Tratto brings a world of Italian flavor to Orlando’s Avalon Park neighborhood

Our global foodscape has arguably benefited more from the historic wanderings of Italians than any other people. Especially in the Americas, and especially in South America. Outside of Italy, Argentina is home to the largest Italian population in the world. Tens of millions claim ancestry in Brazil. And where Italians set foot, Italian food flourishes — it turns out Earthlings love pasta, Parmesan and talking with their hands.

In Orlando, South American immigrants born of Italian immigrants are responsible for some of our better boot-shaped restaurants. Restaurants like Turci and Vinia. Add Tratto in Avalon Park to this list, where Venezolanos Mabel Munoz and Alvaro Ramirez tap Munoz’s Italian roots to sling seriously tasty eats.

Avalon Park is the Potemkin Pluto of Orlando’s solar system. Veneered and out there. For most, visiting Tratto will mean a tangle of “4” roads before braving an asteroid belt of injury attorney billboards, traffic lights and taco trucks. At the wrong time of day, the journey can be intense. Thankfully, the destination is also intense — a welcoming kind of intense. Subtlety isn’t an arrow in Tratto’s kitchen quiver. No one wants a subtle hug, and the food here greets and squeezes with a full-flavored embrace, belying the casual calm of its dining room and staff.

Intensity finds form in Tratto’s best-selling dish; a fall-apart, slow-braised short rib sauced in red-wine reduction with truffle risotto ($32). Pow, right in the kisser. Likewise, deliciously creamy seafood risotto ($34) is emboldened by “fosforera soup,” a traditional Venezuelan seafood broth that lends an irresistible headiness to Tratto’s seafood dishes. Beef ragù with paccheri ($22), one of several menu staples Munoz learned from her Roman grandmother, was so soulful I could almost taste echoes of Caesar — Shirley Caesar. Yes, Lord, yes. This is food your body welcomes. That warms the brain. But I get ahead of myself.

Starters aren’t to be missed, including carpaccio di manzo ($16) with its interplay of quality fresh and flesh, and a riff on ratatouille ($15) that shouts signature dish — a kaleidoscopic swirl of colorful vegetables given oomph by caponata, orbiting a pesto-topped burrata and served with excellent house-baked bread.

In my midtown bubble, I’d heard tall tales about the pizza on our perimeter but it’s the perimeter of the pizza at Tratto worth telling tales about. The frico crust of a Detroit style Genovesa ($15) inspires, crisply fencing a glorious mess of ricotta, roasted tomato, pesto and profundity. The doughy know-how at Tratto runs deep. There is mastery of process at play, and judging by its pizza and bread, I assume it involves magic. Italians are fond of the phrase buono come il pane — “good as bread” — if anything were as good as this breadstuff, it would be sainted.

It will be a challenge, but save room for sweets. Panna cotta ($10) is a dessert that rides the fence between creamy and gelatinous, and while Tratto’s visually striking vanilla panna cotta with strawberry coulis had some wiggle, it was greedily devoured, as was cheesecake with pistachio cream ($10) that proved dolce vita perfection.

A final tip: Forget everything you’ve read to this point. Porchetta ($32) is a Friday-Saturday special, and a special one at that — a piggiepalooza of crackle-crisp, herbal, meaty and succulent. It’s bold and soulful like Tratto itself and tastes of the passion that Munoz and Ramirez invest of themselves in this winner of a restaurant. Like much of the food at Tratto, it is more than worth the journey — a journey to what can feel like home — the home we seek and often find in good Italian food.

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This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2025.