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| - An hour long wait, despite having made reservations more than a month in advance - we were originally seated on the "sidewalk" outside the restaurant, with casino guests stumbling past mere inches from our table. Make sure you ask for a table inside the restaurant, but not under the house speakers - it was so loud, we couldn't even hear our waitress, who immediately screamed over the noise, "Yeah, people complain about the music all the time!" Do they, now?
We started with the Fried Calamari Bibzy ($20), which was a conflict of textures - some of the larger pieces of squid were completely melt-in-your-mouth tender, while other pieces were crazy rubbery - even the waitress quipped about the half-eaten portion when she finally arrived with our drink orders.
The place has a fantastic wine selection, featuring some really nice and inexpensive offerings, including several of our favorites from the Conundrum Winery by the glass - and we received some awesome suggestions from the sommelier, who had to scream his selections over the music.
My wife's Linguine with White Clam Sauce ($32) arrived under a thick layer of Italian parsley - so much so you would have thought someone dumped a lawnmower bag over the plate. And while the pasta was perfectly cooked, many of the clam pieces were gritty with sand. By the time my wife called it quits, there was such a pile of parsley "clippings" floating in the remaining broth, you couldn't see the bottom of the plate.
The Veal Piccata ($34) was tender and the lemon butter sauce was excellent. Just don't forget to order a side of pasta, because everything is a'la carte - an important fact that was either not shared with us, or we simply missed the detail while the waitress attempted to scream over the music.
Oh, and don't ask for salt or pepper - "The chef seasons everything to perfection." Maybe for his pallet, but the veal would have certainly benefitted from a tiny sprinkling of salt.
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