Cortona

Cortona opened up a couple of years ago in the old Dish space in Cooper Young. We went for Valentine’s Day, when they first opened.
I also went for Mother’s Day Brunch this year.
We were brought some yummy toasted bread to start.
My dad ordered the shrimp and andouille pizza. It had a very tasty crust.
My mom love Caesar salad and salmon, so she ordered that. She enjoyed it. The salmon was good.
I had the best item. Unfortunately this picture does not do it justice. They took pound cake and made it into French toast and then topped it with bacon and whipped cream. My mom loved it, and I had to give her some.
I also love the bar at Cortona. The bar tenders are super friendly and knowledgable. Yesterday was it’s last day. It will be missed.

We sat outside which had a great view of the street. The food was all really well prepared… I got the chicken dish YUM. In terms of Italian, I wouldn’t say it fits that mold but the food was definitely excellent! A nice place to bring your parents visiting.

If I had written this review last year at this time I would’ve given it 5 stars. I absolutely LOVED the homemade spinach artichoke ravioli… so much that I would make every outing a Cortona night just to eat it. I mean, I planned numerous birthdays, anniversries and girls’ nights there in between 2011 – 2012. It was my favorite place in Memphis. Unfortunately, they took that off the menu last yeat and I have been slowly trying different menu items to find my new favorite dish.
Apart from the above, I do still love this place. Made-​from-​scratch pastas and desserts (EVERY one of which is absolutely delicious — and that’s a rare thing for a restaurant to be able to do) make this place worth a visit. A lively bar area and a good wine selection also bumps this up to 4 stars in my book.
If you can’t make it in for dinner, at least stop by for some Tiramisu and a glass of red. You won’t regret it!

Excellent food and staff. I had the salmon and colleague had the filet. Both were great. Could have a better beer list, but other than that I highly recommend.

I came here for dinner with my friends. We showed up around 7:30pm at Cortona. It wasn’t very busy since it was the night before Thanksgiving.
We ordered fried calamari and Caesar salad to split between us. Both were fresh and really good. When it got to my entrée, I ordered the Roasted Chicken and Asparagus Ravioli with walnut cream, pesto, pine nuts, and shaved reggianno cheese. My other friends split a Margherita pizza that had tomato, basil, mozzarella, and olive oil on it. All were excellent.
We concluded the meal with Triple Threat Chocolate Cake and tiramisu. I loved my tiramisu, and didn’t particularly care for the chocolate cake since I am not a huge chocolate person. Very light tiramisu and sweet.
The pumpkin cheesecake martini is to die for. I told the bartender I wanted something seasonal, sweet, and one of kind. He hooked me up good! They’ve got a fine signature drink selection and an extensive wine list. Make sure to check in on Unilocal to get a $ 5 glass of wine.
Service and food was very wonderful! I am so glad we decided to come here instead of going to Alchemy.

Fabulous! We ate the cannelini dip
Yum yum!

We like Cortona for their service, price, and good food. My girlfriend loves their meat lasagna and Caesar Salad. She also like the house wine. I tried many of the entrees and appetizers but haven’t had their desserts. I recommend the pizza, calarmi, classic caesar, chicken picatta, and grill salmon. All those dishes have been consistently delicious.

My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Venice, Italy and got totally and utterly spoiled on authentic Italian food for a few days. I have been longing for good Italian food now for almost a year.
Cortona saves the day! I was very impressed with our dinner. We started with calamari, which was nicely cooked, not rubbery in any way. I have to admit, I am so totally jealous of what my husband ate. I got a few bites, and it was so good. He had a veal special: wrapped in prosciutto, stuffed with cheese over a perfectly cooked risotto. I had the spinach and artichoke ravioli, and it was good, but I felt it had way too much sauce.
The service was excellent. Our server was very efficient and he was very nice and accommodating to us. A manager stopped by our table as well, and he was very friendly. Cortona really has their act together, and in a neighborhood where a few restaurants have questionable service, this experience was quite nice.
I’m definitely looking forward to our next visit to Cortona. The desserts sounded so delicious, but we were just too full. Definitely make this place a priority for Italian food in Memphis.

