Skaneateles, N.Y. ― An Italian restaurant where pasta is the star. Who would’ve thought?
At face value, such a statement seems obvious. An Italian restaurant should probably make good pasta, right? But for the number of Italian restaurants we have in Central New York, few are making fresh pasta in-house every day, as they do at Moro’s Kitchen.
That pasta finds its way into a fair amount of the menu, a fairly abbreviated list of around 10 starters and salads, eight pizzas, four pastas and nine other entrees, plus an ever-changing list of daily specials, typically shared on the restaurant’s Facebook page. Curiously, both the chicken and eggplant parmesan don’t come with homemade pasta by default, but it is available for a $2 upcharge.
Moro’s should use the homemade pasta in every dish and factor it into the list price, because the more people that try it, the better. On this day (and most days), it was rigatoni, cooked on the firm side of al dente, leaving the pasta with enough structure to withstand the hearty accompaniments ― in our case, a spicy seafood riggies special ($26) and African spiced bolognese ($27).
Seafood riggies from Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
The riggies sauce was lighter than what you’d usually find in this Central New York staple dish, with a heavy dose of lemon. Made with shrimp, calamari and mussels, tossed with that housemade rigatoni and studded with cherry peppers, it was a well-composed dish with the brothier, brighter sauce built to accentuate the seafood, rather than just subbing in shellfish for the usual chicken and crossing your fingers that it’ll all work well together.
African spiced bolognese with housemade rigatoni at Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
Moro’s bills its offerings as “modern Italian,” and the African-spiced bolognese serves as a great example. Here, that same rigatoni ― if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it ― is tossed in a lightly creamy and exceptionally meaty sauce of beef, pork and veal, flavored with cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, allspice, turmeric and other spices. All those spices are bold flavors on their own, but here they settled in as the backbone to the dish, providing enough subtle complexity to keep us going back for another bite to figure out the recipe.
Grandma’s Lasagna from Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
In case the name wasn’t a hint enough, Grandma’s Lasagna ($26) falls firmly on the classic end of the Italian food spectrum. With sturdy house-made pasta sheets and seemingly as much meat as the bolognese, this hearty slab of lasagna was a formidable force. A proper lasagna is one that holds its shape the entire time one is eating it. If messy lasagna devolves into a slippery pile of noodles after a few bites, was it even lasagna in the first place?
Homemade meatballs available as a starter at Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
The meatballs ($7 for two, $13 for four) were tender and meaty, with hints of garlic, cheese and Italian herbs. In short, they were everything a proper Italian meatball should be.
Moro’s Kitchen bills its pizza as Neapolitan style, though that’s a bit of a misnomer. The crust on our pizza melazana ($16) was thicker than your average New York-style pie, let alone the thin, lightly chewy crust of a proper Neapolitan pizza cooked in a matter of moments in a ripping hot wood-fired oven. The bottom of the pizza was embossed with a crosshatch pattern indicative of being baked on a mesh screen. Still, the crust was wonderfully pillowy and chewy, particularly around the outer rim, or the cornicione, as one might call it in Naples.
Pizza melazana, topped wth grilled eggplant, fresh mozzarella, parmesan cheese, fresh basil and provolone cheese, from Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
A nightly special, our pizza was topped with thick, tender slices of grilled eggplant, provolone and fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and parmesan. We shared it as a starter, though pair it with a salad and it’d make a nice light meal for two ― or a deliciously hearty meal for one.
There always seems to be a short rib dish on the menu at Moro’s Kitchen. This night, the beef ($31) was served with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots, broccoli and root vegetables in a Chianti wine sauce. Braised until fall-apart tender and deeply savory and satisfying, it’s the kind of dish one craves in the cold, snowy days of a Central New York winter.
Braised beef short ribs with mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and a Chianti wine sauce from Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
After a dinner that started with a complimentary basket of house-baked focaccia, before moving to pizza and several pastas, you wouldn’t think I’d want bread for dessert. But the allure of chocolate croissant bread pudding ($10) a staple at both the Skaneateles restaurant and Moro’s sister restaurant, Moro’s Table, in Auburn, was too strong to resist. Sometimes bread pudding is too dry and stodgy ― too much bread, not enough pudding. If anything, this version was the opposite, with a wealth of eggy custard calling out for more bread, particularly in the one-third of the bowl that had few, if any, cubes of flaky croissant.
Chocolate croissant bread pudding from Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
Moro’s tiramisu ($7) was not as sweet as other versions I’ve had of this classic Italian sweet, with a noticeably tangy mascarpone filling. Like the lasagna, this layered dessert was sturdy and rich. Apparently, Moro’s knows a thing or two about the proper construction of layered dishes.
Tiramisu from Moro’s Kitchen, 28 Jordan St., Skaneateles.Jacob Pucci
With its warmly lit, intimate dining room and attentive service, Moro’s Kitchen feels every bit a restaurant worthy of a special occasion. Yet they also run a bustling takeout business, offering family-style takeout specials on Sundays and Thursday pizza nights, when a pizza and salad for two is just $17. It’s just as good for a quick weeknight dinner as it is for a leisurely Saturday night, or for a takeout feast on Sunday that Moro’s says can be ready in as soon as 30 minutes after ordering. It’s that kind of versatility and approachability, commitment to high-quality ingredients without feeling fussy, that makes Moro’s Kitchen so good.
The Details
The Restaurant: 28 Jordan St, Skaneateles; (315) 685-6116.
Takeout/Delivery? Yes, online ordering is available on the restaurant’s website.
Reservations? Yes, available on the restaurant’s website via OpenTable
Credit cards? Yes, with no added surcharge.
Noise level: Quiet during our visit, though the small, tile-walled space could be noisier with larger crowds.
Accessibility: Entrance is on street level, with ample space in the dining room to move around.
Parking: Paid municipal parking lot. Paid parking is enforced 8 a.m. to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays and holidays.
Special diets? Plenty of meat-free options on the menu. Gluten-free cauliflower pizza crust is available, as well as gluten-free pasta.
Children’s menu? Yes, pasta and chicken tenders.
Hours: Open Wednesday to Sunday, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Cost: Dinner for four, with two shared appetizers, four entrees, two shared desserts, drinks, tax and 20% tip, was $226.80.
Dining and Cooking