Zagat, USA TODAY Road Warriors pick top Italian restaurants
— -- Frequent business traveler Alan Intrator keeps coming back with clients to an Italian restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles where he says they're "always treated like rock stars."
The service at La Gondola "is insanely off-the-wall fantastic," and "I love Italian food," says Intrator, who lives in Woodmere, N.Y., and is the president of a company that provides credit card processing referrals.
Italian food remains a staple for many business travelers who need to entertain clients. And it remains a favorite of many for own their meals when on the road, regardless of the size of their expense accounts. So, USA TODAY asked restaurant guidebook publisher Zagat to select what it considers to be the top Italian restaurants in the country.
Zagat — whose reviewers rate Italian cuisine as the most popular cuisine, followed by American and Japanese — chose the best Italian restaurants in 22 metropolitan areas.
Most cost at least $50 per person for dinner, a drink and a tip, and Zagat rates the décor at most very good to excellent.
For food quality, Houston's Da Marco scored 29 on a zero-30 scale, a higher score than any other top restaurant.
Da Marco whips up "memorable meals with sublime homemade pastas and amazing things with truffles in an intimate setting tended by a knowledgeable staff," Zagat and its reviewers say.
In Washington, Zagat chose a "tiny" Italian restaurant with a prix fixe menu as its top choice. Obelisk, off Dupont Circle, offers a "never-ending feast of inventive fare that changes daily and is special without being showy," Zagat and its reviewers say.
Zagat chose Marea as New York's best Italian restaurant. Located at Central Park South in Manhattan, Marea has a "scrumptious, seafood-slanted menu backed up with first-rate pasta and flawless service," Zagat and its reviewers say.
The restaurant features a "glamorous, celeb-studded" dining room that "burnishes the overall experience," but "this exercise in sheer perfection comes at a titanic price" — $101 per person for dinner.
Zagat has a different top choice in Los Angeles than traveler Intrator. It picked Angelini Osteria on Beverly Boulevard.
Zagat and its reviewers call the restaurant a "treasure that takes you back to Tuscany," making the "crammed, cacophonous space" a "minor inconvenience for such a memorable meal."
Chef-owner Gino Angelini offers "delicious fare, from succulent roast meats to sublime signature lasagna," and the staff is charming and efficient, Zagat and its reviewers say.
The professionalism and friendliness of a restaurant's staff play a major role in a business traveler's choice of a restaurant.
You don't have to go to big cities to get good Italian food. And some frequent business travelers find it overseas — and not just in Italy.
Frequent business traveler Jim Burditt, a Midwest sales representative in the hardware industry from Bucyrus, Kan., says his two favorite Italian restaurants are in his home state — Martinelli's in Salina and Garozzo's in Overland Park — offer "outstanding" service and "great" food.
"Martinelli's chopped salad is the best salad I have ever eaten, and it also has great lasagna and chicken piccata," Burditt says. "Garozzo's is famous for chicken Spiedini and a three-way pasta dish that is so large I dare anyone to finish it."
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