Gravy

Checked this place out for restaurant week, made a reservation in advance, which was a lifesaver I must say. It was a tiny place, lots of people and many tables to accommodate. Pretty packed for a Saturday night, they dish out their extensive cocktail list, various, and diverse. Sweet potato vodka, missed my opportunity and had the Sangria, do yourself a favor and skip the Sangria, you could probably make your own, and a lot better. However, I started off with Risotto Balls; fried balls, packed with generous amounts of risotto, topped with parmesan and marinara. It was very tasty, would recommend trying it out. I also ordered the Amatriciana; very good, with small pieces of pancetta, topped w/​shaved parmesan, also a splash of black pepper. it already had some degree of heat, and the noodles were good. They also had the courtesy of throwing me a garlic knot in the mix, cute and tasty. I would still stick to the Risotto balls. The whole dish was fantastic, I would order it again. However, I hear they have other good dishes as well. I would return to try others and see what this place has to offer. A lot of potential, also that sweet potato vodka though… just saying. Curious yet?!

WHOA!
gnochi, gnochi, gnochi!
I went with a small group. No reservation, and we were seated immediately. I ordered the gnochi and the arugula salad. Both were sooo good.
We shared the risotto balls, and my friends ordered pretty standard spaghetti and meatballs, and tagliatelle. Both were the best.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I was extremely happy with the whole experience. We were even talked into a layered dessert that none of really had room for, but tried anyway.
Go big, or stay home.

This place is so good!!! My biggest complaint is that we were going to be turned away (snafu with placing reservations) but they were able to let us sit at the bar tables and make it work… this was for a birthday celebration so it was a bit annoying, but it did not deter us from dinner! (oh and the hostess was rather rude… I don’t understand why someone would be rude to customers, go roll your eyes on your own time). I always get the tagliatelle bolognese when I come here so I can’t speak to any of the other dishes but it is divine!!! My grandmother is the only person who has ever made it better and I’m probably just biased because she was the best nona ever! The atmosphere (when you get to sit in the regular part of the restaurant) is fun :) and the food is fab!

The space was cool, but the food was unimpressive. As usual, the bread is usually a harbinger of the meal to come. While it was warm, the bread was just soft white dinner roll, artfully shaped and covered with garlic butter.
We had the mushroom gnocchi (which is what lured us to the restaurant to begin with) and a seafood stew. The gnocchi were not quite cooked and very doughy — the mushroom leek sauce was very good, but over the top rich. Maybe cut back a bit on the cream! The seafood stew was really not good at all. It featured shrimp, scallops and some NC fish that had a VERY fishy smell/​taste.
We did order a dessert — the chocolate and vanilla pudding (budini?) The pudding was a cloyingly thick though the flavored whipping cream was an interesting touch.
Unfortunately, Gravy did not have enough good things going on for us to justify giving it another try, which is too bad.

I thought the food was really quite delicious. I had a nice portioned arugula salad which was lightly seasoned with lemon and my partner had the yummy kale Caesar. He had gorgeous homemade raviolis, whilst I enjoyed the family gravy. Nice wine, creative and housemate desserts! Great food. I had read reviews that were a few less than favorable. I’m a chef. I thought the food was rally outstanding. And for all we ate, our bill was a hundred bucks. Cute warm atmosphere too. Upscale cuisine my Nana would make at home with us.

I had one of the best meals and experiences at Gravy and put this restaurant at the top of my favorite Italian restaurant list. Located in downtown Raleigh, it is close to Ashley Christensen’s Joule and Chucks restaurants. My friend and I made a reservation using Opentable and dined after work. I think we even lucked out and got a 1000 point reservation at 6pm on a weekday. The glass windows overlooking the street let in a lot of light and the atmosphere is very cozy. There are high top tables at the front, a long bar on the left and then seating with booths on the right the touch up against the brick walls.
The hostess ushered us to our table and we were met by a very professional and polite waiter. We started with wine and the wine per glass prices are my only negative with the restaurant because you really don’t get much of a pour for $ 9 a glass. Other than the wine prices, everything else was phenomenal. The bread to start were fresh little buns and went perfectly with the salad. All the ingredients on arugula salad were super fresh and so so so yummy. For my main course I had the chicken parmesan and it was a perfectly cooked piece of breaded chicken over a bowl of al dente spaghetti and parmesan cheese on top. It was not a huge portion like many other Italian restaurants and the perfect balance of flavors. The finale was the panna cotta and it was the perfect amount of sweetness to close out the meal. Every bite was so creamy with a hint of mandarin.
There is also a private room downstairs and I have set up dinners for my colleagues and the restaurant was always a pleasure to work with when executing the plan for a team dinner. I highly recommend Gravy as a downtown Raleigh destination for a romantic dinner option with superb food.

