Depalma's Italian Cafe

Elite '08

26

118

Katherine D.

Atlanta, GA

Huh? No review yet? This is very surprising to me. DePalma's (downtown) is one of my favorite hometown standbys. The one on the east side is good; I like it for lunch (esp. the Roast Beef sandwich, sounds plain I know, but it's oh-so-yummy), but downtown is where it's at for dinner. I've not been to the Homewood Hills location, so I can't compare it to that. Though you may wait a long time for a table in the downtown location (especially on a Saturday in the fall), the food is solid. I've never been let down. My favorite dish? The Wild Mushroom and Three Cheese Pizza is absolutely perfect. It's brilliant, transcendent even. I love, love, love it. I crave it. Also good: the Spicy Penne Charmaine. I've never had trouble with service, though I've heard of some who have. I give it five stars for Italian dining in Athens. Of course I've had better Italian in other cities, but for Athens, DePalma's rocks!

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13

88

Javier O.

San Francisco, CA

Depalma's Italian Cafe in downtown Athens is located in the heart of the city.  Around the corner lies the University of GA (Bull dogs), so the type of crowd consists of students, faculty families and business men.    The Menu is excellent, especially for lunch when I visited today.  Their Lunch Specials consists of lunch pastas, a slice & salad or just a slice of of Pizza.
Although tempting, I opted for an antipasti and a panini.  First, I had the stuffed mushrooms half filled with pesto, half with meatball and mozzarella then baked.  Then I had the Grilled Chicken & Asiago Sandwich on ciabatta with apple bacon, red onion, garlic butter and mayo.  The combination is probably one of the best I've ever had and the service was dead on.  My waitress stopped by to refill my diet coke  several times.  
Yes I did say diet coke.  Although they had a spectacular wine list, I had to go back to work later in the afternoon and I did not want to deal with my clients having them ruin whatever buzz i would have gotten on during lunch.
You may be asking, based on my review thus far, why can't I give this place a five?  Although the food was good in portions and in taste and prize and the service was remarkable, I felt like 5 are should be reserved for a restaurant of higher caliber.  Otherwise, I could find no fault and would love to revisit Depalma's Italian Cafe

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Elite '08

18

112

Chelsea J.

Arlington, VA

Delicious!  My mouth started watering when I started thinking about the great food I had here to write my review!  I'll start by saying the only reason it's gets one star off is because their mojito (as you know my favorite drink) was pretty terrible.  

But what matters is the food and it was spot on!  Three of my best friends and myself were together a few days before a wedding and we decided to have a nice treat.  The one getting married had gone to grad school at UGA, so thankfully she was familiar with this great place!  

We started with drinks, my mojito not so fine, the others had wine, which they thoroughly enjoyed.  We were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunset and the breeze as a storm started to roll in.  We split three appetizers and two entrees, first we had the caprese salad, goat cheese ravioli and the bread sticks... but these are not your average bread sticks!  These suckers were stuffed with meatballs, onions, and spinach and covered in mozzarella cheese.  It's probably in my list of top 25 best things I've ever eaten, ever!!  The goat cheese ravioli was my least favorite dish of the night, but I'm not the biggest goat cheese fan, the others loved it.  The caprese salad had yummy summer tomatoes that were obviously fresh and very good and exquisite mozzarella cheese.  

We split the pasta margherita (rigatone, fresh pomodoro sauce and fresh chunks of mozzarella on top) and seafood charmaine (shrimp and scallops in a creamy spinach and jalepeno sauce over fetuccini).  They were both heavenly, I particularly liked the kick to the seafood chamaine and stole all of the jalepenos that were there.  

In addition to the amazing food, the service was spectacular, man I miss the south!  Can we transplant southern wait staff to the DC metro area please?  

If I ever find myself in Athens again, this will be the first place I come to to eat!

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