OMG great food in Snoqualmie!

Yes, folks, its true. Apparently there is not a law outlawing tasty food to be served by establishments in Snoqualmie.

To be fair, there are a couple of restaurants on Snoqualmie Ridge that I like - Uncle Si's Pizza and Ana's I have no problem with. But you won't find be partaking in anything from Finaghty's, Mike's, or Sebastiani's so long as I'm sober. Also, this "crappy food in Snoqualmie" thing is really more of a "crappy food in Seattle" thing. Sure, there are excellent restaurants here; however, the hit ratio has to be the worst in the country if not the world.

The other problem is that we've been recommended a lot of restaurants in the area. All as "great" places to eat. Only to find that Amy and I won't partake in a more than a couple of bites before asking for the bill. So far only two of the myriad of recommendations we've gotten have panned out.

So when Amy came home a couple months ago saying "the new Italian place in town is supposed to be the best around" I was skeptical at best, ignoring her at worst. But after securing a babysitter for Friday, and not wanting to be out too late, we gave this new place a try.

Gianfranco Ristorante Italiano is an authentic Italian restaurant nestled in a little hole-in-the-wall in downtown Snoqualmie. I don't remember seeing more than six tables in the restaurant, and two of those were two seaters. Fortunately there was a table "in the back" for us when we got there.

The first thing I noticed was that the wine list didn't have a token couple of bottles from Italy - 90% of their wine list (about 80 choices in all) was from Italy, with a generous set of choices from Northern Italy, Tuscany, and Southern Italy. We opted for a lower priced red wine from Tuscany, and even Amy - who isn't a big wine fan - enjoyed it.

I scanned the simple menu and spotted a couple things I wanted to try: their beef tortellini with prosciutto, and some dishes with the chef's "famous gorganzola sauce." I asked the waitress if I could combine the two, and she obliged. Chalk one up for the customer. And what an excellent combination. The gorganzola sauce was outstanding - Amy ended up mopping up most of it as I made the tortellini disappear. And the tortellini was perfectly cooked and stuffed just right.

So finally, Amy and I have a destination for a decent meal that's within 5 minutes of us. And their kids menu is basically any dish they make, half size, half off. Not too shabby.

Gianfranco, welcome to the neighborhood. Looking forward to dropping plenty of duckets there over the coming years.