I’m actually really disappointed. Ordered the chicken parmigiana and was extremely disappointed. The spaghetti was extremely al dente, the chicken wasn’t even warm; about the only thing worthwhile with the meal was the delicious roll.
I would not recommend.

Updated 2÷4÷15
After a meh first experience gave this place another shot. MUCH better experience. We both had great service (at the bar) and loved our entrée. We def will be going back.
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My wife and i were very excited to try this restaurant for our date night and based on the reviews/​ratings, we had expectations of a great meal. Sadly we both left confused on why this place is so highly rate.
We had the Kale caesar salad which I found boring but it’s a salad so what should i expect. Next up was the lasagna. I seriously think they gave me lasagna from the frozen food aisle at Walmart.
The best part of our meal was the coffee which is sad. Service was like the food– meh.

Came here with my boyfriend around 8 pm for dinner. We were seated promptly and had to wait for a bit for our server to come around. The wait wasn’t too bad for the entire dinner.
We ordered the Bruchetta which was DELICIOUS. The textures complimented one another and the sweetness of the balsamic drizzle enhanced the oysters.
I ordered the gnocchi which was a tad on the saltier side but it was still amazing and filling. I love the truffle oil.
My boyfriend ordered the family gravy was okay. He could really taste the tomato in the sauce. It had a strong underlying taste. The lamb was cooked wonderfully and complimented the dish wonderfully.
I would say we were overall pleased!

This is a fun place to eat farm to table Italian food.
So the cocktail list is extensive and everything on it is delicious. I had the Creamsicle and the lemon cello mojito. I like the Creamsicle much better.
For my appetizer I had the risotto balls. Very delicious. Gooey cheesy goodness in a deep fried ball. Others in my group had the calimari. I tried it, it was good. However, I prefer those risotto balls.
For my meal, I had what Gravy is known for, the gnocchi. I have loved gnocchi is I was a child. This is the best gnocchi I have found in the US. They were fluffy and pan fried in a decadent truffle mushroom cream sauce.
For my desert I had the budoni. It was very good. It was a chocolate moose with a salted almond caramel top. We were given instruction on how to eat it, to get all of the flavors in it. We also ordered the French Press coffee and it was of good flavor. It was served properly with rock sugar.
The wait staff were quite attentive. Never once did a glass go empty. Never once did we have to ask for something we needed. They asked us if we needed anything without being annoying which was great.
Having said all of that, please do yourself a favor and make a reservation when you go here. If not the line is usually 30 min to 65 min at night. I made my reservation a week out as I was in a party for 6. Please please make a reservation.

AMAZING. to get me excited about pasta is extremely difficult but when a friend told me their red sauce was better than his wife’s recipe (passed down from her grandmother who was from Italy) I had to try it.
I started with the bay scallop appetizer, it was different than what I expected but really impressed me. It is served in a small bowl with a broth like you would find with mussel’s. Fantastic flavors.
I came for the red sauce but I wound up going for the bolognese and I was not disappointed!!! Great flavors and there is a dollop of ricotta (mixed with herbs) on top that really pulls the flavors out of the dish.
I will be back that is for sure.

I’ve wanted to check this place out since I first heard the name. Having grown up next door to my Italian grandmother in a heavily Italian area, this word and food was part of our everyday language. And having spent the last year focused on old world Italian cooking, I’m always looking for inspiration. I finally made it over today.
We started with the risotto balls. The presentation was fantastic. They have a nice crunch and the gravy is like my grandmother’s. But the risotto was overcooked and soft. They’re pricey but worth a try.
My wife and I split the chicken parm sandwich and the tagliatelle bolognese. The bread for the sandwich was nice but overpowered the uninspiring chicken cutlet. The tagliatelle was pretty good but a little soft and given the serving size and minimal meat, just not worth the price. I wouldn’t order either again.
The atmosphere was great and the service was good. But I thought the food was way overpriced for what it is. I think this place is great for the area and worth a try but it would be hard to justify much beyond that.

