Il Gatto

According to a message from Stephanie March on FB, Il Gatto has officially closed.
I think hardly anyone (myself included) would lose any sleep over this final closure. Good riddance!!!

A bowl of Chef Boyarde flavored pasta. Very cramped and VERY loud. I remembered thinking this is not a good place to bring a date, you’d never be able to have a conversation. There are no soft surfaces in the dining room so the sound just bounces around.
I know everyone waxes nostalgic for Figlio’s; it was a lot of things to a lot of people, an that it’s missed so much is not that big of a surprise. Gatto should have been a step up and it isn’t, even though they’ve lowered the prices of the food since it opened.
It’s like your girlfriend breaking up with you for no apparent reason, and when you finally see the guy she’s with, and you meet him and you’re disappointed that she didn’t trade up.

I can (kind of) remember some really sloppy afternoons at the old Figlio. That was back in the days of 2 Good 2 B True, for those of you kids who can remember it before it got crazy popular, went up to $ 3 and became impossible to get a seat in the bar area anytime during happy hour.
Then Figlio shut down for remodeling and was rechristened «Il Gatto». Sure, I’ve been there. Several times, actually. But I can’t say that it does anything for me. Happy hour, dinner, whatever. The food is marginally better — and does much less straying into scary Asian-​fusion territory than Figlio was fond of doing — but the prices are still high for the quality and quantity of food you get.
I completely appreciate that they’re trying out the small plate Italian approach, but something about the food just doesn’t work for me. It’s almost too predictable («OMG! A flatbread?! I NEVER would have thought of that!») and at that point, I may as well go get my pizza from Davanni’s across the street.
To Il Gatto’s credit, the space is gorgeous. I feel 15% cooler just sitting at one of the bar tables, admiring their lovely bar display… and sports on televisions. It’s such a juxtaposition that doesn’t work for me — cool, sexy space with Sports Center playing in the background?
Il Gatto, someday you’re going to fade back into obscurity the way Figlio did, you’ll introduce a redonkulous happy hour and I’ll go back to forgive your sins of mediocre food and subpar house wine that flows like water.

For appetizers, our table ordered the Panzanella Salad, Octopus, Soft shell crab and calamari. The Calamari was better than most, but it was boring compared to how good the rest of the food was. The soft shell crab had fennel and watermelon that was the perfect blend of flavors. The octopus was perfectly cooked and also had great flavor. The Panzanella salad was great, but you can’t screw up heirloom tomatoes with arugala and a few other ingredients. My out of town guests were raving about how rare it is to find octopus this good.
We all ordered pizzas. 2 of us had a margherita pizza, which was better than average but nothing special. Another guest had the goat cheese/​fig/​bacon pizza, which was apparently wonderful. Someone else had the pepper pizza with thick cut pepperoni.
We had great service, the waitress knew exactly what to recommend. Overall, it was a great dinner.

I was crossed between a 3 or 4 rating on this restaurant. This establishment is on the site of the former Figlio. The interior and exterior has been re-​vamped but strangely the menu and taste of the food was strikingly similar. It was good Italian but not earth shattering amazing that I would run back again and again. I would recommend Amore Victoria for better food quality in the area. The service was perfect. I cannot say enough about the demeanor and accuracy of the service. Overall, it was a positive experience and the food was good. Not great, good.

Hmm, the reviews are pretty bad, but seriously people, you want Figlio’s back? While Figlio’s happy hour discounts were legend, the food was just ok, and The Cat is higher quality and much more interesting.
However, for the nostalgic, they actually serve Figlio’s old ravioli and tortellini; time machines actually do exist!
I had a Buscatini pasta — I have no idea what it was, but the flavors were intense and quite foreign to me. Given these admissions of ignorance I can’t legitimately review it, and honestly I’m not sure I totally loved it, but A+ for something new and exciting!

I went to IL Gatto about eight months ago and was extremely disappointed. My waitress was awesome, but I should have known the food sucked because it was really hard for her to recommend anything. I appreciate her honesty. I talked myself into having the short ribs and it was the nastiest thing I’ve ever had. I could only stomach two bites and I vowed to never go back for the food.
Today I picked up the City Pages and saw that they won best Italian restaurant. The article talked about how much the restaurant had changed and that they had hired one of the best chefs in MN to overhaul the menu. I decided to give IL Gatto another chance and it’s still absolutely terrible. I had the linguini disgusting and my date let me try her scallops which were way over cooked.
I really don’t know how the City Page could call IL Gatto the best Italian restaurant in MN. I can think of 10 places better than this overpriced, overhyped garbage.

