We decided to give the Grotto a try before a play in the Arts District. As Dana said in his review, this is pretty standard fare in an over-priced casino restaurant.
First our iced tea orders were taken and we were brought some slices of standard Italian bread with a container of olive oil for dipping.
I ordered the special of the day, a risotto with lump crab. My wife ordered the Pollo Romano, a chicken breast--"Romano crusted chicken scaloppine" and served with penne in a sugo rosa. My wife's chicken was very good but there was more of a breading taste than romano to the chicken. The penne was very bland. A little salt helped that along. My risotto was good and there was a fair amount of crab meat.
We shared a slice of mezza notte chocolate cake. It's very rich and very good. Lots of chocolate drizzled with chocolate.
Service was good. Iced tea was refilled and the server took my Landry's card early and linked it to our order.
While you can sit along the windows by the pool, I didn't push for that. The one table remaining along the window had a large man with a tattooed back almost pressed against the window. Needless to say, that wasn't a view of the pool I wanted to have.
The place is quite noisy from both music, table talk, and people walking through this way to go to the Rush Tower or back the other way. It wasn't a detriment to the dinner--just an observation.