Pasta Veneta is one of the newest restaurants in the poppin’ west loop area, and I visited here recently with my cousins. This place prides itself on making fresh pasta, and it shows. There is a sizable appetizer menu, but the mains are all primarily pasta based.

The space is very open and very fresh and new, with a casual, bistro-type of feel. There is a very heavy straight-line/geometric shape thing going here, which is really cool. The lighting was a little bright for me, and I think it would add to the ambiance if they dimmed the lights a bit more, but for taking pictures, I wasn’t complaining too much.

Service was super attentive, and even though we sat there for three hours (so much gabbing!), we never felt rushed, and never felt ignored.

The wine list primarily focuses on Italian wines, and everything, especially the bottles, are reasonably priced. The glasses are a bit more on the normal side of things price-wise, but there was not a single bottle over $90 on the menu. If you are going to have more than two glasses of wine, definitely order by the bottle.

The food here was extremely excellent. We ordered a ton of appetizers and then one main each. We started with bread service, which was a light and crispy focaccia serviced with an olive tapenade. We also ordered what they called “mozzarella croquettes” which were actually more like arancini, which were incredibly delicious.

We are all beet lovers, so we had to try the beet carpaccio. The beets were sliced thin and topped with endive and olive oil. We loved this dish! Finally, we also ordered the mushroom ragout with polenta which was the richest dish of the appetizers – I would say even richer than the croquettes. I loved the porcini mushrooms, and the polenta was soft and fluffy.

For the mains, I ordered the gnocchi with short rib ragout. These gnocchi were so tender and fluffy that I thought they could only be ricotta gnocchi, but they said they were potato, which floored me completely. So, so good, and not too super meaty.

Irene ordered the duck confit with pappardelle pasta. Man, that pappardelle was so fresh and bright. The dish was super rich, but there was a really nice acid profile that balanced out the fattiness of the duck. The sauce was light, and there was enough for Irene to take some home.

Vicki ordered the spinach and ricotta tortelloni, which were also made fresh. Again, the pasta was light and delicious. The spinach and ricotta filling was honestly more spinach than ricotta, which was a nice change-up from the usual cheese-heavy filling that you find in tortelloni. Vicki thought it was on the salty side, but still so delicious that nothing was left on the plate by the end of the evening!

For dessert, we all split a small tiramisu, which was served in, basically, a highball glass. It was very creamy and fluffy and the ladyfingers had a boozy kick to them, which I thought was nice. It was not a lot, but we still didn’t finish because we were all so full!

It should be noted that the only alcohol served here right now is wine. Totally not a problem for us, but if you are looking for beer or cocktails, you’re not going to get those here. They said this is due to the fact that they only opened in December, so I expect this will change in time. One other note is that everything is extremely reasonably priced here. Like I mentioned before, all the wine bottles are under $90 but most are closer to $50-$60 per bottle. You can get fresh, handmade pasta, and every pasta on offer that isn’t with caviar or fois gras is under $25 per dish, but is all closer to $15-$17 on average. This is much less expensive than Eataly (one of my favorite places to get fresh pasta), and if this restaurant doesn’t earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand award this year, I will be very surprised.

We absolutely loved our dinner here, and I loved having the ultra-fresh pasta being the main focus of this place. If you are looking for some authentic Italian-inspired pastas, do not hesitate to come to Pasta Veneta!