Exceptional, Authentic Italian Cuisine

After our dinner at Risotto, chef Gabriele Lo Pinto came out of the kitchen to ask how we had liked the meal. It was a praiseworthy meal, and we raved about it—but what was memorable about that moment was that Gabriele Lo Pinto is Italian. There’s some Italian on the Twin Cities restaurant scene, and what’s there is good-to-exceptional; but meeting an Italian restaurateur is not as easy as you’d think. Risotto’s authentic but small menu will delight you. Almost everything we tried was exceptional.  Read more...

Time for a neighborhood Italian meal

  • Article by: RICK NELSON
  • Updated: May 9, 2011 - 10:39 AM

Here are three Italian eateries in the Twin Cities that are worth a visit.



At Risotto, the namesake dish at chef/owner Gabriele Lo Pinto's Lyn-Lake restaurant deserves top billing (get the version prepared with asparagus, peas and fava beans), but the menu also features a half-dozen pastas, a few grilled meats and fish and a handful of starters, including a fragrant saffron-seasoned seafood stew. Drop in at lunch and choose from a half-dozen panini.


Risotto's Risotto: 100 Favorite Dishes

No. 13: Risotto's Risotto
Gabriel LoPinto, an Italian native, is so confident in his risotto that he named his restaurant after it. And his vision of the famous rice dish surely earns the honor: it's a textbook--er, cookbook--execution.   Read more...



Risotto

Lyn-Lake’s newest restaurant knows Sicilian

By Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
Risotto, however, is capable of that rarest trait in this town: specificity. This is thanks to their Italian-born chef and owner, Gabriel Lo Pinto, who local diners know from his time cooking at Arezzo in Edina. Lo Pinto is bona fide Italian. He grew up in Genoa. His dad hails from Sicily, and he has cooked in Italian restaurants his whole life, all of which has added up to his cooking pan-Italian food at an uncommonly high level.  Read more...



Hunting for new restaurants that truly deliver? Discover these three gems

One of the best perks of my job is checking out all the new high-end hot spots. But when I'm off the clock (and off the expense account), the places I enjoy are usually less flashy — restaurants that consistently turn out great food without hoopla. These three new gems fall into that category.

RISOTTO

When Gabriele Lo Pinto, former chef at Arezzo Ristorante in Edina, opened a small Italian restaurant of his own in Minneapolis called Risotto, I thought he had gone mad. It's not that good risotto is hard to make, but it's labor intensive and most restaurants don't do it justice. Was this chef seriously planning to stand at the stove and stir the rice for 20 minutes?

But it soon became clear that what Lo Pinto had in mind was perfectly sane. The restaurant's risotto is just like it should be — rich, creamy, slightly wavy and with an al dente bite.  Read more...