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!