Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock prides itself with the best and freshest of ingredients handmade and always made to order. Pizza, pasta, and more. The long lines outside the door and the supposedly an hour or more wait should be enough to tickle anyone's epicuriousity. It must be that good, eh?
And so come in and try the usual or go for the road less traveled (which this writer did): spaghetti carbonara with pancetta, eggplant parmigiana sandwich, cheese pizza with anchovies, and a side salad. If you want to experience the food and not the wait, opt for take-out. Still, it would take them almost an hour because of the massive orders they have, and probably the reason why they only open at 4pm, and even closed Sundays and Mondays. Much rest is definitely needed after all that hard work.
The spaghetti carbonara was (hold the boo's and the hatred) “disappointing” (currently at nicest). The pancetta was hard and dry, clearly overcooked. There should be that salty, fatty, yet ironically somewhat tender bite to it. There was salt, best believe, but the rest were seemingly on vacation. The spaghetti was al dente, hard to accomplish when it’s in a to-go container, steaming continuously until released from its vessel. There was absolutely no creamy aftertaste, which was expected from a carbonara. NO, not like an alfredo, but theirs tasted more like oil and rendered bacon grease than anything else. AND let us not forget the overly GENEROUS helping of basil. It maybe a staple Italian herb, but it was fresh and all only from a former life. Laying on top of the pasta were a lifeless, limp, and almost BLACK shreds.
From the confused to the aggressive we go. If the pasta didn’t know what it wanted to be (salty, bland, herbaceous), we come to the pizza: SALTY. But slightly understood. Their regular style is thin crust, and with only salty cheese and salty anchovies as toppings, of course the SALT ASSAULT was a given.
And so we come to the clear winner of the night: eggplant parmigiana sandwich. A forgotten part of their menu, the lesser popular item, the unexpected order. The eggplant was breaded lightly but the batter clung to it like there’s no tomorrow. The cheese was melted and stringy, not wanting to let go of the rest. It was really all for one and one for all, on flavor and texture. The bread held up well and so it was not hard to devour the savory and crunchy goodness.
It might have been a fault having veered away from the spaghetti and meatballs, or the fettucine alfredo. But Italian food is more than the red, green, or white sauce. It should be made more famous to the masses for other dishes it can offer. But even the pizza was a “disappointment”, at a "PIZZA PIE" place. And so to answer the question that initiated this review is completely up to the strong of stomach and strong of lower extremities, but as of last try this writer will have to be heavily convinced to wait even 15minutes on a nice, bright, sunny day.
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