This was my favorite restaurant week find. I wasn’t even hungry, so the meal fed me for days and was still good as leftovers! I started with the risotto balls. If you’ve never had risotto balls before, I guess they’re good, I know a place that does them better so I wasn’t excited about these ones. But the eggplant pie was very good. I got the tiramisu and it was amazing, very fresh. Best tiramisu I’ve ever had.
We each tried a cocktail as well, I had some sort of ginger martini. I liked it, very strong ginger flavor but I love ginger.

Not sure how I’ve lived here for so long and haven’t been to Gravy sooner. It’s not a southern ‘gravy’ — it’s of the Italian variety.
Accompanied by a pair of friends, I had ample excuse to go wild with starters. I asked our server to just make us something from their $ 3 – 5 starters. She came back with a meet & cheese plate that was great.
I felt very cozy here. It’s intimate, but I wouldn’t call it small.
With 518 gone, next time I’m in the mood for Italian downtown, Gravy will bubble up to the top of my short list.

Gravy is a great choice for Italian food in downtown Raleigh. At previous Unilocal events, I had the risotto balls from Gravy, and I knew I had to have them here again. The risotto balls were even better at the restaurant! They came out freshly fried and were so crunchy on the outside, yet so soft and melty on the inside. The risotto was cooked perfectly and the cheese inside was a great compliment. They were served over red sauce, and the sauce tasted so fresh and delicious.
For my entrée, I ordered the family gravy. The pasta tasted fresh and was perfectly cook. The red sauce is very good here. The tomatoes and Italian spices really come through in the sauce and the quality is very good. The dish came with 4 different meats, giving you a great sample of everything Gravy had to offer. The meatball was very tasty and juicy on the inside. You can really taste the quality of ground meat and seasonings they put into the meatball. The Italian sausage had great flavor and was a little spicy, but definitely had the most distinct flavor out of all the meats. The braised short rib was super tender with a little bit of fat to give it some great flavor. The braise sauce and meat juice was held inside the meat well and was awesome to bite into. The sweet sausage link was good, but I much rather preferred the other 3 meats that came on the dish.
I enjoyed my meal at Gravy and would definitely come back. I would highly recommend trying Gravy if you’re in to fresh Italian dishes.

My boyfriend took me to Gravy for my birthday and it was a great experience! I had wanted to try out Gravy after tasting their amazing Risotto balls at a Unilocal event awhile back. Since the risotto balls are what made me want to go to Gravy, we of course ordered them as an appetizer. They were just as good as I remembered! They fried to perfection, making them very crispy on the outside. And the inside of the risotto balls were hot and creamy. The sauce that goes along with it adds so much flavor and we enjoyed dipping our garlic knots in the extra sauce.
I ordered the eggplant pie as my entrée since I saw all the raving reviews of it on Unilocal and our server recommended it too. Soooo good! It surprisingly did not feel heavy on my stomach like most pasta dishes do and the portion size was perfect! I definitely recommend it! I also like that the servers offer to grate fresh cheese on it.
Our server was very nice and the prices were reasonable since you can tell that the ingredients were such good quality. They were pretty busy for a Tuesday night, so I recommend making reservations for whenever you decide to visit. It isn’t the biggest dining room, so I imagine it gets filled up pretty fast on the weekends. I definitely plan to visit again!

