Argilla Brewing Co. at Pietro's Pizza - Newark, DE

http://argillabrewing.com/

My husband and I joined two of our friends, who had been raving about the beer choices.  Two unfortunate things – one, it was Sunday and they  had their brunch menu, so we couldn’t choose from their more expansive menus; and two, their beers were mostly porters, stouts, or IPAs, none of which we like.  Oh well.  I do want to try the restaurant again when they have more beers and when they are serving their full menu.

I was kind of torn between the Kennett pizza (traditional pie with fresh mushroom, roasted pepper, and onion) and a Stromboli.  Since my husband was getting his own slices, and I knew I couldn’t finish a Medium pizza on my own, I opted for a Stromboli with spinach, roasted peppers, and roasted garlic.  Let’s just say that my concerns about the size of the pizza were ripped apart when the Stromboli arrived.  It was literally half the size of a pizza pan.  Huge!  The ricotta/mozzarella mixture inside paired quite nicely with my options.  And, I must note, that they used fresh spinach leaves!  Big smile on that one.  The Stromboli bread was thick and nicely toasted.  An all-around win!  Now I just need to taste one of their delicious-sounding pizzas J

Valle Cucina – Newark, DE

Located in the Pike Creek Shopping Center is a wonderful Italian restaurant with a warm, inviting atmosphere.  Yes, the menus are laminated and only on two sides, but the wine list is vast, the garlic bread scrumptious, and the service wonderful.
    
Our meal began with an ample serving of garlic rolls, sitting in some extra oil and topped with Parmesan.  These are pretty addictive, so be careful.  I ordered the Chicken & Apples salad to start, no Chicken – the waitress suggested that I have the Chicken on the side and give it to my husband, perfect solution!  The salad is a bed of field greens, topped with red onion, granny smith apples, many slices of brie, and cranberry vinaigrette on the side.  I was a little nervous about the cranberry vinaigrette, but it really brought the salad together, there were even little pieces of cranberry in the dressing!  A great way to start the meal.
    
As my entrée, I ordered the Tortellini Blush (they assured me that it was completely vegetarian).  The tortellini is stuffed with cheese and served in a sundried-tomato blush cream sauce (extra sundried tomatoes included).  The pasta was very soft and the sauce was delicious.  They gave me enough that I had two meals leftover!
     
We ended our meal with the Reese’s Cake – chocolate cake with layers of a peanut butter filling, topped with a chocolate frosting.  Very chocolaty, not too Peanut Buttery, but still good.  Not exactly what I expected, but still a satisfying way to end the meal.

September 2012 Update:

The gnocchi is hand-rolled and made of ricotta cheese.  It comes with homemade gravy, but their menu clearly states that the gravy has meat in it.  I asked for the marinara instead, and boy, did I make a good choice!  The gnocchi is so tender and cheesy, very tasty.  The marinara has some thick chunks of tomato in it and has good coverage over the amount of gnocchi (not too much pasta or sauce).  The sauce has hints of oregano and basil.  When I bite into the gnocchi, there is a little stringiness to the cheese when pulling away from the fork – it makes it even more appealing to me.  I think that this will be my go-to dish at this restaurant.

We had a Half-Baked Chocolate Chip cookie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.  The cookie was soft and chewy, each bite was full of chocolate chips – very mouth-watering.  The ice cream added a nice contrast to the warm cookie and the two together was fantastic. They drizzled some chocolate sauce on the plate, but this was a waste because the cookie and ice cream were in their own dish, set on top of the plate.  There wasn’t a good way to take advantage of the chocolate sauce.  Oh well!  It still tasted fantastic.