East Side Mario’s

Mom, grandma and I went to East Side Mario's for dinner, before mom and I went to see The Good Shepherd, which made me very sleepy. Ah, East Side Mario's. No place better embodies the bastardizing of Italian food than this place. Unlimited quantities of pretty bland pasta dishes and some salad. It's reasonably priced and their bar food is decent, I give them that. At least, it usually is. We ordered some Hot Wings that were so disgustingly awful I couldn't even eat them. They were battered and fried and appeared to be missing their hot sauce. The batter was absolutely saturated with grease and they tasted like fried flour.

I had the asparagus and ricotta cappelletti, mostly because it was the only pasta I was reasonably certain I hadn't already eaten. It's sort of like a tortellini, I guess. It was smothered in Alfredo sauce that was more milky than creamy and otherwise fairly bland. Even a healthy dose of black pepper did little to revive it. I picked out the roasted red peppers and ate a couple of the cappelletti before getting my fill.