Going Italian

As much as I love Mexican food, it's still nice to have something different now and then.  On Saturday we had returned to the apartment after spending the day in downtown Mexico City.  As I have mentioned before, the neighborhood where I am staying is dominated by chain restaurants, many of them U.S. chains.  We decided to go out to Itallianni's for supper.

You might say that Itallianni's is Mexico's equivalent of the Olive Garden (although there are a few Olive Gardens here also).  There are more than 30 locations in Mexico City and nearly 50 more in cities throughout Mexico.  I did a little research on the chain, and apparently it started out as a chain in the United States, although I don't remember any in Ohio.  Then the restaurants in the U.S. were sold off, and the only one remaining is the original one in Texas.  The chain is still thriving in Mexico however.

The restaurant was just a couple blocks away on Insurgentes Avenue.  When the waiter came for our drink order, I asked if they had sangria.  He said that they had a special sangria made with a Mexican red wine from the state of Querétaro.  We ordered a pitcher of that, and it was very good.

We both ordered a bowl of cream of spinach soup that was very tasty.

For our main course we ordered different pasta dishes.  I had a spicy pasta dish with chicken, carrots and broccoli, and Alejandro had pasta with Portobello mushrooms.

We were both quite satisfied with our meals.  We were stuffed by the time we finished our main courses, and we did not order dessert.  I would say that the food was better than Olive Garden back home.  (Alejandro has been to an Olive Garden in Mexico and didn't care for it.)

When we got the bill we were rather surprised that it came to $47 U.S., a rather hefty amount for a restaurant tab in Mexico.  But then I noticed that almost half of the bill was for the pitcher of sangria.  We thought that was rather exorbitant given the fact that it was a Mexican wine.  Nevertheless, it was a good meal, and I am sure that a similar meal would have cost more in the United States.