Restaurant Review - Alvaro's Bakery

The scene: Harrisburg, in the residential neighborhood a little more than a mile from downtown. Also, and conveniently, a four block walk from my apartment! Hence, you may see other posts in the future, to update on different menu items as I try them out. This is really just a corner shop, with a few tables outdoors and a few tables indoors.

The food: We ordered the eggplant Parmesan special for lunch. This was simply delicious, even if it was served on a styrofoam plate. I want to start with the pasta first. It was clearly homemade, so it was thick, and a little chewy in a very pleasant way, with a flavorful tomato sauce. The pasta actually reminded me a little of spaetzle, which was a good thing, because I love spaetzle.

The eggplant parm was superb. It was very lightly breaded and fried, and then the large piece of eggplant was folded and "stuffed" with ricotta cheese that had some herbs blended into it. It was served smoking hot, which posed a bit of a problem because it was so delicious I wanted to eat it all and very quickly.

After we finished our surprisingly good pasta, we decided to finish the meal off with gelato. These guys make the gelato in the shop and serve it up fresh, which is pretty fantastic. The vanilla had just been put out, so it was at its peak. It was creamy and and not overly sweet. I decided to go with the lemon. It was much more like granita than gelato, which on a hot day was just fine with me. I'll definitely go back and try different flavors in the future. Although, speaking of, I do wish they had labels telling you what the flavors are!

The price: Good value. The eggplant parm special was $7.99, and the gelato was about $2.50. Worth it for the quality of the food we had. I'll have to try some of their other things, to see if the price:quality ratio holds true.

The service: You shouldn't have high expectations of fancy service here, since its really more like a deli/bakery than a restaurant. But the people who worked in the shop were friendly, and efficient. And that's really all that matters.

Final thoughts: I'll probably be a regular at this place. Convenient location for me, and the food was worth it. I'll certainly be back to try some of the very pretty pastries they had in the display case!