Good Italian isn’t hard to find in Atlanta, but the moment you walk into Pricci, you’re taken back to a time when waiters doted over their guests, warm greetings where you almost felt like family, and classic dishes were made so well, you didn’t want anything more. The Buckhead Italian staple does everything well from the savory meatballs, fantastic focaccia bread, meaty carpaccio, hearty pappardelle special pasta, desserts, wine selection, and a premium veal chop that will leave your mouth watering. Authentic Italian, home-cooked classics are back in style at Pricci, so let’s get going on an Italian culinary journey.
Before we even got our appetizers, we received the BEST bread, focaccia made with garlic and onion with a goat cheese and marinara sauce on the side. As it melted in our mouths, we had to order more because it was some of the best bread. Of the stellar starters, we chose the meatballs (you know we would) and the carpaccio. These two dishes are on any real Italian menu, and both were just divine. The meatballs were rich and meaty with a good mix of meats to even out the flavor, and a generous amount of marinara. We loved that the marinara boat had a little bit of ricotta cheese melted into it and you could chop up the meatball some and get a bite of the ball, cheese, and marinara all at once. Pro tip: Top the focaccia bread that comes with your meal to eat the chopped-up meatballs. WOW! Second, the carpaccio was super tender and thinly sliced topped with a tangy and sweet Vidalia onion aioli. With the tanginess, richness, and sweetness of those ingredients, it really paired well with the earthiness of the arugula and the creaminess of the cheese. The best part was wrapping it all up on your fork and getting a little bit of those crunchy capers. It was just the icing on the cake: crunchy, earthy, creamy, rich, meaty, tangy, and sweet.
The second that Marco, the GM, told us that their special pasta of the day was a lamb ragu pappardelle pasta dish, Liz exclaimed, “Did you know I was coming today?” Ragu pappardelle is my (Liz’s) favorite pasta dish on an Italian menu, so I was thrilled. It had perfectly cooked and tender lamb in a hearty ragu, tomato-based sauce, which was savory and rich. The addition of wonderfully cooked and tender pappardelle with a hint of blue cheese was divine. What I love is to roll up the lamb, sauce, and cheese into the pasta and eat it almost like a little wrap. Delicioso!
If you try anything at Pricci, it’s the veal chop. They bring in their veal from Holland, and its diet is totally milk-based, so it turns out even more tender, rich, and less gamy than other veal dishes you can get elsewhere. They carve the meat in-house and only receive four- or five-level meats. This melt-in-your-mouth carved cut of meat is heavenly. Like we said above, it’s perfectly cooked, light, tender, then topped with a savory and rich sauce that is a balanced sweet and savory. It really brings out the lightness of the veal. Then, paired with potatoes that soaks up a good bit of the sauce and earthiness of power greens in olive oil and lemon and you have a complete gamut of goodness: earthy, savory, sweet, starchy—I could go on. Are you sold yet?
Whatever you do, stay for some dessert and amazing in-house brewed espresso. The coffee was so rich and creamy, you didn’t need to add any sugar or cream. It was perfect all by itself. The crème brulee was everything you’d want in your vanilla custard-based dessert, perfectly flambeed with a crunchy and buttery top. John adored the gelato that had FRESH whole maraschino cherry gelato with very rich and creamy chocolate.
With every course finished, the last sip of wine gone, and espresso cups empty, our time at Pricci ended with the best Nutella brownies we got to take home. Can we go back now?