Frankie, Johnnie, & Luigi Too

For our first dinner-and-a-movie night in California, we drove over to Mountain View for some Italian food. It was a restaurant we had not been to before, even though it was just outside of the downtown that we frequented last year. Frankie, Johnnie, & Luigi Too had a 25-minute wait, but we were seated after 19 minutes. It was a good thing that I had previewed the menu, since we weren't exactly given a relaxed pace. But that's no big deal, it was after 8 on a Friday night, and we would've been upset if the meal was too leisurely, since we did have a movie to make over in Santa Clara.

Our waters weren't refilled immediately, but they were filled consistently, so no true complaints there. The bread was fresh and hot, with plain butter. We also ordered the sausage bread as an appetizer, since it sounded unique and we were hungry. It was very fresh, with sliced (homemade) sausage and mozzarella baked in. It was served with a good marinara sauce as well, and we even took the final slice home.

Many things on the menu looked good, and I absolutely have to give them credit for unique combinations in their dishes. I went with the linguini pollo alla cuore, which was bite-sized chicken with broccoli, onion, peppers, and tomatoes. It was an oily romano-basil sauce, and as a whole I probably would have placed it near the bottom of the list of Italian dishes I've ever had. But it was unique, and I enjoyed eating one part of it at a time (broccoli, then peppers, etc). I just didn't care for the flavors together (I think the "sauce" killed it for the most part).

Jonathan had the baked ziti, which was also very unusual. It was eggplant, mushrooms, sausage, and ricotta in a tomato cream sauce and smoked provolone baked on top. He liked it a lot there, but reheated he didn't really like the mixed sausage and eggplant in the flavor. So, although both of us had three meals out of the giant plates we were given, only I finished it.

I wanted to like this place quite a bit, since you can get 20% off really easily (Costco deals), but it didn't happen. We may try it again, since it was highly recommended to us by a friend, but we'll have to see.