Calabria Restaurant

After reading some of these reviews my wife and I decided to give it a try.Seems people either love it or hate it. It's pretty obvious most of the positive reviewers don't get out very much. Anyway, parking is awful. If you can't park on the street you have to go down the alley to a small lot which on a good day holds 15 cars. We did find a spot right in front of the restaurant and came in through the front door only to be greeted by this very tacky and dingy drape used to protect people at the bar from the draft of the door. Once you push your way through the drape the place is actually pleasant and very clean. We sat in the room on the bar side, which was a mistake. Although, there were only 6 people at the bar the noise level was very high from locals having a good time. We got there around 5:00pm for an early dinner. When trying new places my philosophy is: if the kitchen can't put out good food with no one there what's it like when it's crowed? Although there were 3 severs standing at the hostess station we were told to sit anywhere we liked. No one walked us to a table and handed us a menu. As a matter of fact it took a good 4-5 minutes for someone to come over to us. Now you have to remember we were the only ones in the dining area at this time. Our server came over nice young girl very pleasant and took our drink and appetizer order. I had a VO Manhattan straight up and my wife had a Merlot. Both drinks were a good pour, but the cherry in my Manhattan had spoiled to the pint where I couldn't keep it in my mouth! Enough said here. The Stuffed Mushroom appetizer was very good (6, 2" caps). For entrées I had the lobster ravioli ($20) and my wife had a chicken, lobster and asparagus special ($22). I selected a salad as one of my sides, which was some romaine lettuce, a couple of onion slices and two unripe tomato wedges, which I put next to the previously discarded cherry. I had 6 ravioli's that were full of lobster and a tasty cream sauce. However the lobster was either canned or in the refrigerator for sometime as it was very dry. Wife's chicken was very good and so was the sauce. Her lobster pieces were same condition as mine, however the asparagus came burnt to the point where you could actually smell it and they plated it! The manager came back after we had finished the meal with more asparagus that was just perfect, which indicates the chef could do it properly. The manager never really went out of his way to apologize for the situation as most restaurants do. To sum it up... parking 1 star, atmosphere 2 stars, food 2 stars, service 3 stars. Total bill with tip $75.00. My suggestion unless you're dying to eat Italian in Millbury go to Olive Garden or Carrabba's. Better parking, food, service and the bills a lot less. Sign of an acceptable restaurant is if you'd go back.... Not us. I understand that any restaurant can have a bad day, but that decision is up to you.

The food and service are impeccable and the drinks keep flowing my kind of place.... Worth every penny!