Bravo Cucina Italiana Review

For this Sweetest Day, my girlfriend and I went to Bravo for dinner and a little review. First, I would like to say that I will be judging restaurants on three main features. First is obviously the food; the taste, texture, and plating all factor into this equation. Secondly, the service factors into the overall rating. Where the waiters kind? Was there fast service? And most importantly, did they leave you alone enough? And lastly, the overall look of the restaurant, from the architecture of the inside as well as background music, and in Bravo's case, access to view the kitchen area.

I have been to Bravo's several times since it's opening at the Westfield Shopping Center. It's a great place to go for a simple, rather cheap Italian dinner. With the prices of many of the entrees under $15, Bravo's is certainly an affordable restaurant. My previous visits to Bravo, I did not really analyze my food as much as this last visit, so I will just focus on three dishes instead.

The first dish that I ordered was the Spaghetti Carbonara, although I changed the pasta to linguine. This entree is a pasta dish that combines egg, pancetta, and asparagus as the sauce. When I got the dish, it looked very nice. Bravo's plating is very nice for a restaurant like it. Overall, the plating is some of the best in Toledo. The food looked absolutely delicious. However, with the Spaghetti Carbonara, you need to eat it fast because the sauce curdles, which was this dishes downfall. It needed to be warmer, in my opinion, so the eggs could cook a little longer before they became cold.

The second dish, that Lauren ordered, was the Pasta Bolognese. The meat sauce looked very good for a bolognese, which I do not favor as an Italian sauce. It added elements of tomatoes and meat and combined to look very good. I tried a bite of it and would say it was better than my own. Although, in Lauren's opinion, there was too much meat. There was a large portion of bolognese sauce left after she finished her pasta.

The last dish we ordered was the Tiramisu. This chocolate, cream, and coffee flavored dessert is a key element to any Italian restaurant. It is a staple of Italian desserts, and when we go it, we were not let down. Adorned with a delicious espresso bean on top, the tiramisu is almost perfectly put together with just the right texture that is needed for the dish.

Overall, I enjoyed the meals, and remembered that I always liked the previous things I ordered from Bravo. Though some parts of the meal were sub-standard, I would give the food a good grade of B(8 out of 10).

Next, the service was very good. We set up reservations before the date, and were seated quickly. Furthermore, our waited was very nice, and sometimes funny, and knew that we really didn't want him hanging around. All of the wait staff were dressed professionally and acted that way, though most of them looked like they just got out of high school. But with a restaurant like Bravo, you can't expect too much of a professional atmosphere. Bravo is a chain restaurant, which means authenticity and things like professional wait staff are not needed. This is because they make enough money as a total business, that they don't need to worry too much about these factors. This may sound negative, but in Bravo's case, it is not because it almost transcends the idea of it being a franchise.

Lastly, my favorite part of Bravo: the inside. The walls and ceiling are adorned with curtains, paintings and columns that remind one of being in Italy. The lighting is just right for a dinner atmosphere; and the music is authentic Italian most of the time. Being a person that went to actual Italian restaurants, in Italy, I would say that Bravo is the closest you can get to matching a restaurants decor. It's really amazing that you can enter this restaurant and feel that you are miles away from the mall, which it is actually located in.

Bravo is, overall, a great restaurant to take your family out to. It has delicious food that even looks nice on the plate, which is hard to do. The staff are great, and the inside of the restaurant is very beautiful. I'm sorry I forgot to bring my camera and take pictures of the restaurant and food. It won't happen again. Anyways, I would give Bravo an 8 out of 10. There are only a few things that Bravo could improve on, but in all, it is good where it is right now.

Wildwood Metropark Review

Before I begin my first critical review of one of the most popular metroparks in the Toledo area, I must first explain how I analyze each park, individually; and, how I came up with the rating, seen at the bottom of the post.

Each metropark will be analyzed by three major features. The first of which is the trails inside the park. The trails are an integral part of a park, and allow visitors to delve into the forests of Toledo. For this, each park needs to have trails or paths that lead to interesting and beautiful parts of the park that are full of abundent wildlife, but also provide a clean walking, or in some cases, path that a visitor can easily understand. The second feature of a metropark that will be graded is the wildlife itself. This includes the trees in the area, the amount of animal activity, particularly deer and other forest inhabitants. Along with this, the feeling of actually being away from the streets of Toledo is graded. The open fields and accessability to rivers, streams, and ravines is also graded. The last feature that will be looked at is the extra features associated with the park. Each metropark has something unique to call its own whether it be the Erie Canal, a fort, or a manor. These three categories will contribute to the overall value of the park and the 10 star rating that is rewarded at the end of each review.

