The Bent Noodle, Aurora

The dining room's red-checkered tablecloths, waist-high brick walls, leafy vines, and potted plants all help to create a homespun, neighborhood feel at The Bent Noodle. This feeling carries over to the menu of traditional Italian cuisine, which includes a special-recipe Italian sausage, meatballs rolled from quality lean meats, and strands of pasta carved out of the finest pasta quarries. While the chefs spoon homemade marinara and decadent cream sauces atop a number of their entrees, they also simmer a creamy chardonnay-based sauce for their shrimp-stuffed salmon fillet and craft a glaze with whole-grain mustard especially for the chicken milano.