Lucy, I’m home!

Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.

Before Nancy and I moved to the sunny confines of Sun City, we lived in Hoffman Estates, which is basically a suburb of Schaumburg. Our days living there included a lot of fond memories, such as when our son played basketball for a church league that was coached by one of my high school buddies. He coincidentally now also lives in Del Webb. After the games, the whole team would often go to a local haunt and “lick their wounds” over a big pepperoni pizza. We decided to revisit this haunt and “go back home” to Riccardo’s Ristorante in Schaumburg.

It’s funny how time changes your outlook. Our main concern back then was to control ensuing chaos by keeping the kids seated, and hopefully not “dribbling” around the dining room. Making “3-pointers” with pepperoni slices into their water glasses was also frowned upon. Now we can actually sit back and relax and take a look at the restaurant’s dećor. Riccardo’s is really nicely decorated with a hand painted mural on the wall, and “frescoes” on the ceilings. Who knew?

While we were looking over the huge six-page menu, we received a basket of rolls. Nancy’s bloodhound nose detected the scent of garlic and she quickly grabbed one. She noticed it was sliced open and slathered with garlic butter. This was a tasty surprise. Nancy’s nose always knows when garlic enters the room.

We decided on an appetizer off of the “Specials of the Evening” menu. This was Calamari Riccardo’s ($9.99) which consisted of fried calamari in a sauce made from red pepper flakes, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and white wine. The waitress said this was her favorite appetizers, but neither Jim nor I like our food cooked with lemon. We gave it a try anyway…If you like the taste of lemon, this is the dish for you.

Tonight, Nancy went with a variation on one of her favorite dishes on the “special” menu. She chose the Baked Shrimp Dejonghe ($18.99) which was seven large shrimp in a garlic breadcrumb sauce with mozzarella cheese on top, served over linguini and baked to a golden brown. She said this was awesome and was in garlic heaven.

As usual, I spotted something I knew Jim would like, the Classic Gianbotta ($13.99). This was sautéed pieces of breast of chicken, Italian sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onions, in a light tomato garlic sauce over linguini. Unlike most pasta dishes, this had more meat than pasta and was absolutely delicious.

All entrees are served with soup or salad. Nancy, of course, had a salad with creamy garlic dressing. This was a large salad with sliced black olives and lots of croutons. I had the minestrone soup which was also very tasty.

On to dessert! Guess what we decided on? The Tiramisu ($4.99) which was an eye opener when it arrived at our table. It was served in a huge goblet lined with ladyfingers with the usual “schmooey” in the center. It was delicious, and more than enough to share.

This restaurant is reasonably priced. They serve huge portions of food (we took doggie bags home), and everything we had was served piping hot and delicious. “To drive our ‘point’ home,” they offer a dinner for two for $35 TOTAL. This includes your choice of two from a selection of alcoholic beverages and desserts, one choice from eight appetizers, and your choice of two entrees from a total of 21 choices. Seriously, for $35???

FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible, and I made reservations for 6 p.m. on a Saturday night. We didn’t need them since this is a large restaurant.

The price for “going home” was $57.52, mangia!

Jim’s take: This place is so much more than pizza. I loved the tiramisu.

Nancy’s take: Garlic in the rolls, garlic in the salad dressing, and garlic in my entree. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com.

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