2240 Highland Ave. South (Southside)
939-1000
www.bottegarestaurant.com
Dinner only, Mon.-Sat. Valet Parking. Full bar. Reservations encouraged. Highlands Bar & Grill may be award-winning Frank Stitt's first restaurant, but Bottega is one of the hottest fine-dining places in town. Rustic Mediterranean and Italian cooking, with fresh seafood, meat and game all cooked "with the soul-satisfying essences of Tuscany, Andalusia and Sicily," as they say on their web site. You'll find dishes such as homemade ravioli with braised pork, bruschetta with crawfish, Parmesan soufflé, lobster with torchio pasta, tagliatelle pasta with venison bolognese.

For a more casual version, including sidewalk dining and lunch, try Bottega Café, next door in the same building, where you might have baked feta with focaccia, farm eggs stuffed with tapenade, wonderful wood-fired pizzas, Italian cobb salad, pastas such as Bottega Cafe's version of mac and cheese (baked penne with three cheeses), chicken scaloppine or salmon with polenta and olive-radicchio relish.
Click here for Bhamdining.com review of Bottega Cafe

725 29th St. South (Southside/Lakeview)
323-4194
www.birminghammenus.com/rockhouse/
Lunch and dinner. So named because it is located in an old house with rustic rock siding. Offers Italian-style and American cuisine in an intimate cafe-style setting, such as lasagna, ravioli, chicken marsala, veal piccata, pasta with a choice of sauces, salads (including Casey Catering's Famous Almond Dill Chicken Salad). Paul Casey, owner and executive chef, previously worked at Boccos in New Orleans. Sous Chef Victorial Childs has worked as John Travolta's personal chef and with Kathy G & Company. City Scene's Susan Swagler gave high marks to a baked brie appetizer, pasta salad, pesto, marinara and alfredo sauce, cheese ravioli, lasagna.