Dinner At Biaggi's

Today is Wednesday, the last day of September.

Last night Jan and Grace and I met our friends Mike and Penney at Biaggi's for dinner.

Since Mike and I have our birthdays within a few days of each other, we use that excuse to get together and go out to eat, all of us together.

I know, it's not like we NEED an excuse, but unless there's an "occasion" like this, it's to easy to put it off, then it seems never to happen.

Biaggi's is a relatively new Italian restaurant in the ritzy Renaissance area of Ridgeland, and they are actually quite good.

Somewhat expensive, but good.

We arrived about 6:30 on a Tuesday evening, and only had to wait about ten minutes. The wait was only because we had a party of five, and they "had to put a table together."

Our server was Anne Marie, and she was very nice and very competent. At one point as she was distributing water glasses, she bumped the back of Mike's shoulder, and immediately said, "Oh, excuse me! I'm sorry."

Mike said, "Hey, that's quite okay. I enjoyed it. Was it good for you, too?"

Penney punched his shoulder and looked at the rest of us with her "I can't take him anywhere!" look.

Anne Marie laughed, and thereafter doted on Mike just a bit more than on the rest of us.

Typical of higher-class Italian restaurants, and those who would like to be, they served us a saucer of olive oil with herbs and parmesan cheese in it, into which we were supposed to dip our bread. Which they eventually brought, as well.

The bread was good, and the olive oil was a high enough quality that it did not trigger my gag reflex, as some of the more odoriferous olive oils have been known to do.

But it still chagrins me that they just assume everyone will be happy with olive oil, and don't even offer butter for the bread.

The few times I've requested butter (in other restaurants that serve only olive oil), it's quite obviously an effort for the server to keep from sneering in disdain, and instead accommodate my request as though it's not a huge burden to them. However, they usually do manage to punish me for this request by delaying bringing the butter until the bread is almost gone, and when it arrives, it's so cold and hard that attempting to spread it on bread will result in little more than a handful of shredded bread.

But at Biaggi's last night, I didn't even ask for butter. So no report on what their reaction would have been if I had. Sorry.

We ordered fried ravioli as an appetizer, and we won't be ordering that again. As Mike so eloquently put it, "I'm underwhelmed." The cream sauce and chopped tomato topping was good, as was the spinach and cheese fillng. But the ravioli itself had the consistency of a sheet of cardboard, only not quite as tasty.

When Anne Marie returned and asked how we liked the fried ravioli, I told her we were disappointed, that it was tasteless and we certainly wouldn't order it again, or recommend anyone else get it.

She seemed nonplused, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry," but not really knowing what to make of the comment. I wonder whether Biaggi's trains their people how to handle it if the customer isn't happy with something? Maybe they do, and the objective is to see if they can ignore the complaint and hope it gets forgotten.

Fortunately, the entrees were a signficant step up from the appetizer.

I got the veal parmesan (hey, it's a birthday meal!), Jan got the chicken manicotti, and Grace got the lasagna. The veal was excellent, but I had a bite of Jan's chicken manicotti, and if we go back there again, that's what I'm getting!

Grace said her lasagna was excellent also, except it was burned and inedible around the edges. When some other servers came to take the dishes away, I suggested to them that they might point out to the manager that a portion of the lasagna that was served was burned and inedible, and she said she would. Of course, I never heard another word about it. Maybe their policy of ignoring complaints works for them.

Penney got some kind of garlic shrimp dish with an Italian name, on angel-hair pasta, and she said it was excellent, and would order it again. Mike got a huge bowl of something with ziti pasta and sausage and only ate half of it, because he said the pasta was only half-cooked and gummy.

Overall, it was really a good evening out, and the food was overall good, despite the few stumbles.

Will I go back again? Probably, but not real soon.

Why? First, it's rather expensive. Dinner for three, with the appetizer, ran $65, including an $8 tip. So the VALUE thing is marginal.

Second, most but not all the food was excellent. Yes, I'd be willing to try it again.

Third, the atmosphere was very nice. Tablecloths (covered with a large square of white paper) and cloth napkins, carpet on the floors, and not so loud that we had any problem conversing.

Their attitude was hot and cold, mostly on the good side. The people were pleasant and helpful, and Anne Marie kept fllling our water glasses even though we sat there talking for half an hour after the bill was paid. (Yes, I looked around the restaurant and made sure there were always some empty tables and no one was waiting in the foyer.)

The only negative thing I can say about their attitude is the way they really didn't seem to care if the customer was happy with the food. They asked, "How did you like it?" but really didn't want to hear the answer, if it was anything other than "Wonderful!"

My humble opinion on this is that if you don't want to hear it if a customer is unhappy for some reason, then you shouldn't ask the question. To ask the question then ignore the answer, or blow it off, to me reeks of hypocrisy.

And it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, however, it was a good meal, and we'll probably go back.

Some day.