What is the name of Zeus' mighty navel is that food? Pepperoni, cauliflower, broccoli, cheese and other lunch meat on a pita? It looks disgusting.

I described it to someone as the kind of place you see in movies where newly divorced dads take their sullen kids.

Good sentence.

The Fazzini's website states that their salads are served in an Italian bread shell, and, given the salad selections on the menu, it looks like the photo is of their antipasto salad.

Yes, if you run your cursor over the photo, it tells you. EL

My bad, EL -- instead of checking the photo with the cursor, I went to the review to see if the salad was featured there, and then to the website.

Understandable, because I often don't take the trouble to identify the photo. It's an extra step I don't always have time for. EL

Still a collection of food I never want to encounter. Antipasto? Yeesh. It looks like there's canned sliced black olives and the white bits look like the processed pre-shredded mozzarella you get in a bag at the supermarket.

This photographer's photo of Velleggia's yesterday was really good. I can only imagine that the rest of the food here was less visually appealing.

From the menu:

Antipasto Salad
Italian ham, salami, pepperoni, provolone and mozzarella cheese with fresh vegetables on a bed of fresh lettuce.

They were closed in some kind of landlord dispute last year. Guess they haven't gotten around to improving his space, but some hanging lights and orange curtains from Haome Despot for like $80 sure would help.

I've never been there, but I hated them for the obnoxious commercials that they used to run on 1300 AM during the Howard Stern show. The commercials featured the owner and his idiot brother talking in exaggerated Bawlmer accents and making corny jokes. I'm glad to know that I'm not missing anything.

We used Fazzini's for a group luncheon at work and their lasagna was absolutely awesome and extremely reasonably priced - where can you get lunch for 10 for $48? The Caesar Salad also won rave reviews - but unlike the reviewer, we liked that the garlic wasn't overly strong. Oddly enough, our other entree was Chicken Cacciatore and I totally agree with the reviewer - too many green peppers and it didn't have the spicy bite that the lasagna had. We'll try something different next time - along with the stellar lasagna.

Oh, and not only were they lovely to deal with by phone, but the food was delivered to us hot and on time - and they even offered to loan us a steamer table. We'll definitely use them again without hesitation.

Richard liked this food 12.5% more than Dog Pub. Since I really like the Dog Pub maybe I should try this place. BYO my own Chianti and enjoy.

Like so many restaurants, Fazzini's is good for some things, cream of crab and lasagna, and not good for other things, antipasto and chicken cacciatore.

I normally won't just go to Fazzini's simply for a meal, but when I'm doing my trip to the Cockeysville Target, it makes for a nice subburban outing.

My husband and I rarely eat Italian food, but we decided to eat at Fazzini's last weekend. An acquaintance of mine had recommended the restaurant. I ordered shrimp tetrazzini, and my husband ordered one of the specials that day--a salmon dish topped with tomatoes and basil--and the homemade linguini with marinara as a side dish. We ordered take-out pizza for our son. While the complimentary Italian bread was cold and ordinary, all three entrees were delicious. The linguini was "to die for"; because of a mistake our server made, my husband received a pound of it instead of a side order, and he wolfed almost all of it down before he stopped when I reminded him of the price he would pay later (a stomach ache)because of overeating. The tetrazzini was fresh tasting. The pizza, distinguished by a superb thin crust, was one of the best I have sampled in the Baltimore-metropolitan area. The total cost of the meal was modest.

The restaurant is located next door to a High's convenience store in a strip mall. We expected a clean and simple place, and the interior was consistent with what we thought we would find.

I've never been there, and I don't get out that suburban way much, but the picture of the owner in the review is really chaming and makes me want to like the place.

How hard it must be to write a not so great review in the face of that nice old guy proudly displaying his product.

I always am pleased when people write here in support of a restaurant. Writing this review was hard. I was truthful about my experience, but I consciously tried to present myself as part of the problem in the equation, making the review mitrovertly subjective than usual. I want wanted some readers to be able to say, " he's a nut, who cares about a damn refrigerator noise," and others to say, "yeah, that would bug me, too."

Why is old stuff repeating and replacing new comments? This blogware keeps getting more craptastic.

I have eaten at Fazzini's many times over the years and love all their food. It sounds like the author has a problem with the restaurant being in a strip center. If you want good reasonable food, this is the place to go.

