Grazies

My sister Jessy was nice enough to take me out to lunch for my birthday.  We went to Grazies, which to the best of my knowledge, is a local Italian restaurant.  The lunch menu was moderately priced (about $10 for an entree on average) and had a nice selection of pastas.  The atmosphere is quite nice.  It is pleasantly dim inside with a trattoria type ambience.  After ordering, our server brought us some servicable bread (obviously bread made out of house and simply reheated there) along with an interesing mix of olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, and various Italian seasonings.  This is what it looked like. 

My sister ordered the the Chicken Fettucine Alfredo with shrimp instead of chicken.  The kitchen graciously agreed to make the substitution.  Here are a few pictures of the dish:

I tried the dish.  The alfredo sauce was fine but the shrimp seemed a little bit scorched and overcooked.  Sort of shame since there were only three tables in the restaurant at the time.  (Funny note here:  Jessy is looking away not to pose but because she was embarassed at my taking pictures of all the food.)  I ordered the Spicy Garlic Chicken.  Here’s a picture.

 

  

 

This dish was a mixture of penne pasta, grilled, spice rubbed chicken, mushrooms, basil, parmesan cheese, and various spices.  The chicken was perfectly cooked.  It was tender and moist inside with a nice spicy pop and a pleasant crust on the outside.  The mushrooms added a deep earthiness to the dish, while the basil’s anise flavoring matched nicely with the spiciness of the dish.  The penne was well-cooked.  And there was lots and lots of garlic flavor.  Overall, it was very nicely executed dish.  My only complaint was that it seemed just a little oily as if the sauce had broken.  Hence, there was a slight greasiness to the dish.  But overall, it was a very nice dish and something I would order again.