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| - I end up going to Lombardino's semi-often. It's a bit of a mix between old-school and chef-y Italian. Think longstanding old-school Italian restaurant building, with modern chef-ed up menu.
They do a good job on the fried calamari but FYI that's horseradish in the marinara *not* parmesan cheese. I dunno what's up with midwest Italian places adding horseradish to the calamari equation. I once went to a place near Lake Geneva that gave COCKTAIL SAUCE instead of marina. That was quite a surprise.
Most recent couple visits have been solid. This last time I had the horseradish beef ravioli and my wife had the marsala mushroom tagliatelle. Generally the pasta dishes here are not overwhelmingly large but I appreciate being able to try a few things over the course of dinner. My dish, I know it's horseradish ravioli, and I get the idea they were going for, kind of a steak sandwich with horseradish cream sauce in ravioli form, but it was a bit horseradish-forward. I still enjoyed it but I think to be truly memorable I'd prefer a more savory ravioli with a *hint* of horseradish and some other bright flavor to balance out the beef.
I appreciate their pizzas and changing up the menu, good to share as an app sometimes as long as you're willing to commit to a carb heavy dinner. Which is fine, occasionally.
Overall, I've always left a Lombardino's feeling happy, although I have to remind myself it's not always the cheapest, and sometimes we're like, "oh hey let's go get dinner somewhere, oh hey Lombardino's, cool," and next thing you know by the time you have apps, entrees, drinks & split a dessert it's $125 after tip for a dinner for two. Which is fine for the quality of food you get but for some reason in my mind I think of it as more casual of a place and forget that in a way, it's a "special occasion" type dinner.
Pro tip: if you can't get a reservation, you may be able to chill in the bar area for a bit then camp out on a couple stools and have a nice meal. The decor in there with the tile is nice to look at.
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