrée that makes a good case for slowing down instead of ordering in a rush.

Fettuccine Alfredo has a following here, including diners who have returned and ordered it again on the next visit. In a menu full of red sauces, baked cheese and seafood, a dependable creamy pasta can be exactly the thing a table needs.

For more heat, the Fettuccine Diavolo has a balanced spice level rather than a blunt blast of pepper. It gives the menu a little variation for anyone ready to move beyond the standard Alfredo-and-marinara lane.

Vegetarian diners have a substantial selection to consider, rather than being limited to one fallback plate. The kitchen has also accommodated a request to ease up on the spice in a dish, a welcome bit of flexibility when ordering a pasta with more assertive seasoning.

Ricco’s does not stop at the classic baked-dish playbook. Seafood combo pasta brings another route through the menu, while mushroom risotto with shrimp gives a diner something a little different from the usual spaghetti-and-meatballs expectation.

Other seafood-minded choices include balsamic-glazed salmon, and veal scallopini appears among the heartier dinner selections. These options help a mixed party order across several styles of Italian cooking without everyone landing on the same kind of plate.

Italian wedding soup has developed a reputation worth noting. It is the sort of opening course that can linger in the conversation after the main dishes have arrived, especially on an evening when a bowl of soup sounds more inviting than another shared starter.

Calamari is a recurring pick among the appetizers and makes an easy first order for the table. Artichoke dip is another option, as are torte and pita bread with goat cheese for groups inclined to graze before settling into entrées.

Garlic bread arrives with marinara for dipping, a small detail that gives a familiar side dish a little more purpose. It is also handy when a plate arrives with enough sauce to warrant a final swipe.

Salads provide a fresher pause between the richer dishes. They are served cold and crisp, with house-made dressings including raspberry vinaigrette, an especially nice counterpoint to a meal built around cheese, pasta and oven-baked plates.

The full bar and wine list give Ricco’s a second rhythm beyond the dining room. A guest can make an evening of wine with dinner, take a bar seat for a quieter solo meal, or stop in for a cocktail and an appetizer without committing to the entire multi-course Italian ritual.

The Italian Margarita is a standout drink to look for. It fits naturally before a pizza or alongside calamari, and it gives the bar menu one specific order to consider when the wine list is not calling your name.

Cannoli, carrot cake and tuxedo cake are among the desserts that keep drawing attention. After a substantial baked pasta, sharing one may be the sensible route, though a cannoli can be a perfectly reasonable personal decision.

The carrot cake has particular fans and has been recommended by servers, while the tuxedo cake is there for diners who want a more chocolate-forward finish. A birthday guest was once treated to a complimentary cannoli, but dessert is worth ordering on its own merits rather than counting on a special occasion surprise.

Ricco’s is relatively small and can be busy even on weekday evenings, so reservations are useful for a planned dinner. The restaurant has indoor seating, bar seats and an outdoor patio, giving groups and couples a few different ways to shape the visit.

The patio can be a calmer setting for conversation and may offer relief from direct sun, though outdoor comfort naturally changes with the weather. Inside, the energy can be more social when tables fill up.

Larger celebrations are possible here, too. A birthday dinner for 13 included drinks, appetizers, entrées and desserts, showing that the intimate scale does not rule out a properly festive table. Free parking is available in a lot with plentiful spaces, an uncomplicated finish to a dinner that may have included more courses than originally planned.