It was a cold and rainy evening and I really wanted some
warm comfort food to get the chill out of my body. We don’t often go out for Italian but I
thought that some pasta would do the trick.
The closest Italian restaurant was Riccardi’s in New Bedford. I haven’t been to Riccardi’s in several years
so we thought we would give it a try.
Pizza Pager |
We arrived at 6:25 p.m. and were told that there was a 20-25
minute wait. Since we decided we would
wait, we were given a “slice of pizza” pager and exited the main dining room to
go to the take out/café area to wait. The
take out area had two booths, two small tables and counter seating for
four. This area seemed to be a good
place for casual dining or for having a quick lunch. The décor was designed to mimic an Italian café
with tile floors and yellow walls that were painted to look like stucco with
areas of exposed brick. While we were
waiting, lots of people came in and out picking up their take-out orders. The distinct smell of pizza coming from the
kitchen was making me very hungry and I couldn’t wait for our “pizza” to start
buzzing so we could be seating in the dining room.
Our “pizza” went off at 6:45 p.m. and we were brought to our
table in the main dining room. It was much warmer in this area of the
restaurant, mainly due to the fireplace that was in the center. The dining room at Riccardi’s was relatively
small with only about 12 booths and six tables available for seating. The décor was a bit outdated with several artificial
hanging plants hanging from the ceiling and a carpet that was a bit dirty and
dingy. The overall atmosphere was very
rustic with knotty pine cathedral ceilings and exposed wooden beams. Regardless,
the restaurant was crowded so I was expecting the food to be good.I was a bit disappointed that they don’t have a full bar and only offer beer and wine for alcoholic beverage selections. Since I don’t drink beer or wine, I ordered a glass of iced water. My husband ordered a Sam’s Seasonal Summer Ale ($2.95).
The menu was filled with traditional Italian dinners, pizzas
and sandwiches. Since I was having
difficulty deciding what to order, I decided to choose one of the “Italian
Feasts”. The Naples Feast included
lasagna with linguini pesto, a homemade meatball and a dinner salad for only
$9.95. This seemed like a great value and
would allow me to try a variety of different items.
My husband chose the Chicken Parmigiana ($11.95), which was
baked with two cheeses and tomato sauce. His meal was served with soup (minestrone
was the only choice) or salad and choice of pasta. He chose the salad and spaghetti for his
pasta. For the salad, the only dressing
choice given was Italian but they did bring some extra oil and vinegar on the
side.
Dinner Salad |
When our salads arrived, the waitress also brought a basket
of warm wheat bread with butter. Before
we even finished our salads, our meals arrived.
Naples Feast |
While I had three different items in my “feast”, the serving
sizes were small enough, making it just the right size for a meal. The linguine pesto was smothered in olives,
mushrooms and roasted red peppers. Luckily
this was served in its own dish because there was lots of olive oil that seeped
to the bottom of the dish. The lasagna
was tasty, but there wasn’t anything “special” about it. The red sauce was the same sauce that was on
my meatball and the same sauce that was on both of my husband’s plates.
Chicken Parmigiana |
Overall, I would say that our meal at Riccardi’s was
reasonably good and reasonably priced.
There was a large selection of basic Italian dishes to choose from and
the dishes that I was able to try in my “feast” provided me with the Italian
comfort food experience that I was looking for.
Since I didn’t have an alcoholic beverage, our total bill was relatively
low at $26.56 including tax. Riccardi’s
gave us a decent meal for a decent price.