Once upon a time, within living memory for lots of us, Italian eating intended hearty, crimson-sauced pasta, garlic bread, maybe a little lasagna, and fake ivy at the ceiling.
Then, similar to that, lower back inside the ‘70s, Italian went upscale. Before we knew it, we were all gaga approximately what we knew as Northern Italian delicacies, with nary a drop of marinara insight.
But in our hearts, we understand we still crave the comforting, antique-school, family-style Italian-American fare, don’t we? So if you’re suddenly yearning a few ravioli or fowl parm — and pizza of path — then right here’s my advice: Head for Milantoni Italian Restaurant and Mangia, manga, manga!
It’s no longer hard to get into Milantoni, but you need to keep your eyes open. Head south on Hurstbourne Parkway — you can’t get across the median barrier from the northbound aspect. Cross underneath Interstate sixty-four, beyond the first off-ramp and quick, before you attain the second one off-ramp, hook properly via a provider station to Milantoni’s side door.
The building, as soon as a quick-food eatery, greater lately housed Erika’s German eating place. But while you step inner and notice a forest of plastic ivy draped over white latticework and tables clad in pleased red-and-white checkered tablecloths, you’ll realize you’ve found Italian the way Italian was.
The giant menu covers many traditional family-Italian dishes. Sixteen pasta dinners variety from $7.Ninety-nine (for cheese ravioli) to $thirteen.99 (for several dishes consisting of ravioli Grande-E-Ole, full of 4 kinds of cheese and topped with 3 sauces). Eleven pizzas are available with the aid of the slice or in 14- and 16-inch pies and are from $4.59 (for a cheese slice) to $sixteen—99 (for a big meat-lovers pie). A dozen soccer-length calzones are broadly speaking $7.99, with a few secure point gadgets at $8.Ninety-nine or $nine.Ninety-nine.
Are you looking for the fancier fare?
A dozen seafood plates and Milanese specialties variety from $11.95 (for chook with vegetables) to $17.95 (for a Mediterraneo plate with five kinds of shellfish). Additionally available with chicken, traditional veal dishes are $12.99 for parmigiana to $15 — ninety-nine for piccata or cacciatore.
Appetizers, sandwiches, and salads variety from $five.95 (for mozzarella sticks) to $10.Forty-nine (for a fowl BLT salad). There’s additionally a quick listing of vegetarian specialties (even though many dishes at the ordinary menu also are meat loose) and a short menu for the ones 12 and younger.
A lunch specials menu, offered until 2 p.M., functions a dozen Italian standards, all $7.99 save for a $nine — 99 salmon salad.
Short beer and wine lists are also available, in conjunction with Pepsi merchandise, espresso, and tea.
Milantoni makes its pizza dough, and the identical money is used for the complimentary serving of thin, toasty garlic bread crowned with herbs and grated cheese that starts offevolved your meal. An accompanying crock of marinara sauce was a touch too thick, sweet and aromatic with dried herbs for my taste at some point of a dinner visit; the batch served while we back for lunch another day become higher balanced and tasty.
Ravioli ($7. Ninety-nine, upload $2 if you want it on the pinnacle of spaghetti) took me properly and returned to Little Italy. Heavy blankets of intensely flavored, spicy tomato sauce underneath molten mozzarella hid more than one cheese-crammed ravioli. It appeared like an excessive amount to complete; it becomes so suitable that we finished it anyway.
An order of meatballs ($2) becomes provided precisely because of the ravioli, hidden below a flood of tomato sauce, and melted the mozzarella. Once excavated, they were three firms, finely floor golfing ball-length spheres.
Fettuccine alfredo ($9.99) turned into the first-rate. The pasta becomes a company and toothy al dente and yet silken; its sauce was tacky and comfortable. And, then, there’s the signature pasta Milantoni ($13.Ninety-nine) begins with that best alfredo and kicks it up with chopped chicken breast meat, exceptional-sliced mushrooms, and peas.
Back for lunch any other day, we tried a 14-inch pizza Margherita ($12.99) and a slice of 3-cheese white pizza ($5. Ninety-nine). Both had been constructed on a reasonably thick (half-inch), bread-like crust and pulled from the oven even as the edges were still light and lacking tasty darkish spots. The Margherita pie changed into painted with a discreet splash of tomato sauce, then a thick, heavy mozzarella coat and crowned with chunks of out-of-season tomato and some small, fresh basil leaves. The white slice changed into colossal, as large as a whole little pie, and bore a melted blend of ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan on a garlic-scented base.
I’ve always loved food and I’ve always loved sharing my love of food with the world. This love led me to become a professional foodie, opening my very own restaurant called The Great American Cafe and writing a blog called Foodieso.com, where I’ve been able to share my recipes, ideas and thoughts about food.
