The Restaurant Coupon Saga continues

You can read what started this restaurant coupon saga series here.

So, to continue our investigation we headed to the next restaurant (Bella Italia in Cape Girardeau) after church on Sunday. We were immediately told that we could sit at separate tables to utilize our $10 off coupons. So, we sat at two tall bar tables right next to each other. It was just like sitting together anyway as we were near each other. I immediately began laughing and telling our waiter what the previous restaurant had said. It was not long before he told us it was okay to sit at the same table, and so we did.



Of course, I immediately began ordering lots of extras, just to run our bill up. I had this WONDERFUL glass of wine which was their suggested wine. It was $7 for a small glass of the 2007 Riesling, but goodness, was it SO smooth and fruity going down. I would have never imagined something so easy going down came with such a punch! It took everything I could not to buy a whole bottle of it to take home, but $27 was just a bit too much.



Hubby ordered toasted ravioli for an appetizer and I ordered this portabello mushroom (stuffed with a rich cream cheese, artichoke, pancetta and black olive tapenade; topped with mozzarella and baked until bubbly). Oh, was it Yummy (with a capital Y!). Now I'm just going to have to go back there some day in the evenings and get one of these mushrooms and a bottle of wine just for an evening out! I have never seen a mushroom so large! Yep, that's ONE mushroom! My first bite brought me this twang of a flavor, but after a few bits, my mouth was relishing in it.

My entree was "Farfelle Milano" (grilled chicken, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and bowtie pasta topped with a roasted garilc cream sauce) and it was a bit of a dissatisfaction. It was a good, but the sauce was a light sauce without much flavor. My mouth was still exploding with the yummy-ness of the mushroom and, therefore, I needed something with more flavor to follow. I did really enjoy the flavorful sun dried tomatoes. It was sort of like when someone on American Idol has to follow up someone else who just gave a great performance. Their performance is not bad at all, but it just does not give that impact of the first performance.



So, our bill was much more than the $1.66 of the first series in this saga. We also gave him a $10 tip. We are known to tip well. I used to be a waitress. He well deserved the tip for his great service.