Mandina's Restaurant

After a long fundraising strategy session, I went out to an early dinner at Mandina's Restaurant. Offering Creole/Italian, the place was noisy and busy on a Sunday afternoon but the Bloody Mary's were good and we were fine at the bar until our table was ready.

While it has been a while since I've seen an iceberg lettuce salad, the blue cheese dressing on it was delicious. We ordered the veal parmesan with spaghetti, grilled shrimp with pasta bordelaise and fried shrimp with french fries. This place serves huge portions. Any one of the meals could have fed all three of us. The veal was terrific and the garlic sauce on the grilled shrimp was powerful without being overpowering. The fried shrimp were good and filling. By the time dinner was over, we had no room for the bread pudding (which was good because it wasn't particularly good--I'm not a fan of raisins, so the layer of them didn't help the odd concoction).

The waitstaff was fast as they danced around the crowded tables. Our particular server's joking about removing the evidence of all the empty beer bottles endeared him to my Mom and his quick refilling of my iced tea kept me happy as I unwound from my day.