Avanti - Arboretum

Italian
$50 - calamari app & pasta dishes for 4 ppl

This place is at the Arboretum and felt very...diner-ish. We were clearly the only ppl not in family units or high school students. It almost felt like an Italian version of McAllisters. So two of us ordered the Pasta Fiorentine and the other two ordered Chicken Romano, both touted as Avanti favorites. The Pasta Fiorentine was...not so great. The pasta itself was fine and the chicken was actually pretty good. It's just that the sauce was way too sweet and a little watery. As my friend commented, "every bite gets a little sweeter each time so that it's hard to actually eat it." "The sausage is just regular sausage, it's not Italian. It's bland." This was being almost complimentary. If I weren't running 9 miles tomorrow, I probably wouldn't have eaten it. My other friends LOVED their Chicken Romano. One was saying it was as good as Magianno's. There was some debate about this but one friend held firm. The calamari was...definitely out of a frozen food bag. It wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't that great. The one bright spot was our waiter who actually wasn't very good but had a great attitude. My friend found a coupon on Restaurants.com which helped enjoy the experience a bit more. My friends said they would go back, I won't be with them. Sorry!