Restaurant review: Catinella's

Tonight my partner and I decided to try a new restaurant. We chose Catinella's, just off Middlebrook Pike, because (1) we drive past it a lot and (2) we had a school coupon. We arrived right at 5, which is when they open. The restaurant was much better appointed than I had expected. Because kids eat free and because it's a family place, I thought the decor would be very generic. Catinella's instead has lamps on each table made of old wine glasses, cushioned chairs with arms, and the Italian tricks of stacking old olive oil containers and using empty wine glasses to line a counter. This helps their ethos: we've been here for quite a while, and people have had good times here. The service was slow tonight, but the server acknowledged it was slow and apologized several times. The food was quite simply worth the wait. I had Tom's Favorite Calzone, which has 3 cheeses, portabella mushrooms, orange peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes. The flavor was incredible even without their thick, rich, dark marinara. My partner had the 5-cheese calzone and was very pleased with it, especially the way the marinara complemented the flavor of the cheeses. He also had the calimari. When they brought it to the table, it actually smelled fishy. This squid hasn't been frozen. The batter was reportedly very good; my partner's only complaint was the squid wasn't heavy. Since appetizers aren't supposed to be heavy, this seems more than acceptable. We finished our meal with a slice of red velvet cake, which wasn't worth the calories. It was only marginally better than Kroger. I was worried when I saw how bright red the cake was; the best red velvet is dark. The flavor of the cake was bland but the icing was decent. Our cake was on the house to make up for the slow service.

Overall, I rank this as a good experience--despite the fact that our server neglected to add marinara to our to-go boxes. We'll definitely visit again.