Critic's Review
DiSalvo's is a place that I knew very little about; it just showed up as someplace that's been around a long time that I've never been to. They claim to have good lunch specials, so I headed over to Stirling to check it out.
There was an accident right as the onramp at Davie and 95, so I had to take the long way via 441. I got there at 3:05pm; Not a soul in the place. Sat down, got a menu and ordered the the Lunch Chicken Francese. "Sorry", my server said, "It's after 3 I can't give that to you". Ok, let me figure out something else. I ordered an Iced Tea with extra lemon and went through their var large, typical pizzeria menu.
While the place is quite large; it's really just a big pizzeria. A big roof over a very casual restaurant with pizza box stacks lining the walls.
There's nothing fancy about the place. The big plastic cup reminded me of Pizza Hut.
I ordered the Eggplant Parmesan, which comes with soup or salad. Pasta Fagioli or Minestrone. Big Surprise. I'll try the bean soup, which came out almost immediately.
It had sort of a tang to it; not a lot of beans. Half the size and not as good as what I got at Liguori's last week. While I was trying to cool the soup enough to eat it, the obligatory rolls were dropped off.
I've never quite understand the "garlic" rolls; tasteless rolls covered with garlic from a jar. So many people just rave about these things, but I never find them to be any good.
The eggplant came out with a side of spaghetti. They certainly don't cheat you on the portion. The pasta looked like your typical, bad Italian restaurant pasta with the bright red sauce.
The eggplant was baked, with lots of sauce; thinly layers with breading.
I figured I'd only eat half of this, so I sliced it before starting to keep myself from overeating. Eating all of this at once wouldn't be a smart thing to do.
No freshly grated cheese; just the usually sawdust on the table. There was a garlic clove on the pasta but I think it was just a garnish, as there was nothing garlicky about this. The pasta water wasn't salted enough and the sauce was pungent and generally bland. The eggplant was OK; we'll see how it goes with a better sauce when I eat the leftovers.
It was about 3:50 when I left, and one other table of two had just arrived. So what's the point of this 3pm cutoff for lunch? Im sure the lunch portions are smaller, so did they make an extra $1 off of me? Are they going to make an extra $2 from the 2 tables? Having to order off of the dinner menu at 3:08 is just stupid.
Even though the place was without other customers my entire time there, it was never close to silent. Constant yakking between the ladies who work here; guys in the back yelling across the room.
Reminded me way too much of Long Island.