Renton and Italian Food

I'm a native of New Jersey. People from New Jersey can't help but have a knowledge and appreciation of Italian food, as there is an abundance of it there. New Jersey has a lot of good, small, family owned, unpretentious and inexpensive Italian restaurants.
The Seattle area also has good Italian food, but it tends to be a bit more elegant and a bit more expensive.
Renton has some of both the upscale and the unpretencious.
In the slightly upscale department are Bella Napoli, Vino, and Armando's...
Vino is in the same location as Gene's Italian restaurant, which was the epitome of a fantastic restaurant when Gene owned it a few years back. Now he and his wife own the Red House.
He still owns the building where Vino is, and developed the menu for the Dog and Pony.
I've eaten at Vino a couple of times, and while good, I was just missing Gene's when I ate there, and everything pales in comparison with Gene's.
Bella Napoli has previously been reviewed here and is a good restaurant, but it also occupies the space of one of my formerly favorite spots, JapanThai.
Armando's is a very popular and very good place with wood fired pizza. Armando also owns the Melrose Grill...
Then there are less expensive pizza and pasta houses. These include Vince's and Angelo's.
Vince's is a small chain that's been around for about fifty years, and makes a very respectable pizza.
Angelo's, on NE 4th Street, in my opinion makes the best pizza in Renton. Spicy pizza sauce with a tender yet crisp crust; it's the crust that most resembles my New Jersey crusts of yore.
Then there is Amante, on Sunset NE in Renton,part of a small local chain, and closer to the "Vince's" model of unpretentious and cheap, but Amante is a nice place, both attractive in appearance and unusual in a couple of ways.
It's Bulgarian owned, so even though it's "Italian", it has a Balkan flavor, not a bad thing.
Their "white spaghetti" has roasted garlic and myzithra cheese, "Feta Fetish" has kalamata olives, pepperoncini peppers, feta , and fried eggs, served on pasta,pizza, or as a low carb entree.
They have artichoke hearts in several entrees and salads, and other entrees and pastas include fresh basil andsun dried tomatoes.Salads are huge and include a wonderful Greek salad and delightful home made dressings.
Desserts include home made baklava.
The only wines served are Bulgarian.
The marinara sauce is thick, very homemade looking, slightly sweet, and delicious.
Pizza choices are numerous and include one with goat cheese, pine nuts, fresh basil and roasted garlic.
All in all, the place offers interesting choices, serves delicious food in enormous portions,
and is a friendly, nice looking place with consitantly good service.
Not as bohemian as Bella Napoli, not as kitschy as Vince's, not as popular as Armando's.
....but worthy in it's own right .