Bertolone's

My daughter and I stumbled upon this hidden gem while driving from Montgomery to Birmingham. We were headed to the neighboring Cracker Barrel for a quick meal. So glad we spotted Bertolone’s! Service was great. Appetizer was tomato basil soup. If you expect puréed soup, you may want to skip theirs. I was skeptical since I ausually prefer tomato soup to be smooth and creamy. This soup was very good. Basil was just right and didn’t overpower the soup. For entrees, I had pesto pizza and my daughter had spaghetti and meatballs. Our family is serious (and selective!) about meatballs. My grandmother makes the best meatballs EVER. We both agreed these meatballs were outstanding. My pesto pizza had sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts (I skipped the red onion). I’m not sure how they get the artichoke hearts to have a candied texture that is both crunchy and chewy, but they were fantastic. It was almost like dates, but a bit of a crunch. I would love to toss those in a trail mix. For dessert, we shared tiramisu (yum!!!!) We also took a slice of cake home (chocolate covered strawberry). Their cake list is extensive and they have slices in a cooler up front, ready to go. Coming from an Italian family, I appreciate good scratch-made Italian food. That isn’t always easy to find, especially if you’re particular like me 😉 While this restaurant is 25-30 minutes from our home, we WILL be returning!

My husband and I were so excited to come here to eat! And We were so disappointed! We ordered the eggplant parmigiana and it was cold, the eggplant was limp and the sauce was runny! The salad and bread and dip were delicious! We had a really good server named Soren! We may give it a second try! But the one in Clanton was so much better!

Wow! THIS is good Italian! The Minestrone soup was beanless, but, SUPER tasty! I could eat TONS of this. The kiddo ordered spaghetti with Bolognese. I ordered the Cannelloni. Wow! It was so delicious, I wanted to slow down & savor it, but, also shovel it in as fast as I could! Then, as if we needed to be rolled out of there, we ordered cakes. Italian Creme Cake & Cannoli cake! So rich, but, oh, SO good! Just found out new Italian place near Pelham! Worth the drive!