Bertucci's

Mall meals: stick with the pizza

by Margaret LeRoux

Solomon Pond Mall Marlborough (508) 485-3636 Hours Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun. noon-6 p.m. Full bar Major credit cards Handicap accessible

This was going to be a review based on the premise that you can get a good meal at the same place where you're doing your holiday shopping. It was inspired by a couple of long sessions at area malls where my stamina was sorely tested. Finding a sales clerk, much less something to eat that you'd recommend to a friend, seemed like an impossible quest. During a recent late-afternoon foray to Marlborough's Solomon Pond Mall, my favorite shoppers and I were tired, hungry, and on our way to the food court when we noticed the sign for Bertucci's.

Yes, Bertucci's is a chain, but in the past I'd been impressed with some of its genuine touches. Besides, it offers a change of scenery from the mall décor, and you don't have to wrestle with a tray along with your shopping bags. We've enjoyed their pizzas in the past; this time we decided to try some of their new dinner offerings.

We were greeted pleasantly by the hostess and immediately shown to a comfortable booth with plenty of room to stow our purchases. Within minutes, a waiter appeared to take our drink orders -- only soft drinks this time. We still had serious shopping to do, though Bertucci's does offer reasonably priced by-the-glass wine options and several draft beers as well as mixed drinks. With our drinks came a basket of crusty rolls, hot from the oven. These rolls, one of the chain's signatures, had been my favorite Bertucci's appetizer. I'm sorry to report the rolls Bertucci's now serves aren't the same pizza-dough rolls they used to offer (and that I used to eat way too many of). The new version isn't bad, but at the risk of sounding like a cranky old ghost of Christmas past, they're just not as crusty, hearty, and chewy as they used to be.

We skipped the appetizers (trying on clothes afterwards was in our plans, and you don't want to do that after a big meal) but there were a couple on the menu that would make a light dinner on their own: eggplant Napoleon ($5.99), a mini eggplant Parmesan with fresh basil and accompanied by bread sticks and mesclun salad, fits the bill as does shrimp antipasto ($7.49), sautéed shrimp in lemon and garlic sauce over baby spinach salad with roasted artichokes and grilled bread, and hot and cold antipasto ($8.49), with proscuitto, Genoa salami, rosemary ham, meatballs, and Italian cheese. Or how about a bowl of minestrone or sausage soup with a salad ($5.49)?

We decided on one of the pizzas that made Bertucci's reputation, back when brick-oven pies with thin, crisp crusts were a novelty. You can choose from eight varieties, including a basic pepperoni, Marengo (grilled chicken with white wine and roasted peppers), sporkie (sausage and ricotta cheese), melanzana (eggplant), or my personal favorite, quattro stagioni (four pieces, each with its own topping of roasted artichokes, peppers, mushrooms, or proscuitto). All the basic pies are priced at $9.49 for a medium and $14.99 for a large.

We took the custom-pie route: fresh tomato and mushrooms. (Extra toppings are priced at $1.50 each). It was as tasty as we remembered, with lots of mushrooms and gooey mozzarella cheese over a mild, fresh-tasting tomato sauce.

I focused on the new piatto forte dinners -- one-dish meals roasted in crocks and served with a first course of salad. Bertucci's offers four boneless-chicken-breast entrées (each $11.99): puttanesca, with tomatoes, capers, garlic, and olives; scaloppine, with lemon and white wine; Annamaria, with sage, artichokes, and mushroom; and Napoletano, Bertucci's version of chicken parm. There are two salmon choices ($13.99 each): San Remo, a filet with tomatoes, mushrooms, and herbs, and Adriatico, with fresh spinach, feta cheese, and oregano. I opted for the latter.

We liked the salad, a mixture of greens, shredded red-cabbage, fresh mushrooms, and a few salty, brine-cured olives, all topped with shredded mozzarella. A low-fat Italian dressing and a rose-colored Chianti-based vinaigrette were served on the side.

The salmon dish went over the top in terms of oven roasting and gave new meaning to the term piping hot. The cheese had turned into a hissing, bubbling sauce. Even the lemon quarter garnishes were steaming. After a few minutes, it was safe to taste, and I was surprised to find the salmon had survived without becoming dry. The poor spinach, however, was cooked way beyond the lovely bright-green color of "done just right," and the rigatoni pasta alongside was practically galvanized.

My other companion ordered from Bertucci's pasta selections and fared better. Lots more chicken here, paired with rigatoni and broccoli ($10.49) and tortellini ($10.99), plus shrimp and clams in tomato cream-sauce ($11.99) and lobster ravioli ($12.99). The menu also included the more basic pasta and meatballs ($9.99) and cheese ravioli ($8.99). His choice was chicken with lemon and capers ($10.49) -- three pieces of white meat coated in a flour-and-egg batter and sautéed with a pleasant sauce of lemon and capers. There were supposed to be roasted artichokes too, but we couldn't find any in the sauce. The pasta described on the menu was twists, but linguine is what was on the plate.

Dinner at Bertucci's did offer a respite from shopping, but my good-dinner-at-a-mall theory remains unproven. At the risk of sounding like one of those financial advisors who warn against overspending on holiday shopping, my advice is to lower your expectations and stick to the pizza. Our bill totaled $41.53 before tip.

Margaret LeRoux can be reached at
feedmefeedback@hotmail.com.

Margaret LeRoux can be reached at feedmefeedback@hotmail.com.