Since I go to college away from home, I try to go home as often as possible. When I am home for the weekend there are certain things my parents and I always end up doing. One of these things is that we always visit one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Elizabeth’s Pizza. There are multiple locations in Greensboro, where I am from, but the one my parents and I often go to is in Quaker Village. Elizabeth’s Pizza has been around since 1978 and it is an authentic Italian Restaurant that is family owned and operated. Their menu includes many traditional Italian cuisine and a few american dishes. The atmosphere is very causal and family-oriented, which is a huge reason my family loves going their so much.

The last time I went home to visit was the weekend of January 25th. By the time I got home it was time for dinner, so we decided to head over to Elizabeth’s Pizza. We were greeted by their friendly staff and given bread with olive oil and butter, like always. After looking over the menu for a little while, we all knew exactly what we wanted this time.

I choose to get one of my favorites, their cheese ravioli, which is served with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese melted over the top of them. The mozzerella cheese on top was nice and warm and you had that nice “cheese pull” effect when you cut into one. The ravioli’s were well cooked and very delicious. When tasting the marinara sauce you could really tell that they used fresh ingredients. Overall, the display and taste of this dish was very yummy!

My dad is the adventurous one of the family, so he choose to get something he’d never had before and made it his own by adding to it. He got the Chicken Broccoli, which normally comes with fresh chopped chicken breast and broccoli sauteed with garlic and olive oil over pasta. He choose to make it his own by taking off the chicken and adding olives. Me, being the picky eater I am, would probably not enjoy this dish, but my dad absolutely LOVED it! He’s a huge fan of olive oil on his pasta so this was totally up his ally.

Lastly, My mom got a pasta trio. Her trio consisted of a small piece of lasagna, a stuffed shell, and manicotti. All three were served in the same dish with marinara sauce and melted mozzarella on top. She really enjoyed her food, and liked the idea of a trio since it allowed you to sample different things.

Overall, I would highly recommend checking out an Elizabeth’s Pizza if you’re ever in Greensboro and are looking for a casual dining restaurant with lots of traditional Italian cuisine options!

What’s better than starting off the new semester than a dinner date with an old friend? On January 16th, One of my good friends from high school and I decided to catch up after not seeing each other for almost two years. When trying to decide where to grab a bite to eat we were faced with many choices. Did we want Italian, Mexican, Wings, or what? The decision was very hard to make, but ultimately we decided to try out an Italian restaurant that neither of us had been to before. Vic’s Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria “sets the standard for authentic, old-world, Italian cuisine & New York style pizza.” There are two locations here in Raleigh, NC- one downtown which has been around since 1998, and the one that I visited which is located off Lake Boone Trail and has been in business since 2016. The owner, Mario Longo, has been serving up his Italian family recipes for almost 30 years.

We went not knowing how formal or casual to dress, so we both decided to go “semi-dressy” by wearing jeans and a nice shirt. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of the place. We felt as though we made the right choice in our attire, and I believe that you would be fine going in something slightly more dressy if you wanted or even in a t-shirt if you just wanted to grab a quick bite to eat for lunch with some friends or co-workers. Once we were seated, we received service almost right away, and were even offered some garlic bread as we looked over the menu. After looking over the menu for a while we had made our decisions. I choose to go simple and try their cheese pizza, while my friend choose to get the chicken parmesan- which she said ended up being “very yummy!”

The cheese pizza was a pretty good size for being the “small.” It was their 14 inch, and they did have a bigger size (18”) if you were wanting to serve multiple people, even though their “small” could probably serve about 2 people itself. The pizza was very tasty. It was thin but with very dense crust. It had a nice balance of sauce to cheese ratio, not one over powered the other. One note to make though is that I did have some left overs, and when I went to heat them up the next day- it was not the best re-heated, but that could just be a personal picky eater thing of mine. The experience in all felt very personable, including the manager coming around to check on your meal and ask how you’re doing. It was a little expensive, especially for the college students budget (i.e. $12.95 + tax for the “small” pizza), but I would say that it was very worth it. Overall I would recommend Vic’s Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria to anyone looking for a place they could dress up for a night out, or just somewhere to grab a bite for lunch with some old friends. I’ll definitely be going back again soon!