La Calabria strives to fill the void of "authentic" Italian food in the East Valley. Does it succeed? So-so. Most of the dishes are served with a salad, which is on the bland side. The bread before the meal was also stale (what gives?!). The main event did somewhat redeem the dinner, however. We tried the linguine rusticana and the veal scaloppine principessa. Both were fairly good! The linguine dish had nice flavor, and the shrimp was perfectly cooked. Unlike most american italian restaurants, La Calabria highlights the pasta itself rather than coating it with way too much sauce. The veal was also nice with good portion size, though it was a little heavy on the olive oil.
Price is high. I usually expect Italian to be a bit spendy. However, part of that high price comes with what's usually an above-average ambience. La Calabria is lacking in that department. It's in a strip mall, which isn't a big deal, but you would expect the inside decor to be fixed up a bit more for that price. It isn't exactly dumpy, but it's rather plain.
Service was friendly but slow. It took a while to get the food, and similarly a long delay for the check once we were done eating. I don't know if it was an off-night.
3.5-stars earned for the main dishes (which is why you're here really). The other aspects of the meal (see above) bring it to a 3.