"I almost never go to the east side. It's my secret goal to become one of \"those people\" who never leaves the side of town where they live. HOWEVER, i went to dinner with my parents at maxi's because of my mom's claim on how good the food is.\n\nshe's right - the food is really good. i'm not a huge italian fan, but we had the calamari (allegedly the best in little italy, which i find to be a bold statement), the sauteed escarole, and i had goat cheese ravioli while the parents both had linguini and meatballs (or, meatbulbs, if you're me.) i had no booze, but moms had a glass of red.\n\ni am known to totally stuff myself with bread and not eat any of my entree, but shockingly that didn't happen this time, though the bread is very good. i could have just eaten the entire plate of escarole, but that is mostly personal greens addiction. they are a little heavy, but if you split them around the table it's more than enough for three people.\n\nthe ravioli was good, though i had my heart set on carbonara. this didn't happen, sadly, because there was no prosciutto. i know, right? an italian restaurant w/o prosciutto? apparently it was a one-time thing, and i certainly hope so. the raviolis themselves were very good, the sauce was a little heavy for me but that's my aversion i guess.\n\nwe had excellent service - our waitress was super accommodating and helpful. no complaints there whatsoever. \n\ndefinitely a recommended spot out of the many options in the neighborhood - there were plenty of septuagenarian local dudes hanging out at the table next to us gabbing and that was definitely entertaining."^^ . "1"^^ . "4"^^ . . "2009-09-26T00:00:00"^^ . "1"^^ . . "0"^^ . .