New Woodlands Restaurant Brings a Lake Setting, Patio Power and Serious Seafood — Your First Look at Azzurro Italian Coastal Cuisine

Coastal cuisine turned out to be a natural extension for the Orioli family — and opening Azzurro Italian Coastal Cuisine in The Woodlands at the tip of Hughes Landing is already proving its merits. The location on the lake is the perfect setting for what Enrique Orioli always wanted to create.

“He’s always wanted this space, and got his wish when the previous tenant (Broken Barrel) closed,” Orioli Restaurant Group marketing director Sherri Segari says.

The menu at Orioli’s newest restaurant is a fusion of family recipes with input from chef Christian Arguenta (formerly of Houston’s Musaafer). There are handmade pasta dishes and fresh seafood. Everything is made in-house daily, down to the sausage for the rigatoni.

I tried the pesce crudo with melt-in-your-mouth scallops, tuna, salmon, capers, Meyer lemon zest, sea salt, basil and olive oil. The portion was generous and was easily shared with two people. I followed it with the creamy lobster soup, which was presented with a lobster claw and knuckle, along with fennel salad, basil oil and salmon roe into which lobster cream is poured. Even with the cream, the soup is light and delicious.

The meal finished with Azzurro’s cannoli — three dainty pastries in pistachio and chocolate chip. The shells were crisp and balanced the sweet and tangy filling perfectly. The three inch shells made for the perfect ending to this lunch.

But the Azzurro restaurant setting is as important as the food. That lake perch Enrique Orioli’s long wanted matters.

The interior space is done in sea blue with white accents.  An Italian glass chandelier from Murano anchors the entryway. A indoor dining area that seats about 80 and a patio that seats about 45 make the space seem intimate without being crowded.

The bar offers signature cocktails and will soon start a happy hour. Azzurro Italian Coastal Cuisine’s temperature-controlled wine cellar brings a selection of more than 300 different wines with more than 3,000 bottles on site.

“(Enrique) wanted to have wines that were not available at the store and some rare ones too,” Segari says.

The location at the tip of Hughes Landing is the real stunner though — sweeping views of the water add to the coastal feel. And Azzuro is already looking into a possible expansion. The space next door to the new Woodlands restaurant recently became vacant, and the Orioli family restaurant group is considering taking over the space.

Azzurro and a True Family Restaurant Story

The Orioli family restaurant story began in 1970 when founders Elda and Domenico Orioli, both originally from Ravenna in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, moved to Central America. After spending three decades owning and operating a restaurant and hotel in a northern coastal town in Venezuela, the couple moved to Houston. Their first local restaurant Via Emilia opened on 1960 road and moved to The Woodlands many years ago. The couple’s son Janiel Orioli is now the executive chef at Via Emilia in The Woodlands Crossing.

It really is all in the family. The Orioli Restaurant Group also has two Avanti restaurants, with a third set to open in Woodforest later this year. There are also plans to open a new Latin restaurant in the Creekside area this fall.

“We are growing rapidly but we are focusing on our community and what they want in a dining experience,” Orioli Restaurant Group director of 0perations Mark Wollenberg says.

Azzurro Italian Coastal Cuisine can be found at 1950 Hughes Landing Boulevard. Valet parking is available just outside the front door, and the parking garage is just a few steps away. Azzurro’s hours are Mondays through Thursdays from  11 am to 10 pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 11 pm, and Sundays from 11 am to 9 pm. Reservations are available on Open Table.