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| - Well judging from the reviews so far, you're either gonna luv this place or hate it. I stopped in last night and bellied up to the bar. I was greeted cheerfully by Sara the bartender who got me the most interesting thing they have on tap, a Peroni, and notified me that Wednesday nights are pizza night. For $5.00 you can get a ten inch pizza with two toppings. Although that sounded like a deal to me, I just wasn't in the mood for pizza and opted to order from the menu instead.
It took a while for me to narrow down what I wanted. As the name would imply, Parente's Ristorante features Italian cuisine and the menu has lots of different yummy sounding offerings. After much internal debate, I decided on the veal scaloppini which came with a choice of a side, garlic bread, a soup and a salad. I had a choice between wedding soup and chicken noodle. I went for the wedding soup... It was tasty but only luke warm. The salad was what you'd expect out of a salad only larger. My side of green beans were just that, green beans... nothing fancy. Although the veal scaloppini was not at all what I expected -- a generous portion of veal strips smothered in a tomato-ee sauce with onion, red and green bell pepper slices and parsley sprinkled on top -- It was delicious. It was just not what I expected.
Despite the smoking at the bar, I think I kind of like Parente's Ristorante. The menu has a wide selection, the prices are reasonable and Sara the bartender is pleasant and attentive. Was the meal and a 16 oz draft of Peroni worth the $20.41 plus tip that I spent on the meal? I think so. Does this place deserve 5 stars? Not in my opinion... but I wouldn't give it a one star rating either. It's somewhere in between for me. The prices and service are very good, the meal itself was good, the beer selection takes it down a notch but the smoking is a big turn off for me. I'm not wanting to discourage anyone from coming here; the prices alone for a solid Italian meal make it worth the stop. I'd say it's a solid three star Ristorante with potential for more.
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