The pasta Portofino at Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl features fried shrimp, spinach, garlic, sliced tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil over linguine. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
The pasta Portofino at Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl features fried shrimp, spinach, garlic, sliced tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil over linguine. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
The desserts at Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl on this day ranged from a very rich-sounding lava cake to berry strudel with vanilla ice cream and vanilla sauce. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
This Oreo cheesecake at Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl looks almost like a piece of art, with sprinklings of chocolate shavings, lines of chocolate sauce and dollops of whipped cream. ()
The toscanella salad at Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl included three blocks of fried sheep cheese coated with a sesame seed crust. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
The ambience at Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella is cozy and pleasant, with natural lighting, plants in the windows and candles on the tables. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl, Germany, is easy to find, as it is located one street up from the Broadway Kino. Parking is available on site. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella in Landstuhl, Germany, comes highly recommended. Looking for a new restaurant in the Kaiserslautern area, I found it mentioned on a few local websites, with a couple people posting that it’s one of their favorite eating establishments.
Turns out, Gabriella is one of the newer restaurants in Landstuhl, opened 2½ years ago by Antonino Piscione, a 26-year-old entrepreneur with a father from Sicily and a graduate degree in business from California State University, Long Beach.
Piscione said he continually strives to make the restaurant’s fare fresh, a mix of traditional and modern Italian food, with something new on the menu weekly. Every Friday, the daily specials change for one week to give customers “new tastes,” Piscione said.
The specials are listed on the restaurant’s Facebook page, where a weekly recommendation is also suggested.
Recent ones sounded pretty tasty, such as a Tandoori chicken — “chicken breast marinated for 36 hours in spices and herbs, served with fettucine pasta, topped with a creamy sauce made of pineapple, smoked bacon, dates and onion” — from the first week in November, and Cajun jambalaya linguine — “chicken sautéed with onions, cherry tomatoes and peppers in a spicy Cajun sauce all on top of fresh linguine paste” — from the last week in October.
But on a recent lunch outing to Gabriella, it was an item from the regular menu that caught my eye: pasta Portofino, with fried shrimp, garlic, sliced tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil over linguine, for 10.90 euros. The spinach and tomatoes tasted fresh, though the noodles overpowered the dish. More shrimp or vegetables would have made it more memorable.
My husband ordered the toscanella — a salad with fried sheep cheese coated in a sesame seed crust, with red onion and olives — for 8.90 euros. The large blocks of cheese were tasty (I got a sample), but my husband said there were too many red onions and not enough olives.
Overall, we thought the food was OK. But we would go back to try something else, since Gabriella certainly has its fair share of fans.
And we left on a good note, topping off our meals with an Oreo cheesecake for me and a cappuccino for my husband. Both were excellent.
The service was top-notch and the ambience very pleasant, a quaint, cozy restaurant that would be perfect for a date night.
Pizzeria Ristorante GabriellaLocation: Bruchwiesenstrasse 17, 66849 Landstuhl
Directions: Pizzeria Ristorante Gabriella is near the McDonald’s and Broadway Kino in Landstuhl. From Kaiserslautern, take the Ramstein-Miesenbach/Landstuhl exit and head toward Landstuhl. McDonald’s is on the left, past the Shell station. From McDonald’s, go straight, past the flower shop and take the first left onto Bruchwiesenstrasse. Gabriella is at the corner where the road bends to the right. Parking is available.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Food: Mostly Italian, with a few German selections. Italian fare includes salad, soup, fish, pasta, pizza and chicken. Specials change weekly.
Prices: Average. Most pasta and pizza are under 10 euros, while meat and fish dishes are higher, up to 16.90 euros for red snapper. Visa and Mastercard accepted.
English menu: Yes, and English-speaking servers, too.
Clientele: Mostly American.
Website: pizzeria-gabriella.de; also on Facebook.
Phone: 06371-404466.
