Central Avenue Eats: Angel's in Hot Springs.

While exploring Hot Springs Bathhouse Row, one might pick up a substantial appetite.  If that appetite is for Italian food, you might make your culinary destination Angel’s Pastaria.

Located cattycorner from the National Parks Service Headquarters at the south end of famed Hot Springs Bathhouse Row, Angel’s is situated in a classic building.  The menu features pizza and calzones baked in a European-style oven, salads, appetizers and a fine selection of pastas.

The pasta is the real reason to go, in my opinion. Plates of pasta come with fresh baked bread and butter or olive oil, and cover a wide span of styles.

There’s the traditional spaghetti and meatballs, with baseball sized meatballs soaked in a chunky marinara sauce, ladled over noodles and topped with fresh herbs.  The fresh tomatoes in the sauce are delicate in comparison to the hearty meatballs.  This old-school classic is a fine sight better with such well-done cookery.

The rigatoni with Italian sausage also utilizes that fresh tomato marinara, but serves its tubular sausages over equally tubular rigatoni noodles.  The eggplant parmigiana is crispy, and the signature dish, Angel’s Farfale, is delicate shrimp served over buttered bow-tie pasta with scallions.

My favorite is the Maryland Crab Ravioli – raviolis hand-stuffed with lump crabmeat, served under a sea of red pepper cream sauce.  The sauce itself is absolutely incredible, yet somehow it manages not to overpower the delicate crabmeat.

Of course, you have to talk about dessert when you go to a great Italian joint like this.  Desserts include cannoli, chocolate creme Brule, cheesecake and tiramisu – but if the dessert offering for the day is the spumoni, GET IT.  The tightly-packed flavors in this Italian delight include chocolate, vanilla, cherry, pistachio and cream are delightful, the perfect end to a lovely meal.

You’ll find Angel’s Pastaria at 600 Central Avenue in Hot Springs.  For more information, call (501) 609-9323 or check out the menu on this website.