I did enjoy my overall experience here, but there were a couple of things that were lacking. The waitress was not what was lacking, she was very good.
I ordered the spinach and artichoke ravioli in a tomato sauce. The sauce was amazing, it was like a tomato bisque, but the ravioli did not have much flavor, they were a little bland. I would love to just eat that tomato sauce in a bowl all by itself because it’s so good. Then I ordered the lemon cheese cake, which didn’t have much lemon favor for a lemon cheese cake, and it also was a little bland. There was this raspberry sauce that they put on the plate, that was very good. You can taste that it’s fresh raspberries they use for this sauce. I would have loved to have that sauce pored over vanilla ice cream.
I will go back, and hopefully they will like my two suggestions.

The food was great but our server made the whole experience lousy, he spoke maybe 3 words the whole evening, over charged us for an appetizer and never asked to get any more drinks, we had to get them from the bartender/​manager, I told them about the experience and seemed to care less, being in the service industry I recommend you only go if you sit at the bar or not in Aubrey our servers section.

We visited Cortona’s for the first time tonight and I have to say it was a lovely meal. We had the Mushroom Torta to start and it was fabulous and unlike anything I’ve had in Memphis before.
The guys ordered Tagliatelle, one with tomato sauce and the other pesto and they both looked devine. My vegetable lasagna was very good. The dish was very hot so I had to wait for it to cool off to enjoy it. My friend ordered the special which was mahi-​mahi and I was jealous when it came out. I think every one enjoyed their meal.
The best part of the restaurant was the patio. It is unseasonably pleasant in Memphis tonight and sitting on a beautiful patio overlooking the Cooper Young neighborhood made for a wonderful evening.
I can’t wait to return and try the Tagliatelle.

Three of us visited Cortona, based on the reputation of its pizza. We each enjoyed our respective meal, although only one of us got pizza. I ordered seared tuna on peanut-​noodles, which was delicious.
So, why three stars istead of four or five? First of all, the dishes are over-​priced. For example, a sixteen dollar pizza that feeds one better be outstanding. And the one we ordered was good but not great. Secondly, if you’re charging top dollar, the service better be top-​notch. Ours was adequate but nothing more.
In the end, we all felt as though we’d had a good dinner, but that the price was too high for what we got.

Never had a bad dish so far. Great service!

FYI– Cortona has a $ 5 glass of house wine check in special if you use the Unilocal app on your smart phone to check in. Good to know. I’m not sure if it is because we used that coupon and they were aware we were Unilocalers, or if they are always this attentive– but I was incredibly wowed with the whole of their staff. From the bus boys to the hostesses to our waitress– everyone was well aware when our glasses or bread basket emptied and when we were done with our food, our plates were whisked away within seconds. One of the hostesses even chased us out of the restaurant to thank us for coming. Erica & Mr B were incredibly impressed.
We started with the calamari (decent– not spectacular) and the Zuppa di Mare which was a tomato based stew like soup with mussels, shrimp and scallops. We both agreed that soup was the stand out of the evening. I would go back and order two bowls next time. Unreal. The seafood was incredibly fresh and such a good pairing with the spices throughout the rest of the soup. Even better when sopped up with their house bread.
For entrees, I ordered the chicken and asparagus ravioli and the husband had the rib eye. The ravioli was delicious– fresh, homemade pasta stuffed to the gills with shredded, tender chicken and asparagus chunks, covered in a cream sauce and pine nuts. I wanted to lick the sauce out of the bottom of my bowl. My husband liked his rib eye well enough, but claims he mis-​ordered. He wanted a pasta dish, but the 4 – 5 options on the menu weren’t anything he was intrigued by. I would agree. Given how awesome my ravioli dish was, I think Cortona would definitely benefit from adding more options in that area.
We took an order of tiramisu home for dessert and just devoured it– so it gets our seal of approval. We will definitely be back here. It has a great atmosphere, though rather loud on this particular evening, perhaps due to the larger groups sharing the dining room with us. It is the Friday before Christmas, however, and I assume this isn’t a natural occurrence.

We were here late-​ish on a Thursday night and were amazed that the place was not more crowded — especially in the lively Cooper-​Young area.
The dining room is spacious with large windows overlooking the street and a nice atmosphere for dinner. Our waitress was nice enough, but seemed distracted as she kept looking out the window while we were ordering.
I was a bit disappointed in the wine list; the chardonnay selection was pretty limited and I ended up with just a so-​so glass.
I enjoyed my grilled salmon; the rest of our party enjoyed their meal, except for an overly-​heavy sauce on one of the ravioli dishes.
Overall, nice enough place, good enough food and service. Not outstanding, but still a pleasant dining experience.

