Phantom Gourmet Features: Ballo Italian Restaurant

Big. Bold. Beautiful. That's how to describe the food, flavors, and everything else a Ballo.

Located inside Mohegan Sun, Ballo is undoubtedly one of the biggest and best Italian restaurants in all of New England. This 17,000 square-foot space features stone columns and soaring arches, reminiscent of a Roman cathedral. There's casual cafe seating out front, a giant marble bar and cool lounge complete with comfy couches in the middle, and in the back, a large but intimate dining room. According to General Manager Jason Barlow, customers are awed from the second the step inside.

Jason Barlow - GM, Ballo: "Their mouths open up, they can't believe how big it is. They say 'wow, we feel like we're not in a casino,' which is what we wanted."

And when it comes to the food, everything is prepared in the Italian tradition of finding great ingredients and letting them shine.

Jason Barlow - GM, Ballo: "It's about using fresh, local, great quality ingredients, and manipulating them the least amount of times, by the best pair of hands."

And at Ballo, those hands belong to Executive Chef Shaun Golan.

Shaun Golan - Executive Chef, Ballo: "We buy the best that we can, we treat it simply, and we don't take short cuts."