Review: Padano Bistro in Loggers' Run

There’s a new Italian restaurant in the Loggers’ Run plaza. It’s in the same location as the old Mama’s, but the interior and menu are new and different.
On the inside we noticed upgraded materials throughout. It looks nicer and feels roomier even though it’s the same space.

This is of course a restaurant so the food’s the thing. It’s good. We won’t go so far as to say great, but it’s better than the last two operations in the space.
The soups were the best part of our meal. They come out with covers and they’re so hot you can’t really eat them for a minute so you have to wait while you smell them.

Pricing is a potential issue. The soups are $7 which seems like a lot. But you get a lot – we ate about half of our soups and took the rest home. Unlike many other places there’s no deal where you get a cup of soup with the entree for a lower price. Also they did not serve bread with the meal. It costs extra.
On the entree side the pasta dishes we ordered were in the ballpark of $13, which is reasonable. The dishes were not exactly what we expected, both in the way they looked and the taste. But they were still good enough and we certainly ate our fill. You’ll have to try it yourself to see if you like the way they cook them. As with the soups the entrees came with ample portion sizes.

We did not try the more expensive entrees or the pizza. A friend who knows pizza ate here before we did and said the pizza is excellent though he thought the ones with toppings were a bit pricey.
Padano is definitely worth a try, especially if you live in the Loggers’ Run area. They’re still a work in progress. The website doesn’t reflect that they’re open yet and we can’t find a menu online.