Just ask: That’s what customers at Acquario in Keller did, telling restaurateurs Elda and Nino Rata they wanted another Italian restaurant in their Tarrant County town.
On March 2, 2026, the Ratas opened their second restaurant — this one, also named Acquario — but it’s more casual and better suited to families.
Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar is a lunch-and-dinner spot that sells a long list of pastas like rigatoni vodka, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs and Neapolitan-style pizzas. It’s significantly more casual than Acquario Italian Restaurant, a dinner-only restaurant with white tablecloths.
“We like to say, ‘If you can’t go to Italy, go to Acquario,’” said Elda Rata.
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Married couple Nino Rata and Elda Rata own Acquario.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
She and her husband hired executive chef Gimmy Piperku, a native of Rome, to run the kitchen at the more casual Acquario. Piperku works alongside the fine-dining restaurant’s chef, Fredi Plaku. The name Acquario comes from him: It’s what he called his first restaurant in Venice, Italy, when it opened in the 1990s.
Chefs Fredi Plaku (left) and Gimmy Piperku (right) chat with diners at Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar in Keller during its opening week.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
A visit to either Acquario restaurant likely means a warm welcome from Elda, Nino or one of the chefs. The original restaurant has a reputation as a hangout for politicians like U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne and judges. Keller Mayor Armin Mizani yesterday called Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar “the best pizza in DFW” on social media.
Elda, a native of Albania with a law degree, is running for Keller City Council – Place 4.
She said opening the first Acquario in 2023 showed her the power of restaurants as gathering places. “We built a bridge between the community,” she said, where people could meet each other.”
At Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar, customers might start with a poof of puccia bread, which pulls apart into pieces of warm bread to drag through whipped eggplant dip.
Chef Gimmy Piperku pulls apart the puccia bread served with whipped eggplant at Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar in Keller.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Customers can watch the pizzaiolo shuttle pies in and out of a red mosaic oven that climbs to a scorching 1,100 degrees. Piperku likes the Noe Nicola pie, which comes stacked with prosciutto and arugula, a circle of stracciatella piped on top of the crust. His pizzas are thin, as Neapolitan-style pizzas typically are, but he calls these “contemporano” in style because the crust is a bit fluffier.
The Gnocchi Sorrentina is one of the new dishes at Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar in Keller.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Plaku suggests the spaghetti al limone, a vegetarian dish with a lemon cream sauce. Or, he said, get the gnocchi, which is part pizza, part pasta. A bread bowl made of pizza crust holds each potato dumpling, swimming in marinara. Diners can rip the bread from the side and dip it into the sauce. Extra points if you get a dramatic string of mozzarella, as I did.
Said Plaku: “It’s a very unique presentation.”
Acquario Pizza Pasta Bar is at 967 Keller Parkway, Keller. Open for lunch and dinner six days a week. Closed Mondays.