Elbow room

The noodle still rules Dino's

by Margaret LeRoux

Dino's Ristorante Italiano
13 Lord Street, Worcester
753-9978
Mon. 4-10 p.m.
Tues.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
Fri. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.
Sat. 2-11 p.m.
Sun. 2-10 p.m.
Full bar
Major credit cards
Handicap accessible

Dining at Dino's recently was like visiting an old friend. The Italian restaurant has been a Worcester establishment with a loyal following for decades, and not much has changed over the years. At suppertime, you'll see entire families -- from grandma to toddlers -- enjoying ample servings of spaghetti and meatballs ($7.95) or lasagna ($8.50) at long tables covered with red checked tablecloths. Booths for couples and smaller groups line the sides; waitresses carrying huge trays bustle between them and the tables. Italian opera and the sounds of Frank Sinatra singing old favorites like "Witchcraft" can be heard over the din of conversation.

At one end of the room a balcony perches over a small tree decorated with hundreds of tiny white lights. The hostess led us there to a booth where we had a good view of all the action below. We noticed an improvement immediately: the fake stained-glass covering on the windows was gone; the clear glass gives a welcome brightness to the room.

The Evangelista family owns Dino's, and a bevy of relatives makes up the line cooks and wait staff. Clearly, the younger generation has influenced the menu, adapting it to new styles of eating, while retaining the mainstays. You can still get a plentiful antipasto platter ($7.95) piled high with ham, salami, cheeses, tuna, peppers, and lettuce. But now there's also crostini ($5.95), four thick slices of grilled Italian bread topped with caramelized onions, sliced eggplant, fresh tomato slices, and mozzarella cheese. When we mentioned it to our waitress, her eyes lit up, "You'll love it," she said, and we did. The crostini was both crunchy -- from the light breading on the eggplant -- and smooth -- from the melted cheese. The sweetness of the caramelized onions gave depth to the fried eggplant. On a hot summer night you could make a light meal of crostini along with one of Dino's salads: mesculin wild greens ($3.95), Caesar ($4.25), or gorgonzola with walnuts ($4.30), and a glass of Trefethen eschol chardonnay ($4.75) or Bolla pinot grigio ($4.50).

It was one of those hot summer nights when we visited, but we were revived by the restaurant's air conditioning and hungry enough to take on Dino's formidable dinner menu, which features more than 20 different pasta selections. Chicken, veal, and pork are offered with sauces such as marsala, parmigiana, Alfredo, and others; beef choices include broiled sirloin and a T-bone steak. For fish lovers there are calamari, scampi, scallops, haddock -- broiled or fried -- and salmon, broiled with citrus dill butter.

There is also an assortment of specialty pizzas and here too, Dino's has made some welcome changes. On our next visit we're going to try the Tiberius -- feta cheese, sliced tomatoes, and black olives, or maybe even barbecue chicken with peppers and roasted garlic.

Our waitress was efficient, serving all of us on the balcony, including a large group of women, with ease. She was also friendly, making us feel like welcome guests. When my companion chose french fries instead of pasta or baked potato with his entree, she noted her approval. "The french fries here are great," she said. Once again, she was right. They were golden brown and delightfully crunchy, with just the right amount of salt already on them.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before the french fries appeared, we were served large salads of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. You can also choose a cup of soup instead of salad.

From the specials, I chose scallops and fresh asparagus served over penne ($13.95), while my companion selected veal Tuscany ($12.95) from the regular menu. My dish could have easily fed two hungry people; it was an enormous serving of tender bay scallops and slivered fresh asparagus atop a plateau of pasta. The sauce was subtle, the garlic and herbs a backdrop to the fresh flavors of the scallops and asparagus.

More assertive and complex was the wonderful sauce on the medallions of veal sautéed with leeks, roasted garlic cloves, and sun-dried tomatoes. Splashed with wine and tomatoes, this sauce was worthy of its name. We sopped every last bit of it with slices of Italian bread.

Dessert is another example of the maturation of Dino's menu. There are several coffee specialties, including espresso, cappuccino, and a large bowl topped with frothed milk and chocolate sauce we watched our waitress carry to the next table. "That's café mocha," she told us.

We shared a serving of almond tiramisu ($4.25), a large square of sponge cake, almond flavored custard, topped with toasted almonds. A strong cup of cappuccino ($2.50) was a perfect accompaniment. Our bill was $55.60, not including tax or tip.