My kids and I took a day trip to Raleigh for an educational field trip to the history museum. After learning about the history of NC the minions were hungry so we put some money in the parking meter and walked down Wilmington Street.
It wasn’t long until we reached Gravy and decided to give it a try.
The kids wanted to sit at the bar and since the place was pretty much empty at 1:30 on this Tuesday afternoon I was game to give in.
The kids were given a kiddy menu placemat and s shot glass full of crayons to color with.
We ordered drinks and the oyster fritto to start and the kids both ordered the pizza bread and I ordered the fried egg sandwich and kale salad on the side.
The oyster fritto is a plate of 7 beautifully breaded and fried oysters. While they were on the small side, they were accompanied by a delicious sauce and topped with julienned vegetables and a light sauce. The kids loved them. I wanted more.
The pizza bread came and the kids got theirs topped with fresh grated Parmesan cheese. They were in heaven with this! It was nicely covered in «gravy» and boasted a huge layer of mozzarella cheese.
My fried egg sandwich came and I swear I fell in love. Nicely toasted brioche bun topped with a lovely fried egg, NC Gouda cheese, thick cut smoked bacon, a pickled green tomato and some amazing aioli. My daughter tried a bite and swore she would order this the next time we came. The egg was done perfectly over medium with a little bit of runny yolk goodness. The amount of bacon on this would have made my husband happy. It’s a pretty generous portion. The Gouda… my goodness… so yummy. All the ingredients, including the pickled green tomato slice played well together. Touchdown on this one!
The kale Cesar is different but excellent. It’s cut up really small and besides the Cesar dressing, it has pepper flakes in it that bring a heat without being overwhelming. The surprise is the tiny croûton pieces. It’s like a salad party in your mouth and you only find out about the croûton after you realize it snuck in. It adds a crunch and a butteriness. Yum! My daughter loved this too!
I loved how they used locally sourced ingredients in their menu as well. We will be back to gravy another day! My husband is officially jealous that he wasn’t there!

The Italian grandmother dining fantasy is real, and Gravy shows that it’s for good reason.
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find a carb– and cheese light dish, but I had the market fish (flounder!) over a bed of braised vegetables — absolutely fantastic! — while my friend had the lasagna. We were brought fresh, airy garlic knots.
I really wanted to imagine that the kitchen was comprised of 50 Italian sexagenarians in long skirts with rustic prints on them (drawing out the colors of the décor) scurrying around pots of deliciousness, which would billow out each time a lid was lifted and a wooden spoon was dipped in to stir and sample (in a health-​code-​abiding way, of course). My food tasted like this. The next dimension of taste beyond umami should be something relating to homecooked spirit.
The staff was very sweet, and my glass was never empty.

I walked in with high expectations and Gravy held up to most of them. We can in around 5:30 on a Wednesday for dinner and the place was fairly empty. By the time we left around 7:00, the place was super packed with people standing around the bar waiting to be seated.
We started off the meal with the risotto balls. The flavor and sauce was a bit bland but the portion was generous and it was alright overall. I ordered the Family Gravy (pennette pasta, meatball, house-​made spicy and sweet sausage links, braised beef short rib, gravy, house-​made ricotta). It was super super delicious and all the different meats provided a wonderfully savory taste. The portion was also rather large: my friend finished his but was stuffed while I had about half left that I boxed. The service was also very attentive and the waiter kept coming to fill the water even after we paid our checks. I’m definitely making another trip back to Gravy to try something off of their «From the Grill» side of the menu!

So I wanted to avoid the valentine’s crowd but still talk my lady out to dinner so we got a reservation via open table for Friday. It was really chilly Friday. We were greeted as soon as we walked in and seated. We were seated in the front of the Resturant, every time the door opened, we got a blast of the arctic air. I wish there was a small divider or something behind the hostess station to break up that air. The dining space is a good size for downtown, and surprisingly there’s a downstairs wine cellar for larger groups or private dining.
The wait staff were friendly and helpful without being annoying. We got recommendations as well as personal favorites and specials.
Growing up in NY, I got to have a lot of good & authentic Italian cuisine.
We decided to get the calamari as well as the risotto balls for appetizer and the eggplant pie & family gravy for main courses. The calamari was PERFECT, golden & crispy. The risotto balls were good, had a very tasty «gravy» with them, very good but the calamari were the high point.
My wife had the family gravy which she enjoyed but, she wasn’t a fan of the sausage. The short rib & meat ball she really enjoyed. Said, she’d get their meatballs again… even better than mine! My eggplant pie was amazing. I’m an eggplant eater, this was how I’d make it. Hats off to the chef! We didn’t have room for dessert thanks to the nonstop garlic knots that hit the table. We will keep this as a spot to return to and it won’t be too long before we do.