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| - While not usually a fan of Italian food, I've been in the mood lately, and Maggiano's hit the spot. The portion sizes are ridiculously amazing, and for that alone, I give it 4 stars.
The ZUCCHINI FRITTE consisted of long, fairly thin slices of zucchini, breaded in panko, fried and served with a lemon aioli. Although I personally thought it needed a little salt, the overall execution was great. Very crispy zucchini and the aoili was just the right dipping sauce. I even enjoyed the provided lemon wedge, which I squeezed over the dish.
However, I would not have ordered an appetizer had I known how enormous the entree portions are. Sister ordered the CHICKEN FLORENTINE, which came with 2 thick chicken breasts, breaded and pan-fried, and stuffed with spinach and cheese or some sort of cream sauce. It was served with a side of angel hair pasta and alfredo/cream sauce. Overall way too much to eat in one serving, but she found it delicious and was happy to have the leftovers. The chicken appeared to be well executed and not at all dry.
The FOUR CHEESE RAVIOLI was stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, provolone and cream cheese. Despite sounding nice, it was bland. I didn't specifically ask if the pasta was made in-house, but the awnings outside say "homemade pasta." After tasting this ravioli, I'm fairly certain it's not fresh or made in-house. The saving grace for this dish was the pesto alfredo sauce. Alfredo can often be one-note and boring, but the addition of the pesto made this flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I really wanted a spoon to eat it like soup. As nice as the pesto alfredo is, it's so rich that it could be cloying if it weren't for the small pour of red sauce over the top. The red sauce added a sweetness and acidity needed to balance out the creamy richness of the alfredo.
The best part of the meal occured when I ordered my pasta and the server asked which SECONDARY PASTA I WANTED TO TAKE HOME WITH ME. What? I was seriously confused. So for $14, I got 2 full-sized pasta meals. Amazing. For that, I will be back.
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