XL Dining Guide 2003 - Top Ten Restaurants

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Austin's Top Ten Restaurants Vespaio

Photo by Sung Park/AA-S

For a taste of Italy, there's nowhere better than Vespaio.

Vespaio
1610 S. Congress Ave.
(512) 441-6100
Wine: 49 by the glass ($6-$11.50), 74 by the bottle ($23-$250)
Rating:

No. 10: Vespaio

Just inside the front door, a glass case holds bowls and plates mounded with approximately a dozen appetizers.

Green beans join yellow and red teardrop tomatoes, aged Gruyere cheese and soppressata (a salami) for a refreshing salad. Button mushrooms rest in a marinade of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar, while a chianti vinaigrette coats a delicious salad of roasted beets, fennel, orange segments and shaved carrots.

For a seafood offering, slices of seared, peppered tuna combine with capers, roasted garlic and roasted peppers, while the meat option pairs thinly sliced soppressata and capicolla (dry-cured pork) with peperonata, a mix of roasted bell peppers, cornichons, capers and olives in a white balsamic vinaigrette.

These dishes, similar to those found by the front doors of a vast number of restaurants in Italy, help preserve Vespaio's status as one of the best Italian spots in Central Texas.

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