Last weekend, my friends and I planned to meet for dinner at Catullo’s, an Italian restaurant about 10 minutes from the beach. One of my friends made an extensive list on her phone of all the places around Jacksonville she wants to try, and Catullo’s had been a restaurant she had thought about visiting for some time now.

The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, so my friend with the list was willing to get to the restaurant more than an hour ahead of time to put our name in. I arrived at our scheduled time and was amazed at how unassuming the entrance was. Situated at the end of a strip mall, you would miss it completely if you weren’t specifically looking for it. Groups of people stood outside, all waiting for their names to be called.

Two of my friends had been there for a while and were sipping on wine. When I arrived, we only waited 15 minutes more before being called and shown to our seats. The inside was small, but intimate and cozy, with dim lighting and dark seating. For drinks, I ordered the white sangria with white wine, peach juice and a concoction of other fruits. My friends ordered red and white wine, and we chatted away while also enjoying the fried mozzarella we decided to split as an appetizer.

For the main course, I opted for the pear Fiocchi. Our waitress told us it was by far the most popular dish, selling 10 to one in ratio to all other dishes offered. This dish consisted of fresh egg pasta sheets stuffed with fresh pear, taleggio, robiola and grana Padano. For the sauce, gorgonzola, goat cheese and caramelized pear came together to complement the pasta.

I have always had a weakness for goat cheese and pear, and it seemed as if the restaurant made this dish just for me!

Three of us ordered this dish and one of my friends ordered the sea scallop risotto, which included pan-seared U10 sea scallops over the restaurant’s Calabrian chili risotto.

To say the pear Fiocchi melted in my mouth is an understatement; I could taste each element of the dish and also enjoyed how they all came together to create the perfect blend of flavors. Never do I finish my entire meal at an Italian restaurant, most often because the portions are huge and I can only eat so many carbs before calling it quits. With this dish, however, I ate every last bite. The portion size was just right and I wasn’t overly stuffed when I finished.

Anyone visiting Jacksonville must spend an evening at Catullo’s Italian. While the wait may be long, the food and drinks are worth it and the prices are reasonable. The staff were more than helpful and friendly and I hope to return again in the near future.

— Aoife O’Riordan, associate editor