I was super excited when I received an email from my old college buddy Phil saying that he would be in the city for a few weeks visiting his sister. Phil lives in Massachusetts and Josh and I haven’t seen him since our wedding. It always seems like whenever he happens to be in the city, Josh and I are traveling or spending the weekend with our parents in NJ. Finally we were able to nail down a day where we could all get together, grab dinner, and catch up.
Phil said that he was craving Italian food so I suggested going to a restaurant in my neighborhood called Lasagna, which looked like it had an interesting menu. Obviously the main feature is lasagna of all kinds but they also have lots of other options available if that’s not what you’re not in the mood for.
I wasn’t super hungry so I didn’t get an appetizer. Instead I concentrated on the bread basket, which was filled with warm and crunchy pieces of garlic bread. We polished off the first basket right away, and the quickly brought us more. This bread is seriously delicious and addictive in a junk food kind of way.
Yummy toasted garlic bread
Phil had a bowl of minestrone soup to start while Josh had a caesar salad. Both seemed pretty standard but perfectly respectable. I stole a few bites of Josh’s salad and the dressing was thick and creamy, though they were a bit heavy-handed with it.
Caesar salad with creamy dressing
Since it was our first visit to the restaurant, I of course had to get my standard Italian restaurant test order of chicken parmesan. The chicken wasn’t pounded too thin, which I liked, and the red sauce had a nice flavor to it. The cheese was bubbly and browned properly, and it was piping hot. The chicken was served over penne pasta that was still al dente, which was a huge plus.
Chicken parm over penne pasta
Before I ordered the chicken parm, I made sure that Josh was getting a lasagna because we couldn’t go to a restaurant named Lasagna and not get their signature dish. Josh chose the lasagna with sausage and he received a huge wedge of it that had been placed in a gratin dish and covered in cheese, then broiled. Even though the dish was bubbling hot, the lasagna noodles were still surprisingly al dente. The sausage, however, was just ok. I don’t actually like sausage but the pieces in the lasagna weren’t very flavorful or spicy. Still, it was a pretty good lasagna overall.
Sausage lasagna
Phil selected the Penne Jambalaya pasta, which had shrimp, chicken, ham, and mushrooms in it. It was served in a pink sauce that was described as being spicy but it didn’t have too much of a kick. The pasta was well cooked though, and it was a tasty dish overall. It just didn’t really remind me of jambalaya, which is usually pretty smoky in flavor. The pink sauce was closer to a vodka sauce.
Penne jambalaya
Overall I thought the food at Lasagna Restaurant was pretty good. Our meal got off to a great start with the delicious garlic bread, which I couldn’t stop eating. All of our pastas came out al dente, which sounds like such a simple thing but sadly too many restaurants turn out disgustingly mushy pasta. I liked their red sauce a lot, as it was nicely seasoned and tangy. The portions aren’t absurdly huge but I took home enough leftovers for lunch the next two days. Prices are pretty reasonable and it seems like it will be a reliable neighborhood spot.
Lasagna Restaurant (multiple locations)
785 9th Ave. between 52nd and 53rd St.
New York, NY
Tags: Italian, Midtown West