I love Italian food. The pasta, the soup, the salad, everything. Bravo!, on the East Beltline, is a newer Italian restaurant that thrives on the idea of “authentic” Italian food. While it may technically be authentic, I have to say I would prefer the less original food of Carrabba’s or Macaroni Grill.

The menu at Bravo! is fairly extensive, but if you don’t like tomato, this is definitely not the place for you. Just about every single dish on the menu has tomato or tomato sauce in it. The tomato sauces have a little bit of a kick to them, which can get to be too much once you get halfway through your dish. The tomato bisque soup, however, was delicious. It was rich and creamy with a nice crunch from some croutons added to the top.

The baked chicken parmesan that I had for my main dish included a baked chicken breast with a marinara sauce and cheese baked on top served over linguini. The dish overall was just okay. It was not something that I would recommend or order again, mainly because the chicken had quite a bit of gristle in it, making me not want to eat the rest.

The atmosphere of Bravo! was very quiet and relaxing. After a day of shopping outside in the bitter wind, the warm and dimly lit restaurant was very welcoming. The service was also very good; neither my coffee nor water were ever close to empty. My biggest pet peeve at a restaurant is when the wait staff doesn’t refill my glass, so I greatly appreciated the fact that I never had to ask for more.

Overall, Bravo! was authentic Italian, but not quite to my taste. I don’t think that I would pay the sky high prices for chicken and pasta again, but I did enjoy the fact that it was a little different from the Italian food that I generally eat. But, next time, I will choose the less “authentic” version of Italian cuisine.