Do I have the restaurant for you today!!! Okay, first the background story…
Two years ago we were diving at Mermet Springs on a Friday. We included a lot of people and I’ll bet our group was every bit of 12 people. That evening we decided to go to dinner. Now Saturday nights are the trip to Fat Edd’s so we wanted somewhere different and started searching for local restaurants. Metropolis is on one side of the river and Paducah is on the other side so it’s not that big of a drive really. Once we decided upon Italian, we went on the search for Italian restaurants. We stumbled across a restaurant called Italian Grill on Broadway and decided we’d give it a shot. Yeah, no. The wait was 2 hours. That must mean it’s good, right? That night we wound up at another restaurant with less than steller service….
Jump forward a year (to last year) and we decided we were going to eat there no matter what, so we made reservations a couple weeks in advance. We didn’t want to miss out. We had 8 in our party. Like I said, we were going to eat there. The wait was totally worth it!
Italian Grill on Broadway
I think one of our biggest draws to this restaurant was their claim to make their noodles fresh every day. Now, truth be told I think Italian food is one of my absolute favorite cuisines. I love pasta so that means I like carbs, right? haha. Anyway, when we were seated the waiter (or to be politically correct… our server) took our drink order and then brought us back this Italian bread that was topped with Parmesan Cheese and garlic.
They served it with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO, thank you Rachael Ray) with some Balsamic vinegar drizzled in it. Seriously, you could have made a meal off this bread alone.
The ambiance of the restaurant just made you feel like you were sitting in some posh huge city restaurant, but at the same time it wasn’t one of those where you’d have to be in suit and tie. Casual clothing was fine. It was just a nice feel to the restaurant. Plus there was a fabulous view of downtown Paducah. At this point I can admit that I’m a country girl tried and true but I love architecture.
So, the food you ask. First off, they don’t do salads with your meal. The server said that they had so much waste in the salads that they decided instead of giving salads with the meal, they’ll give more in the dish that you order. More noodles, more meat, more everything. If you want the salad, you can order the salad for a small additional cost. The portions, they were huge. We wound up taking left overs with us. Sadly, we never ate them but the portions were huge.
This was Cajun Pasta with Crawfish and Sweet Italian Sausage. It was composed with fresh pasta, roasted garlic, onions, peppers, tomatoes, Cajun spices, and EVOO
This would be the Steak Gorgonzola. A NY Strip steak, grilled your way (but not over medium), in a creamy Gorgonzola sauce, sautéed spinach, onions, and mushrooms, served with fresh house made pasta. My steak was cooked medium rare (the only way to eat it IMO). Holy cow! I’m pretty sure you could founder on this stuff. Oh founder, what is that? It’s a horse term that in short makes them go lame (it’s really bad but we’ll just stick with lame here).
This was just Pasta Alfredo. Oodles of Noodles in a creamy white sauce. It was even good. Yes, I tried a bite.
Um, so our only complaints were we walked away stuffed… pretty sure we needed to be rolled out of there. And 2, parties of 6 or larger they added gratuity. Unfortunately I know why they do that, I was a server in my previous life (previous life = my early 20’s) and sometimes people don’t tip well with large parties, but at the same time sometimes they hurt themselves by doing that. So anyway those were our complaints.
Just remember that we are headed to Mermet Springs 2 weeks so if you’re looking for some good Italian, keep this place in mind!