| Food | * * 1/2 |
| Service | * * * |
| Ambience | * * 1/2 |
| Value | 5.5 |
| Cost | $ $ |
| Dish | Price | Value | Rating | |
| Fried Chicken a la Luigi | $12.95 |
* * * | * * 1/2 | |
| Lasagna Dinner | 8.95 |
* * * | * * 1/2 |
It is often difficult to review a restaurant where you get good value for your money, but at the same time, you get a meal that isn't particularly groundbreaking. Espaņol Restaurant is one of these. Despite its name, Espaņol is a family-style Italian restaurant. Espaņol is not in the best part of town; it's across the street from Corti Brothers, so it does border on a nice area.
There are several a la carte selections, but one is best served by choosing from the meal selections. There are the pasta meals, which are virtually identical to the meat meals, except no additional plate of spaghetti and $2-3 less. In addition, they have "specials" each night of the week (veal, prime rib, etc.). We began our meal with our drink (iced tea, hot tea, or coffee), fresh sourdough bread with butter, and soup (clam chowder or minestrone). It was a pleasant surprise to have a choice of soup, for in many Italian family-style places, there is house (minestrone) soup or nothing. As J and I both wanted different soups, they provided us each with a large salad bowlful. Both soups were delicious and we both polished off our respective bowls (about 2.5 cups of each soup). Almost as soon as they cleared the soup, the server brought us the salad - garbanzo and kidney beans with lettuce and great bleu cheese dressing. Again, we were able to get our main course almost immediately after finishing the salad, although the server had told us that the entrees might take 35 minutes. J had the lasagna, which was enormous (maybe 75 cubic inches), and I had the Fried Chicken a la Luigi (absolutely covered in minced garlic). Mine came with spaghetti, which was a little overcooked with super-bland tomato sauce; and French fries (brown and greasy). For dessert, we opted for the spumoni ice cream (but could have had vanilla), which was light, and had a good flavor.
The food wasn't the best I'd ever had, but the service was prompt, the restaurant tastefully decorated and well-lit. The food came in a timely manner, and in large quantities, and the server was courteous and kept us eating the whole time.