Not just your regular ‘noodles and sauce’ brand of Italian.
I’ve been there twice and will go back again. The chicken and asparagus raviloi is superb. The steak I had was cooked to perfection ((Pittsburg) and the service was so endearing you felt as if you were in a friends home just hanging out. Drinks were great, wine list is sufficient and attitude is kept at a minimum. Go, try, enjoy.

Love how the owners have renovated the space… classy yet casual. We sat at the bar and ate dinner which took FOREVER! I gorged on the eggplant ravioli which was FANTASTIC… spicy, firm, outstanding marinara sauce.
Last word: definitely come for the food but not the speedy service.

Normally I do not care for Italian restaurants — pasta dishes make me tired, and I’m not a wine drinker — but this place sticks out.
It’s in Cooper-​Young, which is always a plus as it is close. Probably the best feature is that there are many, many vegetarian options on the menu. My party and I tried
— veggie lasagna: very interesting and tasty sause, lots of cheese and spinach
— Spinach ravioli: also very flavorful
— Eggplant ravioli: pretty decent by itself, but the addition of goat cheese made it definitely worthwhile
— Pizza: I don’t remember the specific type, but it was good, and pretty huge for a single serving pizza.
The waitress was super friendly and on the ball with water, orders, follow ups and the check. A bit pushy with the appetizers and desert, but I’m sure she was just doing her job.
The place is clean, comfortable, and has a nice restaurant feel. Nothing over the top, but nice. Portions are plenty big, and flavorful enough to set apart from generic Italian food.

I love that over the last few years, Cooper-​Young has become something of a restaurant district. It’s nice to have a ton of variety in a single neighborhood. The area’s newest addition is Cortona, a sprawling Italian restaurant.
The menu isn’t huge, but it’s got a well-​edited selection of pasta, pizzas, desserts and entrees. It’s also super affordable, with the most expensive thing on the menu priced at $ 17.50.
I started with the arugula salad, which came with a lemon-​olive oil dressing and huge flakes of Asiago cheese. The portion was huge, and while the kitchen was generous with the cheese and dressing, they skimped on other vegetables (my salad had two cherry tomatoes and one half-​slice of cucumber). After a few bites, it was less a salad and more a big bowl of spinach and arugula.
For dinner, I ordered the Tagliatelle, which is handmade fettuccine that comes with your choice of tomato, garlic, meat or pesto sauce. I had mine with tomato sauce and vegetables. The portion was generous, and the sliced vegetables were fresh.
That said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the pasta. I’m a bit picky about food texture, and the fettuccine was so limp that it clumped together in the bowl. The tomato sauce was good, but it lacked backbone. I wish it would have been a little thicker or spicier.
Dessert was awesome, though. I had the tiramisu, which was perfectly creamy and spongy and came with some tangy raspberry sauce.
The service was quick, friendly and attentive, even though the restaurant was crowded.
I really hope Cortona does well. They’ve only been open for a few weeks, but people in the neighborhood seem really excited about them. I’m excited to try it again after it’s been open a while — it shows a ton of promise.

Contemporary Italian comes to CY!
Visited last night — 02−01−11 (their Grand Opening)
Located in the heart of Cooper Young in the space last occupied by Dish.
Design/​Atmosphere:
–Love the beautiful the hard wood floors
–Bar top is a slick black granite — or at least has the appearance of
–Place was freshly painted. Intricate paint trim around the exterior windows
–Everything was super clean. Oops, forgot to check out the bathroom — but I didn’t have to go!
–Lighting was appropriately dim for romantic ambiance (if that is what you seek)
Service:
–Great! Sat at the bar and was served by bartender Jonathan — very friendly and personable
Cuisine:
–Caesar Salad — The house Caesar dressing was awesome. They make all of their dressings in house
–Entrée: Chicken Asparagus Ravioli. Scrumptious!
Prices: Very reasonable (wise in this economy). My entrée was $ 13.50
Overall /​Conclusion:
I left with the feeling that I can’t wait to come back and try more of their entrees. Glad to have this establishment in the CY neighborhood and hope it has continued success!