I was pleasantly surprised with II Gatto. My group wasn’t very familiar with the menu, so we asked the server what her favorites were. She did not disappoint. Their service was great and the atmosphere was very pleasant.
I went for the boring pepperoni pizza, but II Gatto’s pepperoni pizza is far from boring. It definitely had a little kick to it. However, their spicy sausage pizza was definitely spicy and hot, just a warning. Their shrimp/​pesto pizza was also decent, although I wouldn’t order the shrimp pizza again.
The best thing on their menu has to be their fries!!! VERY ADDICTING! For $ 5 you are given a large portion (perfect for 3 people). LOVE their fries!
I will definitely come back to II Gatto again and I highly recommend their french fries! Delicious!

Eeh. Blah. After two visits — one for HH, one for an attempted HH.
Some local websites say HH goes to 6:30, some say 6. We arrived at 6:02 and were told we were out of luck… that «we’ve heard it says 6:30 somewhere…»
Happy hour prices are great; but go to only 6pm. If you go; go early and just get a $ 3 glass of wine and some olives, but move on for dinner.
Food was disappointing; still shocked that Tim McKee was responsible for this menu. The menu seemed to lack crucial information for the dishes. Such as the Cavolo Toscano (veggie side). It lists tuscan kale, garlic, peperroncino, and pancetta, however seems to leave off that it’s swimming in a creamy sauce. We were all expecting something that was fresh, perhaps still a little crispy, but the kale was soggy and tasted /​looked much more like a typical collard green side.
The crust on the pizza was not thick, but not thin. We had the one with pesto and shrimp and it just didn’t taste like anything.
Calamari was fine; had peppers, which was nice — just not anything special. More like typical bar food.
Service was also not very impressive. We sat on the bar side; but in a booth, and felt slightly forgotten.
Atmosphere is definitely better than Figlio. I’ll give them that.
Pretty unimpressed for an anchor of Lake /​Hennepin. It could be SO much better. I’d much rather support — and will — other restaurant in the area that have great atmosphere, AND awesome food.

What a difference a chef makes. Having had a less-​than-​stellar first visit to Il Gatto last winter, I headed back upon hearig that Tim McKee (the James Beard Award-​winning chef from La Belle Vie and Sea Change) had been brought on to fix up the joint. And fix it, he did.
The menu is so different now, I actually had a hard time deciding what to get because it all looked good. They offer daily specials and Tuesday is Gnocchi Gnight. The gnocchi (which I had with lamb ragout, though you can also get it with classic marinara sauce) was freaking fantastic. And it comes with insalata mista which was also delicious. All for $ 12. It’s a steal given the quality of the food.
And Tim McKee was there, making the rounds, talking to diners, making sure that everything was good. And it was.
Yes, Il Gatto was terrible when it opened. But management there recognized how terrible it was and as of a few months ago (September?) things have drastically changed. So if you’re looking at these reviews, focus on the recent ones because the old ones are no longer relevant (mine included).

Bring back Figlio. Mostly, I say this because I miss their menu. I loved Figlio because everything on the menu looked so good I ended up stressed trying to decide which of the 5 entrees I wanted to try. Plus, they had the best butternut squash ravioli, which sadly did not make it to the Il Gatto menu.
Il Gatto’s menu is much smaller, and frankly I felt like I settled for something rather than being really excited to order. We loved the bread and balsamic at the table. By far my favorite part of this dining experience. We tried the calamari, beet salad, and carbonara. My feelings about everything we ordered was just «eh». Decent but not memorable. I’d go back for a glass of wine and to snack on some bread but think you can find better food for the money at a lot of other restaurants in Uptown.
The staff seems to sense this «eh» attitude from their patrons and become slightly paranoid because the manager was around multiple times at every table asking how everything tasted, if they needed anything, how the night was going, etc. It felt like desperation for affirmation that they were good and going to survive. Mostly, I wanted to ask him, what did you expect when you tried to change a good thing (Figlio). Don’t fix what ain’t broken. Our server was pleasant, helpful, and prompt. Not one complaint or suggestion for improvement there.

3 – 4 star experience if you go for happy hour drinks. I got about 2 glasses of Malbec for $ 3. They gave me about 3 oz. in a glass then about 3 more oz. in a separate carafe. We sat at the bar so we got pretty quick service.
The décor is much more chic and modern than Figlio so it’s worth checking out at least once! My friends said the Figlio crowd was more lively and were not impressed with the Il Gatto crowd. The bar area is pretty big and it’s pretty spread out.