I for one appreciated the detail Richard included (count me in as one who would be bothered by the refrigerator noise).

Bourbon Girl nails the essential problem in her comment. I would want to love the place, too.

This was a frequent lunch destination at my company. I'm totally on board with Richard in this review -- in fact, I might even be a little tougher on it. I agree that you want to like the place, and part of it might be the raves it gets from its fans, but I never had anything there that I really liked.

My favorite review line ever came from a Chowhounder a few years ago who described the food at Clyde's as "a big bowl of ok." That applies to Fazzini's too.

Fazzini's is right up in my neck of the woods and we get our fix every few weeks. I was sad when they closed and so thrilled to see them come back. I like to think of it as my imaginary Italian Grandma's joint. Their fresh pasta is just gorgeous -- but I think takeaway is absolutely the way to go.

The times we've tried to eat there, it's been a noisy and claustrophobic sort of experience, but the price is right. The servers do radiate kindness and youthful energy. Despite the treacherous butts-in-faces-style table-navigation, the food is worth a visit. A couple tweaks at home (like throwing the bread in the toaster oven for a couple minutes) really elevate it all, and that pound of pasta is even better the next day (if you can stop yourself from eating it all in one sitting).

ORR (I liked it better when he was gorelick) gets a lot of these tough ones.

Mr. Scweitzer is clearly a cute man (I'm a sucker for dimples) and I hope he tweaks his business.

..the sub-shop atmosphere made me feel enervated

Olympic Subs in Parkville - the shop FL Rob loves and I dislike - has that drain-the-joy feeling.

Fazzini's website states that their salads are served in an Italian bread shell

Oh! Is that where Pizza Hut got the idea?

Pretty elitist review if you ask me.

What the heck does he expect? It's a casual suburban neighborhood strip-mall eatery serving pizza, subs, and pasta dishes at very reasonable prices. Who cares that the storefront is a step above a typical sub-shop.

Good food, plenty of it, cheap prices, and decent service. What more can anyone ask of a casual neighborhood itlian restaurant & carry-out??

It aint supposed to be Sotto Sopra or DaMimmi's, hon!

Plus, they do a grat deal of carry out business. If the only knock on the palce is that the decorations aren't fancy enough, then get a carry-out order and eat it at home!

I've found that calling something elitist often means "I don't understand it" or "I didn't bother to read it."

Being as Donny B thinks the only knock in the review was the decorations, I'd say the latter in this case.

I guess that Donny B gets plenty of water when he dines there.

Well Lissa--

I did bother to read it, and yes, I understood it quite well.

Especially the following statement:

"I think my negative attitude about the environment may have led me to judge the early part of the meal too harshly. There wasn't anything very wrong about a calamari appetizer, but I wouldn't recommend it. The breading was a little underseasoned for my taste, but, really, what would have sold me on it was a sprinkling of parsley..."

So sorry, if I limited my observations to the complaint about the decor. Complaining because the calamari lacked a sprinkling of parsley flakes also sounds rather elitist.

And yes RayRay, the servers who have waited on me at Fazzini's have all seemed to grasp the difficult concept of not completely forgeting to bring a glass of water to a customer who ordered it.

I realize that grasping such a concept has a difficulty level which might only rival that of applied physycs, but somehow the waitstaff at this casual neighborhood pizza and pasta restaurant/carry-out overcame what is apparently an insurmountable challenge to servers at a lot of other restaurants throughout the Baltimore metro region.

Missed the calamari comment, I see.

Recently had the fried calamari at Ikaros. Now, that was some good stuff! Definitely not Sysco.

I agree with Bourbon Girl and Dahlink. If I lived close to Fazzini's, the photo of the nice man would make me want to give it a chance. The combination of the snarky review and his photo upsets me -- he looks so earnest and happy, and I'm sure he was crushed.

My husband and I just ate at Fazzini's last week. We love the place. It is not fancy, the price is right, and the food is good. I will agree that the calamari is nothing special but it is not inedible. Oh and the bread could be warm.

Don't believe every thing you read in a restaurant review. Also, there was no landlord dispute. The restaurant was sold and then closed. The original owner is now back. We've lived across from Fazzini's for about 5 years and never had a bad meal. Forget the decorations, enjoy the food and the prices.

You can't go wrong with the pound of pasta!!!!