Another foray south of the river landed us at Maldini’s on Forest Hill Ave. The restaurant is completely non-smoking even at the prodigious bar. On this night the locals had come out in droves so we were seated in a back room (which also quickly filled up). Jolly, originally from Eastern Europe presented us with menus and about six specials (the Osso Buco was very tempting), complete with a delicious accent and cool black attire. The wine list contained mainly Italian wines, of course. While I am knowledgeable about lots of wine, I still need to hone my Italian expertise. After perusing the list for an inordinate amount of time we settled upon a 2003 Maestrale Barbera D’Alba bottled by Salvano. Not bad, not bad. The price was $34. I have no idea if it was a good price or not. Upon tasting the wine we both decided to order veal. I ordered the Veal al Limone. My husband had the Veal alla Milanese. Both were $14.25 and came with a house salad, a side of pasta, and homemade bread. The salad was tasty and had a couple of scrumptious olives to boot. The highlight of the meal, hands down, was the veal. Mine was lightly sautéed with a very subtle lemon sauce. Fresh Italian parsley was generously sprinkled as a garnish. The only disappointment turned out to be the lack of capers (the menu description listed capers and since I really like capers, I gave out a dejected sigh at first). My husband’s veal was more heavily breaded, but was still a quality piece of meat. Both of us were served sides of spaghetti with a tomato–based sauce, but to our delight the sauces were different with my husband’s topped with a very meaty sauce and mine with a thinner sauce with a hint of meat. And the pasta with the sauce paired the best with the Barbera D’Alba. Yummy! We were a bit concerned because we had received our entrees and the bread had not appeared. But Jolly did return with freshly baked homemade rolls and all was right with the world.
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