Accurso's Italian Food
4980 Main Street
Kansas City, Missouri
It's just a guess, but I suspect that as you move away from the heart of Country Club Plaza, prices get better and the snob factor declines in inverse proportion. Accurso's is just far enough from that point of overpriced snobbery that the prices are acceptable even to this miserly curmudgeon, while the snoot-elevation was still sufficient to lend an air of sophistication.
We were surprised to be seated right away, at 7pm on a Friday evening — but judging from the many restaurants we passed on our way here, no one goes out on the Friday of a three-day weekend in Kansas City. I celebrated this unexpected bit of lagniappe with a glass of wine, an inexpensive and unpretentious Riesling that I really enjoyed. We started with the antipasto sampler, tasty and easily large enough for four people: artichoke hearts, olives, salami, provolone, capicola, mozzarella, pepperoni and tomatoes slathered in way too much balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
The dishes we ordered were lasagna, ravioli raphaela, and two of that evening's specials: stuffed rigatoni in a cream sauce, and tuna steaks on capellini. Of those four, only the tuna would seem to match the promise of the restaurant's atmosphere and reputation. It was excellent, cooked to within a hair's breadth of perfection, with a delicious light sauce. The stuffed rigatoni was cooked al dente but seasoned with an overdose of salt, and an underdose of stuffing in the pasta (and what there was, was bland). The ravioli raphaela was plentiful but, sadly, uninteresting, to the point where I actually left a good portion of it uneaten, and
didn't take it home for leftovers, a shocking behavioural abnormality that should speak volumes. The lasagna was either okay or lousy, depending on which you accept of the four opinions it produced at our table. My own thought was that it was just okay, though the sauce relied too much on mere tomato flavour. The link of dry Italian sausage served with it was grilled well beyond expectation but not quite beyond acceptability.
