Cuisine: Delicatessan, Ice Cream, Italian
Restaurant Features: Counter-Service, On-Site Parking
Location: Vadnais Heights, MN
Address: 3435 Centerville Rd. Vadnais Heights, MN 55127
( 651)484-6656

Hours: Tues-Fri 11am-6pm    Sat 11am-5pm        Sun & Mon Closed
Links: Google Map

Atmosphere: Located near the intersection of Centerville Rd. & Edgerton, That’s Amore is snuggled into an antique strip mall that also holds a hardware store and possibly a service station.  It is a very small restaurant but they make you feel right at home.  The kitchen area and ice cream counter take up a good portion of the space, but there are three portable tables set up in little private nooks for customers to sit at.  Two of those nooks are located in the front window areas, each of which have cute little curtains hung over the windows.

Menu: Appetizers include Mini Pizzas, Luigi Fries, Homemade Chili, or Soup of the Day.

Salads offered at That’s Amore’ are the Caesar, Garden, House, Italian, and Spinach Italiano.

The sandwiches include Hot Dago, Meatball, Chicken Italiano, Hot Italian Beef, Hot or Cold Subs (choice of ham, turkey, salami, and roast beef), Turkey Sandwich, Luigi’s Favorite (ham & turkey with pepperjack grilled), Grilled Ham & Cheese, Tuna Melt, Grilled Cheese, Spiedini (Italian Sausage), and Coney Island or Chicago-Dtyle Hot Dogs.  Wraps include Chicken Caesar, Chicken Ranch, and Club.  Broiled Cod Sandwich is offered on Fridays only.  Hamburger or Italian Burger also available.  All Sandwiches and Wraps are served with potato chips or substitute potato salad for $.50 extra.

The two pastas offered at That’s Amore’ are Baked Mostaccioli and Fettuccine Alfredo.

Sixteen Flavors of Old-Fashioned Ice Cream for dessert!

Price guide: Appetizers $4-6    Salad $5-8    Sandwiches $6-7    Pasta $7-8
What I ordered: I tried the meatball sub, which came with a small bag of Lays potato chips, pepperoncini peppers and cherry tomatoes.  I thought the sandwich was pretty good. The meatballs were cut in half to make it a little easier to eat, as this was a good sized sandwich!  The very fresh bread (baked that same day at a local bakery) was thick and soft on the inside, toasted just slightly on the outside.  Snuggled between the meatballs and the bread were thick slices of cold pepperjack cheese, which I would have preferred melted.  It was good nonetheless and I really liked that it came with a side of sauce for dipping, etc.

My companion ordered the Italian Beef Sandwich, which had tender, juicy and flavorful spiced roast beef piled onto thick, fresh bread that had been toasted just enough to make it golden brown.  This sandwich also came with cold pepperjack and a side of warm au jus.  Also served were potato chips, pickle spear and veggies.

I was also given this complimentary donut which I assume to have been baked at the same bakery where they get their fresh bread every day.  The cake donut was airy and fluffy, very moist inside with just the right amount of sugar coating it on the outside.  A sweet little extra after eating the meatball sub :)

Service: The people who run That’s Amore’ are very courteous, friendly and seemed appreciative of our business.  We ordered our food at a counter, but they brought it out to us and seemed to go out of their way to make sure we were taken care of.  I loved the gesture of offering my companion and I free fresh donuts for dessert.  Stopping at That’s Amore’ can also be quite convenient if you need to buy lottery tickets, milk, eggs or fresh bread, as these things are all available.
Overall Impression: Great little deli that has both hot and cold sandwiches at reasonable prices.  Great service.  Disappointed that it isn’t open later than 6pm (or on Sundays or Mondays)

Cuisine: Deli, Italian, Pizza, Pasta
Restaurant Features: Cafe-Style, On-Site Parking, Market

Location: St Paul, MN (Downtown)
Address: 211 Seventh St W St Paul, MN 55102  (651) 222-3476

Hours: Sun-Thu 11am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm
Links: Google Map * Cossetta’s Facebook Page

Atmosphere: Cossetta’s is a cafe-style restaurant, with two main serving areas that work their way toward the middle: The Pizza/Dessert counter on the far right and the Sandwiches/Salads/Hot Entree counter to the far left near the Italian Market. Order what you would like at designated counter (some items such as the lasagna, mostacolli and pizza are premade, but other items such as salads, sandwiches, veal parmesgiana, etc are made to order), then pay for everything at one of the two cashiers in the middle. Beverages are purchased at the cashier.

Cossetta’s is a two-story restaurant, with a majority of the seating on the upper level.  Since the middle of the restaurant is open the full two stories to accommodate the stairway, many of the tables in the upper level wrap around a railing overlooking the action below.  There is also a dining room upstairs in the back that has several tables extremely close together.  When it gets crowded it can be hard to maneuver in and out.

Not pictured is the Cossetta Market, which sells imported food products from Italy, as well as fresh deli items (salads, sausage, sauce,etc).

