Enoteca Rossa

Enoteca Rossa is an upscale casual wine bar and Italian restaurant tucked into an under-served section of Bellaire. The menu reads well, and the house produces its own fresh pasta. That said, the pasta is often either over- or undercooked, and the sauces and fillings are a tossup between insipid and inspired. A since-departed ravioli stuffed with jalapeño and ricotta cheese — all lovely chile flavor and just a spark of heat — may have been the best pasta on the menu, reading like a cream cheese-stuffed pepper, translated. The lamb ragu gracing mushy fettuccine is far better than that pasta deserves, rich and luscious and nuanced. Starters are similarly hit-or-miss. The braised shallots with ricotta are surprisingly delicious, showcasing a subtly resonant array of allium flavors tempered by creamy cheese and pricked up with a gilding of agrodolce vinegar glaze, but an ungainly cylinder of barely grilled octopus in unseasoned and uninspiring, sided with a tossed-off medley of grilled vegetables that pops up over and over again. The mains are marred by uneven cooking and often ignored seasoning. Wines by the glass are affordable and offered in decent variety, but the reds are served at Houston “cellar” temp, an unforgivable sin committed all too frequently.