Last week I had the privilege of attending Copper Canyon Grill’s Home for the Holidays Preview Meal. At the event I met The Unmanly Chef, he lives in Howard County and was able to suggest a few spots I hadn’t heard of. Of the places he suggested, the one I was most excited to try was Facci because I have a love-affair with pizza.

One of my good friends recently moved out to Howard County suburbia and we are constantly looking for new places to try out there, but always end up at our favorite, The Ale House Columbia. Don’t get me wrong, the food out there is great! But sometimes there’s nothing more than Italian food and pizza to really hit the spot.

Facci

It’s worth noting that we drove 20 minutes from my friend’s apartment in Columbia to a shopping center in Ellicott City and it looked as if we had not driven more than 10 feet. But that’s suburbia for you, every street looks the same!

One of my friends that I was with, Stu, was pretty jazzed about being part of my restaurant review process. When we walked in there was a fire place suspended from the ceiling, which looked like a lovely place to sit and have drinks.

Suspended Fireplace

As a group, the three of us decided to share a few things because everything looked so delicious. We started with the Polpette Casserole which was four meatballs in tomato sauce with grilled pita and shaved parmigiano cheese. The meatballs were incredibly juicy without a lot of filler (if any). I think I preferred these to the awesome ones at Joe Benny’s.

Polpette Casserole

Next, we shared the Caesar Salad.  I’ve had quite a few different caesar salads, and I think that this was my favorite one. The salad had no particularly special ingredients to make it stand out, but the creamy dressing was delicious and evenly distributed throughout the salad, not just hitting the lettuce on the top.

Caesar Salad

For our main courses, one of my friends decided to try the Pappardelle Bolognese. The pasta was homemade wide noodles in a creamy meat sauce. The meat in the bolognese was just as flavorful as the meatball. The pasta was delicious.

Pappardelle Bolognese

Another clear winner was the Baked Ziti Rigate. My friend and I shared this and a pizza. Even though the baked ziti was made with penne pasta, the three cheese blend, tomato, and fresh basil were still delicious.

Baked Ziti Rigate

The pizza that my friend and I shared was the Pesto. The pizza was topped with grilled chicken slices, pesto sauce, pine nuts, and roasted tomatoes. The pizza was good – but next time I would probably order one of the other pies that looked a little more interesting.

Pesto Pizza

While of all the food was outstanding, it is worth noting that the service was a little mediocre at first. We sat at the table for about ten minutes before the waiter showed up to take our drink order. But once he came over, the rest of the meal progressed seamlessly.

Facci is located at 11095 Resort Road, in Howard County.

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Looking for a place to eat? Check out Rachel’s Baltimore Restaurant List.