THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Cucina! Cucina!

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Cucina! Cucina! Restaurant Review:

No quiet, sophisticated dining here. It’s colorful and cacophonous at these Italian-inspired cafés---that’s why children love it (that and the crayons available for liberal use on butcher paper-topped tables). We tend to stick with the pizzas, ten-inch rounds with thin, cracker crusts and toppings that range from pepperoni to barbecue chicken. Pastas come thickly, and sometimes strangely, sauced. We think gemelli with pork, black beans, fresh green beans, garlic, bell peppers and ginger is just plain weird, and though we’ll admit to enjoying the cavatelli with prawns, scallops and peas in a lime, coconut, red curry, cream sauce, we don’t think we’d find anything like it in Italy. House specialties range from veal Marsala to oil-and-herb-basted Coho salmon. The operative words for the wine list: cheap and not very Italian, which about sums up the whole dining experience. Vexingly, if you want bread with your meal, you have to pay extra.