With a dedicated owner who has spent more than 30 years perfecting recipes, Azul Italian Kitchen carefully crafts each dish for residents in the Cy-Fair area.

Azul, formerly known as Antonia’s Italian Ristorante, serves a variety of Italian cuisine, from risotto to flatbreads. Roberto Rosa, owner and head chef, said he renovated the restaurant in 2017 after a rebranding and updated the menu in early April.

“As a trained chef, if there are any items that aren’t really popular, I’ll update it,” he said. “We [are] family-owned, so we listen to the customers and whatever recommendation they have for us.”

Rosa’s past experience includes starting Italian restaurants in Katy and Ainsbury, Massachusetts, before settling in Cy-Fair nine years ago. Before owning his own restaurants, Rosa said he received training from Le Cordon Bleu, a famed culinary program that started in Paris, France.

“I started as a dishwasher with pots and pans and then worked my way up,” he said.

Chicken Parmesan—made with housemade marinara sauce and bread crumbs—is one of the more popular menu items, Rosa said. He said all sauces and ingredients are made from scratch in the kitchen.

“We make everything in-house,” Rosa said. “I make my own bread, my own dessert.”

Rosa said 90 percent of the dishes that come from the kitchen he cooks himself.

“I’m the one who basically starts all the cooking, and I have an assistant chef who finishes every single dish out, and two other people who assist us,” he said. “It’s the only way to keep consistency when you’re doing home-cooking style.”

Azul features a blue color scheme, Rosa said, and the bar is backlit with blue lights. The color blue in Spanish is “azul,” he said.

Rosa said he aims to keep his customers happy with consistent recipes and rotating dishes.

“It’s family-owned, and we really do listen to [our customers],” he said. “Of course we can’t please everybody, but … we will try to meet their expectations. That’s our promise.”

26281 Hwy. 290, Cypress 281-256-2796 www.azulitaliankitchen.com Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., closed Sun.