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Friday, April 27, 2001
By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
"I can't believe I just ate dinner where the steel mill used to be," said the woman coming out the door of Bravo Italian Kitchen as we came in.
She's so right. What's been happening at the Waterfront in Homestead, West Homestead, Munhall is a bit amazing to all of us who remember this stretch of land when steel was king along the Monongahela River. The best meals served here then were jumbo bologna sandwiches carried in workers' lunch buckets.
The Waterfront development has changed all that. It's a dining destination now, with a variety of restaurants drawing customers from as far as Sewickley.
Bravo Italian Kitchen is the newest. Cap City Fine Diner is next door. Loew's theater, with its own restaurant, is across the street. Mitchell's Seafood Restaurant is around the corner, along with Pizzeria Uno Chicago Bar & Grill, Dave and Buster's, T.G.I. Fridays, Eat 'N Park and others. Soon P.F. Chang Chinese bistro is coming.
We called ahead for a 7 p.m. table, so we're seated at once. It's a busy night; others who didn't call will have to wait a few minutes.
Our table is right up against the open kitchen, which is good or bad, depending on how you look at it. It's good if you like to watch the cooks sifting parsley onto plates ready to be served, bad if you don't like noise. Cooks shouting and pans banging just a few feet away sometimes make dinner conversation difficult. We had a similar table a couple of weeks ago when we ate here, so His Honor has already checked out the cases of wine bottles stacked again the kitchen wall. They're just there to add to the atmosphere. Still, H.H. keeps hoping. You never know when they might make a mistake and slip a full bottle in one of those cases.
Our noisy tables remind me of an e-mail I had from a reader soon after this restaurant opened at the end of January. She liked the restaurant, but said the music was so loud it was deafening. Music? What music?
Bravo Italian Kitchen restaurants (in the Pittsburgh area, others are in Cranberry, Robinson Town Centre and McKnight Road) are all alike. Similar Roman ruins decor, same menu and wine list, same prices.
We've noticed subtle changes, though. The bar here isn't nearly as popular as the bar in Bravo on McKnight Road. Does that mean people in the South Hills don't drink as much as those in the North Hills?
One of our favorites on the Bravo menu is the wood-grilled chicken pizza, with seared peppers, tomato, basil, mozzarella and feta cheese. As the menu says, it's superbo.
But the best dish we've had from the current menu is twin filets scampi style, well-seasoned and charred on the wood grill, but still pink inside, and topped with shrimp and scampi butter sauce. The filets were accompanied by asparagus, and a little black skillet of mashed potatoes. Jamie Miller, assistant manager, says it's also one of the best sellers.
Bravo has an intriguing selection of Italian appetizers, but sometimes they sound better than they taste. Lightly battered calamari is fried to a crisp golden brown, cannelloni is stuffed with shrimp, ricotta and basil and topped with a garlic cream sauce, and ravioli are stuffed with mushrooms and cheese, topped with alfredo sauce and baked in the wood-burning oven. But when all three are presented on an antipasto platter designed for two or three people, and it's all cold, that's a real disappointment. Somebody in the kitchen wasn't paying attention.
Bruschetta pomodoro with shrimp has a different problem. It's made with ciabatta, one of the restaurant-made breads, tomatoes, basil, artichoke hearts and a diablo butter sauce and sounds and looks magnifico. But how do you eat it? If you pick it up with your fingers, shrimp and artichoke hearts fall off. If you try to try to use a fork, the crust is difficult to cut; you need a knife. H.H. just gave up, shoved the plate of bruschetta back to me and took solace in his glass of Montepulciano.
Every pasta we've had at Bravo has been good, but some are better than others, and all the servings are big. H.H. wishes aloud that his Shrimp and Lobster Garganelli had more shrimp and lobster, and less penne. Mama's Lasagna Bolognese would make any Italian mother proud; it's three big layers and lots of meat sauce.
Dinner salads range from outstanding to routine. The best is insalata mista, a big beautiful and crisp arrangement of assorted field greens, bacon, tomatoes, gorgonzola and balsamic dressing. Caesar Classico has large, restaurant-made focaccia croutons and a Caesar dressing that's better than the house Italian.
Insalata Della Casa is chopped greens, cucumber, tomato, bacon and a very good creamy Parmesan dressing. One night the Mediterraneo chopped salad, which has cucumber, red onion, tomato, olives and feta cheese among the chopped greens, and a traditional Italian dressing, was perfectly acceptable. Another night the greens were not crisp, and it obviously had been made ahead. Go figure.
Bravo likes to be described as a fun, white tablecloth casual eatery, and that it is. The servers all wear colorful ties tucked into the fronts of their white shirts. Most people eat for about $24 for two people, according to Miller. At today's prices, that's not bad.
The wine list is mostly Italian and includes some bottles that even H.H. admits he doesn't know. Bread, desserts, everything is made at the restaurant. The kitchen, under the direction of chef Eric Carter, doesn't have it all together yet, but it's sure to get better with a little time.
The dishes are big and plentiful. Most people leave carrying tomorrow night's dinner. And it's a lot better that bologna sandwiches.
Bravo Italian Kitchen-Waterfront Name
Alison Lizzi shows off the wood-grilled double cut lamb chops at Bravo Italian Kitchen. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette) 
250 W. Bridge St., West Homestead
412-461-1444 (www.bestitalianusa.com) 
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday The basics: Northern Italian cuisine; typical prices -- bruschetta, $8.95; lasagna, $10.50; shrimp and lobster garganelli, $14.95; wood-grilled twin filets, $17.95; parking lots adjacent to restaurant; seats 250 inside, 50-60 on outdoor patio; children's menu; some tables for smokers near the bar, all the rest is designated no smoking; full bar and wine list with mostly California and Italian selections; wheelchair accessible; can be noisy; same-day call-ahead seating. The last word:3 stars