So onto Wildwood. Located on Central Avenue, in between Corey Rd. and Reynolds, Wildwood is one of the most visited parks in my area. Wildwood is the park I have most frequented; I have been on every trail and attended a Civil War Re-Enactment.

The trails of Wildwood are a great feature of the park. Many runners and dog walkers come here for the easy access to each trail. Not only are they well maintained, but they are easy to follow, with clear trail markers and a large map in the beggining of the park. The red trail, on of the longest takes the walker back into the park and circles around a large ravine that houses a small stream. The walk is quite lengthy on the long Red trail, but it is a nice path to take still. The Yellow trail takes you throughout the meadows that, when the flowers are blooming, is quite beautiful. It is a trail that does not have trees overlooking it, so when it is warm out, you may want to avoid it, but it also allows the visitor to look at the forest from afar. Lastly, of the more popular trails is the Blue trail. In my opinion, this is the best trail in Wildwood and could be one of the best trails in Toledo. It takes you back into the ravine and follows it until you come across a boardwalk. The boardwalk is extremely long and allows walkers to look down at the ground below them, sometimes seeing wildlife along the way. The boardwalk ends at a nice viewing spot over a river. There is a bench there that you can sit in and enjoy the calmness of the park. The blue trail combines walkability with beauty, making it one of the Toledo's best paths.

Moving onto the wildlife of Wildwood. As stated before, Wildwood has a large ravine running through it. If the paths were closer to the ravine, you would fall in. That's how close you are to the ravine. The forest itself is very strange and seems almost untouched by human hands. Trees have fallen over all over the place and fall onto other trees that lend support to them. It's very nice to see this, because it's naturally what happens. Its generally very leafy in the park, even when it isn't fall, which also contributes to its natural feel. As far as actual animal wildlife, I have only seen one set of deer in Wildwood by a path. It doesn't seem to bother the deer that humans walk by them, though the absence of deer probably means that they avoid the paths in most cases. This absence, along with an unexistance of other animals makes the park very quiet, which is nice, but to see a wild animal is usually a highlight of a trip to a park; so, without that visitors don't get the same visit to Wildwood than what they were expecting. The meshing of this wildlife and the well maintained paths makes Wildwood what it is. It's absolutely one of the best parks in Toledo because of this.

Lastly, we have to talk about that unique quality of the park. In Wildwood's case, it is the Stranahan Manor located near the trailhead. This manor is absolutely huge and fun to visit. Inside, you can see the Stranahan's house and get a little information on the man who was president of Champion Spark Plugs. The most interesting part of the manor is downstairs, where they have windows that produce artificial light to make it seem like they're upstairs as well as the shooting range. Outside of the manor is a garden and front yard with a gazebo leading the walkers to the All Purpose Trail. The garden is well kept with pretty flowers and great architecture. The front part of the house is a downhill driveway with green grass and the gazebo. Overall, it may not be the most interesting unique parts of some of the parks in Toledo, but it is a nice break from walking the paths.

Overall, Wildwood is one of the most accesible and fun parks in Toledo. It is at a location that many people live and the ease of the paths keep visitors coming back to it for more. As far as the best, I would say Wildwood has the best path's for running, and an overall great path in the Blue Trail. These two qualities make it one of the top 5 parks in Toledo. The absence of wildlife animals does not hurt the park, as it just makes it much more quiet. In sum, I would give this park a rating of 8 stars out of 10 because of all the excellent things said before. The missing two stars comes from the fact that some parks have that extra something that Wildwood is missing, but, we will get to that in future posts.

I hope this review of Wildwood helped readers choose this park as their visit for whatever day you go there. In the next few months, I am going to go when snow is on the ground, so I can check out the paths for cross-country skiing. I will update about that at a future time. If you want more information on Wildwood or any other Toledo Metropark, please follow this link: http://www.toledometroparks.com and look at all the Toledo Metroparks have to offer.

Next up, a review of the popular Italian restaurant Bravo! at the Westfield Shopping Center as well as another metropark yet to be named.

Rules and Regulations of this Blog

This blog is meant to serve the purpose of informing the population, most notably, of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan of different movies, television shows, attractions in Toledo and abroad. A review will be written every few days about something new, whether it be a television episode, a new movie, or an old movie. Reviews will also be used on the Metroparks, which will be coming shortly, as well as cities I have travelled to and end up travelling to.

This is a monetized blog, so if you appreciate the value of it, please click on an ad. It increases the revenue that I make from the blogging industry. This is a business blog, not a personal blog and any personal attacks or opinions will be deleted if they are offensive to other readers. If you enjoy this blog, please do not hesitate to read my non-monetized personal blog which highlights other parts of my life that don't revolve around reviewing things.

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the forthcoming posts that are produced here. A special thanks before I continue this blog is due to my financiers (my mother, and Lauren).