Award Winning Food

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD ITALIAN 2006 - Redendo's Pizzeria and Past

Sure, there are plenty of places to get a plate of pasta in town, but few can reproduce that old-timey, Brooklyn-style pizzeria feel and flavor, which is why Redendo's remains our preferred corner Italian joint in the Valley.

Chef Anthony Redendo is a Culinary Institute of America grad who hails from back East, so he knows his garlic knots, meatballs, calzones, eggplant parmigiana, chocolate chip cannoli, and all that other glorious goombah grub, the kinda stuff Tony Soprano gobbles on a regular basis. Moreover, thanks to satellite radio, you'll be listening to Italian crooners like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett on the box. The place is full of WWII and '40s memorabilia, repros of beer ads and World Series posters from that time, photos of WWII fighter planes, pics of Frankie, and stills from Hogan's Heroes. What a freakin' cool place! Even the restrooms are made to look like "latrines." Folks in Fountain Hills are a lucky bunch, indeed.



BEST NEIGHBORHOOD ITALIAN 2005 - Redendo's Pizzeria and Pasta

You'd think spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna and all that classic Eye-tie stuff that's as common in Brooklyn as drive-through liquor stores are here would be a no-brainer. Apparently not in the PHX, where there are too many crappy Italian joints to count, with pasta like rubber and marinara fresh from the can.

Chef Anthony Redendo puts them all to shame with the aid of his gorgeous wife Carolyn by serving bowls of the best pasta and meatballs in town, Brooklyn-quality Bolognese, and calzones that'll have you crooning standards à la Frank Sinatra. He's got garlic knots like you get in Bensonhurst and pizza like in Brooklyn Heights. His establishment is small, but he's decorated it with memorabilia of New York in the '40s, and added brick walls to make the Gotham expats feel at home. We like your style, Anthony. Not only have you got a lot of talent as chef, you've got a lot of heart as a restaurateur.



BEST NEIGHBORHOOD ITALIAN 2004 - Redendo's Pizzeria and Pasta

Do not fear the tomato. The tomato is your friend. That's what we'd like to tell most Italian joints in Greater P-town. See, for their chefs, spaghetti and meatballs has become one of those quaint dishes of yesteryear, like baked Alaska and beef Wellington, that they've completely forgotten how to make. Judge them by what they serve up, when they bother to serve it up: chewy pasta, a meager amount of marinara, and meatballs like rocks. In fact, this situation is so bad in town that we have to hightail it to Fountain Hills for the best neighborhood Italian food in Maricopa County.

At least Redendo's Pizzeria and Pasta makes it worth the drive. This spot serves Brooklyn-quality pizza and pasta in an environment that makes you feel like you dropped through the proverbial rabbit hole into 1940s America, with reproductions of anti-Hitler propaganda, World Series posters, and black-and-white photos of WWII fighter planes. But the best thing about Redendo's is the spaghetti and meatballs, with plenty of great-tasting marinara and pasta, and fat, tender meatballs that are unmatched in the Valley. For those whose neighborhood includes Redendo's, lucky you.