Menu: Cossettas has a selection of made-to-order garden salads, such as the famous Cossetta Salad, Italian Garden Salad, or Italian Gorgonzola. There are also a handful of pasta salads like the Antipasto Salad or the Tortellini with Prosciutto and Gorgonzola.

Cossettas also has several sandwiches.  The Hero (choice of meat) and the Italian Hero are served cold with choice of fixings, while the following are all served hot: Cossetta Sandwich, Hot Peppers and Sausage, Veal Parmegiana, and Italian Meatball.

Entrees include Mostacolli with Ricotta, Chicken Marsala, Sausage and Peppers, Lasagna, Veal Parmesan, and Chicken Cacciatore.  Every month there is also a Featured Special; February’s special is Manicotti Panna Marzano.

Pizza can be bought by the slice or you can order a whole pizza.  There are always hot, fresh slices of Cheese, Pepperoni, and Sausage, as well as a Daily Special.  One 16″ is divided into six slices.

Desserts include Spumoni, Gelato, Cannoli and Tiramisu.

*All beverages are canned or bottled.

Price guide: Salads $ 4-8  Sandwiches $ 7-8 Entrees $5-11 Pizza by Slice $3.50-4
What I ordered: I shared this gigantic piece of pizza with my companion.  The slice was so big it hardly fit on the standard cardboard plate it came on!  The pizza at Cossetta’s is New York Style, with a chewy, hand-tossed crust and just the right amount of sauce.  The mozzarella that they use is fresh and plentiful, and there were also plenty of slices of pepperoni which made it kind of greasy.  Cossetta’s pizza is my favorite local pizza thus far.

My companion and I also each got the veal parmegiana entree, which comes with mostacolli and garlic toast.  I ordered mine with the sauce on the side to maintain the crispiness of the veal for as long as possible.  The veal is sliced about 1/4″, making it tender yet crispy on the outside.  The portion size was on the small side but worth every penny.  The mostacolli was tossed lightly with ricotta and comes loaded with red sauce ( I added the sauce myself from the side they gave me and saved the rest for my veal).  The mostacolli was firm and delicious with the sauce.  The garlic toast was huge! It had a fair amount of garlic butter and was slightly salty but packed with flavor.  It was also just the right amount of crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside- I especially loved it dipped in sauce.

Service: My visit was late on a Saturday afternoon, just 3 hours or so before a Wild Hockey game.  We were fortunate enough to get to Cossetta’s before it started to get packed, which meant a prime spot in the Cossetta’s Parking Lot (for customers only, no event parking!) and reasonable food lines.  Within a half hour or so after we arrived, it really started to fill up in the restaurant and the lines were getting long.  As far as the actual service itself, the cafe-style servers were friendly and accommodating. I have eaten at Cossetta’s countless times and everything is consistently good.
Overall Impression: Delicious Italian food served reasonably fast and at affordable prices.  Great place to have a giant slice of NY Style pizza (my favorite in fact ;) Can be very busy on weekend evenings and prior to events at the Xcel Energy Center.  Free parking in own lot.

Cuisine: Delicatessen

Restaurant Features: Cafe-Style, Counter Service, On-Site Parking

Location: St Paul

Address: 1562 Como Ave. St Paul, MN 55108  Phone (651)647-1288 Fax (651) 644-2060

Hours Mon-Friday 6:30am -7:00pm  Sat 8:00am-6:00pm  Sun 8:00am-5:00pm

Links: Nelson Cheese * Nelson Cheese on Facebook * Google Map

Atmosphere: Take-out only, unfortunately :(

Menu: Open for breakfast, Nelson Cheese offers custom breakfast wraps (12″ tortilla, scrambled eggs, cheese with choice of Meat (bacon, ham, sausage), Veggies (green pepper, jalapenos, mushrooms, onions, tomato) and Sauce (cajun, caliente, salsa, sour cream).

Specialty sandwiches all have their own fancy names (ex. St paul Special, Como Club, Chicken Little, etc) and are made up of a variety of deli meats, cheeses, veggies and sauce, served ona  variety of breads.  These sandwiches are all served cold.

Hot sandwiches include a Hot Hero, Reuben or Rachel, Meatball, Philly Beef & cheese, Kansas City BBQ, Santa Fe, Lexington, New Orleans or Ham & cheese.

Large “Sub” stantials served ona  large torpedo roll include the Cheesemaker, the Manhattan, and the Big Bird.

Box lunches are also avaialble for call-ahead orders.

Price guide: Breakfast wraps $3.74 + tax  Specialty sandwiches $4.67 +tax  Hot Sandwiches $4.67 + tax  “Sub”stantials  $5.99 + tax

What I ordered: The reuben.  This sandwich was HUGE for $5!! The corned beef was good and I especially liked the “special sauce”, which was not the standard 1000 island like most reubens, but instead a creamy light cheese spread (I think thats what it was anyway!) The bread was crispy (I believe they toast/bake their sandwiches instead of grilling them).

Service: Fairly fast, depending on how many customers are waiting and what you order.  Hot sandwiches obviously take a little longer.

Overall Impression: Excellent, fast sandwiches.  Wish they had a sit-down eating area