Just taught a fabulous class about vacation planning! It made up for having to go to math class!
Twitter Updates for 2010-09-29
- Granuaile practiced the rules for a happy day on our way to school. Is there a set of these for husbands? I don't think mine got his copy. #
- @rwhitneyjr @Dizneydreamer See, Rob didn't get the memo! Point proven! #
- RT DisneyParks: Moms Panel: Can the Premier Passport still be purchased? http://bit.ly/dCqS6b #
- @PackerKay So sorry about Thor 🙁 What a wonderful companion he was and I am certain he'll be missed! #
Maggiano’s Little Italy – Review Wrap Up
Overall, the family dining menu at Maggiano’s Little Italy turned out to be a great value and a delicious meal. We ended up with enough left over items to put two additional meals together, and with tax and tip, our bill was about $140. Three restaurant meals for a family of four for $140 is big bank for our dining buck. We certainly could have pigged out more on salad and bread, and they more than encourage you to order refills, so we could have probably eaten for several more meals if we had wanted to take advantage.
The food is not the best Italian food you’ll find anywhere, but it’s good Italian food. The menu combines enough familiar standbys (lasagna and ravioli) with chef’s specialty items to keep it interesting to come back time and again.
We were the ONLY people in the restaurant when we arrived for our early dinner at 4:30, but the tables around us had begun to fill up by the time we left at just over an hour later.
The Cherry Hill Mall location is very convenient, not only for Mall shoppers, but for people going home from work to stop in for a bite to eat. It’s also a central and well known meeting place to have family dinners or reunions. They do have separate banquet rooms.
From a gastric bypass standpoint, you’re going to have to rely on your pouch to determine what is safe her. I can only eat a minimum amount of pasta, but fortunately, you’ll find a variety of non-pasta dishes, including my usually pouch safe lobster tails, salmon, and crab cakes. There are also several items on the appetizer menu that I could have easily turned into my main meal had we opted out of the family style menu.
They only serve the family style menu to parties of four or more, and again, from a gastric bypass standpoint, this is a good thing. You’ll have plenty of options to share with your friends. I love how they give you four entree choices with two of the family style menu options, because it really does allow for everyone to get what they love and to share it with the table. This is perfect for post-ops.
Definitely try this restaurant out – preferably before the busy holiday season, when you won’t be able to get a table!
Maggiano’s Little Italy – Gastric Bypass Restaurant Review – Dessert!
We are so full that even my sweet teeth little girls roll their eyes when the waiter comes over to ask if we want dessert. Then the little one pipes up with “unless there’s chocolate ice cream!”
The dessert menu features a few Italian favorites, like tiramisu and spumoni; Italian spins on chocolate cake and pound cake; and the more traditional NY cheesecake. Many of their options come with ice cream on the side, but there is absolutely not way this family is going to be able to eat two desserts unless they are bringing a crane to get us to our feet and roll us out the door.
The girls push for the chocolate zuccoto cake, which is a chocolate layer cake filled with chocolate mousse flavored with Sambuca. Since this is one dish that doesn’t come with ice cream, I ask our waiter if he can just go ahead and box our cake to go.
We have the cake the next day, with our left over dinner, and I have to say, as light and fluffy as you think it will be because of the layers of mousse, it is a thick, dense cake with a thick chocolate frosting, and it is way too heavy for me to have more than a few bites. Gastric bypass aside, this is a heavy duty cake, but when you factor in the gastric bypass, this could be dumping on a plate. Take a bite to just satisfy your head hunger for the cake, but know that you aren’t missing anything by not being able to eat more than a taste.
Our second choice, which seems the least heavy of the bunch, is the spumoni. The Maggiano’s version of this Italian ice cream combination features chocolate, pistachio, and cherry ice cream that is cold, creamy, and delicious. There are chocolate pieces and dark sweet cherry pieces, although I would like to have seen a few more pistachios scattered in there. Jim, who says he isn’t going to have any dessert, actually jumps at the chance when the waiter offers to bring another bowl. Remember, this is all you want to eat. Next time, we might start with the spumoni.
I know a lot of post-ops struggle with ice cream, as many of us become lactose intolerant. I do fine with it, and I haven’t dumped on ice cream yet. This was a much better choice for me than the cake.
Wrap up coming up next!