Maggiano's

http://www.maggianos.com/

Or as I like to call it, Marrrrrrgiano's!Kidding... Since Marge Madness was celebrated a bit early this year (my birthday just happenes to be on St. Patrick's Day), I decided to go for a Marge Mellow and have a nice dinner with my parents at a restuarant that was sure to be without a long wait for corn beef, cabbage and green beer.

Maggiano's is obvisouly Italian. I thought for sure I would leave smelling of old Italian men that had been cooking homemade marinara sauce since 5am, but I was pleasantly surprised not to.

Needless to say the restaurant was a bit empty on an Irish holiday, which was kind of nice. We started off with fresh toscano bread dipped in my fav, olive oil and balsamic. I had a glass of the Coppola Cabernet, which was $9.95/glass! Hey, it was my brithday and I wasnt paying. It was very tasty and although I ended up getting a main course that probbaly would have gone better with white, it was a good selection.

We ordered a Gregory family appetizer favorite, Calamari. It came with a red marinara sauce that had a bit of spice to it. It was a very flavorful sauce and went well with the fried squid. We also orderd "side" salads... which thank god the waitress explained how huge they were or we each would have ordered our own. We had a ceasar and a spinich, which had gorgonzola, pine nuts, bacon and roasted red peppers tossed in a vinegrette. I ate entirely too much salad (because it was right in front of me) which left little room for what was next.

I ordered the chicken picatta and my mother had the veal picatta. I preferred the chicken because the veal was a bit more chewy. Like the salads, they come in HUGE portions, so I had a plate with three chicken breasts on it (although they were pounded pretty thin)! I saved 1.5 to enjoy later this week. The sauce was perfect! Just enough lemon and capers and not too buttery. The chicken was laid atop a bed of spinich, which was a mild complement to the tart sauce.

My dad got the crab and shrimp cannelloni. OMG was this rich! All i could taste was cheese and my arteries clogging. He deserved it, but a bit too rich for my blood.

For desert, even though I had already had some ice cream cake earlier at my place of employment for my day of birth, the waitress brought over Italian lemon cookies in the shape of a crecent moon, or perhaps a lemon wedge, depending on how you look at it. They were soft and sugary and glazed with a tart lemon frosting... I had three and I dont feel bad about it!

The service was great, though since the place was a ghost town, that could have been why. Our waitress made some good recommendations on ordering, which I always appreciate, but I am not sure how I feel about the large portions. It leaves room for binging and belly aches. I would rate this with 3 stars overall. It was a delicious meal and I would go back, but propably just by default.