Maggiano's: I Love Carbs and Seafood

Last night I went to Maggiano’s at North Park Mall.  It is a family style Italian restaurant with parties ranging in size from tables of 2 to parties of 10+ and although it is a chain, it is not in the food court, it is on the south side of the mall with its own entrance.  I am typically in a party of no more than 4, and have never waited more than 20 minutes to be seated, which I am told is more of the exception than the rule, but I digress.  Once seated by the hostess, we were greeted by our waiter, Jaime, within 2 minutes.  He was friendly and attentive, and quickly picked up on the fact that my dining companion (DC) and I wanted an unobtrusive waiter.  We started off with the complimentary ciabatta with a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  My DC intently scanned the many options from pasta, meat, seafood, chicken and salads.  After some discussion we decided on the evenings menu.  For appetizers we ordered full size Tuscan Muscles and full size Maggiano’s House Salad and for entrees, DC selected the Braised Beef Cannelloni whereas I opted for the Lobster Ravioli.  The muscles arrived to our table in a very large bowl steaming hot.  The actual muscles were on the smaller side, there were a few plump ones, but the sweet shallot and garlic infused broth included white beans, parsley, and reconstituted sun dried tomatoes made up for it.  My DC and I could not help but compare it to the crab fingers swimming in sweet, savory butter sauce from Trulucks and in that respect, the muscles fell very short.  The salads met our expectations, it was fresh, as always, and with only few simple ingredients - Iceberg and romaine lettuce mix, chunky bleu cheese crumbles, lots of crispy Prosciutto, and red onions slivers tossed in the house dressing.  DC finished a full size order and had enough room to finish 1/3 of his Braised Beef dish that he described as an I fratelli Pizza reincarnated into pasta form, which he really liked.  The thin sheets were pleated, and folded lengthwise to hold the tender to the touch braised beef bursting with deep, tender flavor.  I was permitted to try his dish, and though I thought it was good, I did not agree with his I fratelli description. The Lobster Ravioli was better in my opinion, which is shocking because I hardly ever order a dish with creamy textures.  The ravioli edges were firmly pressed, creating clean scalloped edges, the pasta was aldente, and the filling was soft, perfectly cooked.   A full order comes with seven and I ate two because the supposedly light cream sauce is far from light in my opinion.  Whoops, I left out that we shared a bottle of sauvignon blanc – I never remember the name, year, region, etc.

I want to start taking better care of myself.  After dinner, I popped into Macys for skin aging preventative products; shiseido tinted moisturizer with spf 20, and estee lauder lip conditioner in spf 15.  I religiously apply spf in the morning, but my lips are neglected because my alba botanicals lip balm provides very little spf protection and last weekend, my lips were toasted from minimal outdoor exposure.  Crazy.

Finished the evening off with a movie. The Kite Runner was a poignant story, but predictable and consequently, unnecessarily drawn out.  Kids are so mean to one another in any country.  And the mean boys in the movie grew up to be cruel men.   If I were having a bad day, then this movie would receive a B minus, but I am in a good mood, so I want to be nice, and will reward it with a B.  I was fascinated with the concept of knifing competing kites for maybe the first 3 minutes, but my attention span drifted away at least 10 times throughout the movie.  At this rate, I probably won’t remember the storyline a few days from now, and in a month, I will have forgotten I have seen it.  It is what it is.  Tomorrow I hope to watch I am legend with Will Smith.  I am not a Will Smith fan, but his movies tend to have lots of action scenes with stunt men, explosions, and fires.

I am so stuffed my diaphragm feels uncomfortably expanded.  I have portion control issues = lack of self discipline.

Maggiano's Little Italy
205 Northpark Ctr
Dallas
214.360.0707
www.maggianos.com