For today's Saturday lunch we had to start picking up my son who was stranded without a car at his dorm at college, so my wife decided to select an establishment located reasonably close to him. Therefore we were headed to the Hill area in the city, specifically to our favorite Italian restaurant there, Zia's. The last time we had gone, there had been a large group on a bus there, so we were happy to see there was no bus that day. However, the parking was still pretty crowded, as usual, so my wife dropped us all off as she went to find street parking for our minivan.
We were seated much more quickly this time and we were given a roomier round table near the rear of the restaurant near the restrooms. I did not visit the restroom, but my wife did and noticed the hand drier was mounted very high on the wall for some reason, which would be very difficult for a shorter person to use. Our waiter arrived and took our drink orders and told us the daily specials. Neither of them appealed to me so I decided to select one of their pastas off the menu. I decided to order the Ravioli and Canneloni with a house salad. My eldest tried the Chicken Parmigiana, my mother-in-law selected the Fettuccini Alfredo, and my son and my wife split an order of the Mostaccioli Al Forno along with an order of Toasted Raviolis. Since we know their Toasted Raviolis are very good, we ordered a second batch for the rest of the table as well, which my mother-in-law refused (she does not know what she is missing!)
The toasted raviolis showed up shortly along with their standard bread which is okay but nothing special. The raviolis were crisp and delicious on the outside with the soft meat inside cooked to perfection. Since I ate mine with my hands while my daughter was using her fork, I believe I was able to eat them quicker than she so I could eat more of our order. She did not seem to mind as the order was pretty generous. Next came our house salads which have a sweet and zesty dressing and plenty of cheese, and crisp and satisfying lettuce. Their salad is always consistently excellent.
The pastas arrived a few minutes later and again everything was superb. My wife thought their mostaciolli was not as good as last time but still excellent. My eldest enjoyed their chicken and it was a generous portion (much larger than the chicken parmigina portion at Pasta House for example.) Not only was it thicker with more breading than the Pasta House version, but it had a more zesty sauce as well. My ravioli and canneloni were both very good and went well together, Although I had already eaten much of the order of toasted ravs, the not toasted version were very good as well smothered in Zia's flavorful sauce. The canneloni had a different meat filling which was soft and flavorful as well as its own different creamier sauce. At first I thought I might have leftovers to bring home for another lunch, but I kept eating it, and then it was gone! Oh well, it was delicious while it lasted.
The service was pretty good with a number of people checking on us, refilling drinks and pacing the meal reasonably well. It was another great lunch at Zia's on the Hill and we will definitely be back again!
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