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Al's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria - Restaurant Review

Al's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria - Restaurant Review
Location:
6050 West Cermak Road
Cicero, Illinois 60804

http://www.alsrestaurant.com

We were invited to dinner by grandma and grandpa. They picked "Al's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria". My first impression was that inside it felt like i was in an Italian village and had really nice hand painted walls and big mirrors that made the dining room feel larger than it was.

It took a few minutes before the waitress came to the table. From there, she brought us our drinks and a large bread bowl with olive oil and parmesan cheese.

All the tables get a bread bowl, and all the entrees seem to come with dinner salad and a side dish. But they have a salad bar that is $4 extra, and I think it was worth it. The salad bar had a great Hawaiian salad, calamari salad, rice pudding, olives, regular salads, cantaloupe, fruit salad, pistachio salad, jello fruit salad and a variety of pasta salads.

When she took our order, my meal said to allow an extra 25 minutes, but it felt like 25 hours. We had some great conversations with the family during that time, but in reality it took a solid 45 minutes. I ordered the Chicken Pompeii which was described by the menu as "Two Boneless Breasts, stuffed with Provolone Cheese & Sauteed with Olive Oil & Fresh Garlic, served with Vesuvio potatoes" and it was a big portion too. It was rolled in a delectable light breading, and had plenty of potatoes, which were great too.

My mom had the Eggplant Parmesan which was just plain good, and plenty of leftovers. My dad had a special that was only $10, called the "Mezzaluna Pasta served over Alfredo Marinara and a hint of Pesto" but he should have asked what "Mezzaluna" pasta was first because when the large dish came it made the 6 little pastas look even smaller than it was. And as it turns out, Mezzaluna means spinach which he would usually avoid. But it came with a salad and choice of potato, that was enough to make it a good meal.

This restaurant is well known for its pizza, but they have a great Italian menu and everything was very good overall. My suggestion is to avoid the busy times, then the food will probably come out faster.

3 out of 4 forks.

Al's Restaurant, you've been forked!

Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant Review

Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant Review
Location: 7134 Cermak Rd; Berwyn, IL 60402

I never even looked at the kids menu, which in the past has had the usual fare, plus a good Carne Asada kids portion that I have had many times already. I was looking at the adult menu right away. What I had to eat was Mojaritos del Rio. This is a large fish that tasted really good. I finished most of it at the restaurant, and the rest when I got home. They have really good plating, the special metal plates look like fish and when you get done eating you see it says the name of the restaurant in metal on the plate.

When we got there it wasn't busy, but they took over 3 minutes to bring the chips and salsa, but they are forgiven because my meal was so good. The chips and salsa are the best I've ever had. They serve fresh made chips and two kinds of salsa, mild and spicy. I prefer the mild.

This place is not really kid-friendly, it seems more like a romantic mexican restaurant. They had 3 televisions, which had sunday football games on when we were there, and no booths or special kids-area for children.

By the time we left it was very busy, every seat was packed on the first floor and they had to open the 2nd floor. The stairway is very steep up to the 2nd floor, but it has a similar feel to the first floor. It gets loud when it is packed, but I would expect it to be loud when a restaurant is busy.

Overall, my impression was that the restaurant has a great Mexican feel, good chips and salsa and a really good menu.

Three out of Four Forks.

Mi Tierra, you've been Forked!