First stopped in a few weeks ago, and sat in the "porch" area adjacent to the side street. On that visit I had a great chicken parmesan, made even better by the
excellent marinara sauce (same as at the Lakeside). My wife tasted it and agreed, saying next time she'd ask for some spaghetti/pasta, even though it's not listed separately on the menu, just to get some of that sauce.
Last week, on one of those super-cold nights, we tried them again. Interestingly, even though it was freezing out, inside it was warm and cozy, due in large part to the fact that both entrances bring you into the same large outer area before you open the inner door. Food this time was ribs for me and salad with steak tips for my wife. She also had one of their soups ('chicken rice' I think). Again, both of our meals were excellent. My rib order was huge (two large slabs - for $17, I think), and my sides were fries (nice: generous serving and hand-cut) and broccoli (instead of cole slaw). Usually I end up asking for some barbeque sauce on the side, but these ribs were so moist and flavorful I didn't even need the extra sauce. I ended up taking half the ribs and fries home. My wife also really enjoyed her steak tips/salad, and I know this for two reasons: First, that's what she told me (duh), but more importantly - and tellingly - she did
not offer me ANY of her steak tips, which she usually
always ends up doing. We've never ordered any drinks beyond beer and wine, so I can't really comment about "drink/bar quality," but I was happy to see my beer served in an icy/frosty cold glass and my wife was happy with the volume of wine served. One final nice thing about the 405 is that they always seen fairly busy, which creates an inviting atmosphere above and beyond the great work they've put into transforming the inside. Suffice to say, we'll be back soon.
