My two daughters have recently started liking pizza and pasta. This was a major event in my family, because my wife and I love Italian food and we can now have family meals at some of our favorite Italian restaurants. Maggiano's Little Italy (Plano location) happens to be our favorite Italian eatery in Collin County, so one night we decided to take the girls there for Sunday dinner.
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| Mozzarella Marinara |
We arrived hungry and immediately ordered an appetizer. Although they have several appetizers that we like (the steamed mussels are a favorite), we decided to order the Mozzarella Marinara on this night. Having never ordered this dish before, we really didn't know what to expect. Rather than the typical cheese sticks you see at most Italian joints, this dish is large square pieces of mozzarella that are fried and served over their very flavorful marinara. We enjoyed this appetizer and I would certainly order it again.
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| Chicken Picatta |
Deciding what entree item to get is always a chore, because they have a long list of entrees to choose from. On this visit, I ordered the Chicken Picatta and was pleased that I did. The chicken was great and I loved the added flavor of the capers and the lemon butter sauce. It was served with spaghetti aglio olio and I felt it was the perfect compliment to the chicken.
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| Baked Eggplant Parmesan |
My wife had the Baked Eggplant Parmesan and it was very good as well, but I certainly preferred my dish to hers. Since this was one of the "On The House Classic Pastas", she also got to choose one of the other classics to take home and she chose the Baked Ziti. We ate it later in the week and typical of Maggiano's dishes, it was big enough to feed two of us. My kids were also pleased with their kid's menu meals of Spaghetti with Meatball and Cheese Pizza.
We couldn't leave without dessert, so the four of us shared a piece of the Chocolate Zuccotto Cake and it was huge, very rich, and devoured to the last bite. The service was once again impeccable and I don't ever recall having bad service at any of the Maggiano's locations. If you haven't already visited Maggiano's, this place can be a great place for a date, dinner with friends, or even dinner with two rowdy little girls. I am so glad my daughters will eat Italian cuisine now, because that allows us to more frequently visit some of our favorite places, including Maggiano's.
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| Chocolate Zuccotto Cake |
Maggiano's Little Italy
http://www.maggianos.com
Livin the Good Life Rating=3
My wife and I recently celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary. We usually try to celebrate by gorging ourselves on massive amounts of high quality food, but this year we were just back from some heavy dining during our vacation and were looking for a place that was both tasty and low in calories. Having heard great things about Rise and their soufflés, we decided to venture into Dallas and see what this casual bistro had to offer.
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| Marshmallow Soup |
The Marshmallow Soup came highly recommended by our waitress, so we followed her advice and promptly ordered it. The soup's name is somewhat misleading, because it is actually a tomato bisque with lumps of goat cheese that look like marshmallows and topped with pesto. The soup was had a very rich flavor and tasted like it may have had a hint of carrots as well. We both enjoyed this unique soup and the breadstick that accompanied it.
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| Southwest Chicken |
For my main course, I ordered the Southwest Chicken Soufflé which was topped with tomatillo sauce. This was my first time eating a soufflé and it was really good, but somewhat bland except for the tomatillo sauce. My wife ordered the speciality soufflé, which was Corn and Serrano Pepper. I liked the taste of this one as well, but once again felt it was somewhat bland and a little more spongy than I anticipated. My wife assured me that this was normal for these dishes and after reading up on soufflés when I got home, I found that this was quite normal and that most have a very "mild" flavor.
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| Corn and Serrano Pepper |
The dessert soufflés were my favorite part of the meal. My wife had the Praline and I had the Chocolate. Both were very good, but I felt the chocolate was phenomenal. The chocolate sauce that topped it was fantastic and I could have drunk a gallon of the thick sauce. These dessert soufflés are not to be missed when dining here.
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| Chocolate |
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| Praline |
We enjoyed our first experience at Rise and felt it was a perfect place for a romantic night out. The friendly waitress was extremely helpful and the ambiance of the restaurant was perfect. A great thing about this place is that you can have a fantastic date night here, but it is also casual and will not break the bank either.
Rise
http://www.risesouffle.com
Livin the Good Life Rating=3
