"Don 't expect much, my friend warned me when telling me about this place. She was referring to the exterior of the restaurant, which is completely unassuming and shares a complex with a rundown liquor and package store. As we walked indoors, we saw that things were cozy but scantly decorated. But truly, we couldn 't care one whit about any of this. Because as we followed our waitress to our table, we were catching whiffs of fresh bread and pasta sauce. Focaccia is likely what we were smelling, and it 's one of the first things they bring out to the table, along with a small dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It 's served warm, with a crusty and toasted exterior, which made it nearly impossible to ration them for sopping up sauce later (note: you always have the option of getting extra bread for a small upcharge . We started with the calamari fritti, which are a thing of beauty. They look as though they 've been painstakingly hand breaded, because they 're so well coated yet extremely light. They 're also hardly salted, which might compel some to think they 're unseasoned. But I found them to taste just right with the accompanying sauce and a heavy spritz of lemon. We whizzed our way through our plate, which turned out to be a good thing because the pastas arrived way faster than we expected. I ordered the pappardelle alla bolognese, and my husband ordered the fettucine alla pescatora. Both were unmistakably made with fresh pasta, and we slurped happily from our respective bowls. My favorite thing about these entrees were the serving sizes. These weren 't fancy plates with a tiny swirl of pasta on a big plate; instead, they felt like the generous, Italian mama spooned pasta bowls that are ready to fill up the most cavernous of stomach spaces. While there were no downsides to our meal, we had a bit of a scare when we were taking bites from my husband 's dish and we both ended up nearly chipping our teeth on some loose mussel or clamshell pieces that we hadn 't noticed in the sauce. So word to the wise if you order it (though I hope that doesn 't scare you away it was delicious! . The service in this family owned restaurant is fast, friendly, and warm. I was touched that a server chased us halfway into the parking lot because we 'd forgotten our leftovers at our table."
