Chef d’Angelo

If the resolution of the photos seems a little wanting, that’s because they were taken with a phone cam. We were going to see MI 3 about a month ago and we decided to have dinner at Chef d’Angelo’s at Robinson’s Metro East. Since my husband and kids had to occupy a table to make sure we’d have one by the time our order arrived, I did the ordering at the counter by myself. Perhaps, my mistake was choosing those items with everything in them. You know, pasta, pizza and chicken in one plate. Two plates of pasta with red sauce with a slice of pizza and chicken, and two plates of pasta with white sauce with a slice of pizza and chicken for the four of us. They even went with drinks of my choice.

Had I ordered a whole pizza, it would have arrived at our table right off the oven and we would have enjoyed it more. The pizza had a generous amount of cheese and toppings but they were already lukewarm and, well… pizza just isn’t so good unless it’s newly cooked and the cheese all melted and the crust hot and crisp at the bottom.

The pasta with red sauce was great. My husband didn’t like it. He said it was too sour but, carnivorous as he is, I suspected it was because it was meatless. I had the plate with the white pasta in it but since my husband didn’t like his pasta with red sauce, we swapped pasta. Well, I loved the red sauce. So did our 12-year-old daughter, Alex, who had the other plate with the pasta with red sauce. The sauce was made with real chopped tomatoes and onions with just the right amount of garlicky flavor and a hint of basil and oregano. No artificial thickers but real vegetables and herbs just like pasta should be.

I wasn’t too impressed with the white sauce, however. Though my 13-year-old Sam was uncomplaining (give her white sauce any time), it was really tasteless. Not exactly bland. I mean food can be bland (too little salt, to be more precise) but still full of flavor. Neither was I happy with the chicken–there was too much coating that it took a long time to get to the meat, if you know what I mean. But then again, perhaps, I’d say differently had they been served newly cooked.

It was really strange. The place was packed. That was why my husband and kids had to stay at the table while I ordered to make sure the table was ours. One would think that with all those customers, the food would be fast-moving with no chance of getting cold before they were served. Ah, well, maybe next time I’ll order the right items and try a different branch as well.