[Bijou]

We've been wanting to eat there since we heard good things about the food but hadn't gotten there until today.

Let me preface this by telling you I worked for a Mom and Pop Italian restaurant for 7 years in Tampa back in the 70's. The owners were straight from Italy and knew how to make great sauce and food. So I have a wonderful comparison and I've done nothing but come up short on decent Italian restaurants around here.

We waited for about 15 minutes before I finally asked the waitress if we could have some bread and olive oil dipping sauce. Some one mentioned in another post, that they always have plenty of this behind the bar. Apparently at the table you won't get it unless you ask. By the time the waitress brought it out, our food was already on the table. The bread was warm and very good, but the dipping sauce seemed to be a butter garlic sauce with some parmesan cheese thrown in it....very heavy and not light like olive oil with seasonings.

The red sauce did have a great flavor to it and I'm not one who usually eats red sauce. I had the eggplant parm and my hubby had the chicken parm (about all he'll usually get in any Italian rest.). The portions were VERY generous, However, I hate to see watery sauce peeking out from around my pasta. I probably could have poured a 1/4 cup of water off the pasta. Next the eggplant parm was loaded with cheese and very mushy. If it had been breaded, you'd never know it. All you could taste was cheese and sauce.

Since price is an issue to any business, I would have preferred a SMALLER portion and a small salad before the main course.

They really didn't have anything fantastic or out of the ordinary. I didn't even see bricole on the menu. It was your basic Italian fare. I doubt we'll ever go back, but at least now we don't have to wonder how it is!