Life > November 15, 2007

By Aubrey Sitler | Contributing writer

My first impression of Paul’s Fine Italian Dining was one semi-reminiscent of a country club. When we walked into the restaurant, we were greeted by a short, balding Italian man in a bow tie who led us to a table topped with white linens, fancy folded napkins and a vase of plastic carnations.

While Paul's Fine Italian Dining creates a nice, romantic atmosphere and is close to campus, its expensive entrees make it hard for a college student to afford.

Luckily, we had been warned beforehand that wearing jeans may be inappropriate in this venue. Business casual attire was just right.

Considering that it was a Saturday evening, the restaurant was surprisingly empty. Only a few tables were occupied, and I noticed that the average age range of the other customers dining at Paul’s seemed to be at least a generation older than my party.

Once we were seated, the waitress promptly filled our water glasses and offered to get us a beverage of choice.

Throughout the evening, the service was very prompt, and our waitress seemed dedicated to making our meal an effortlessly enjoyable one.

The menu at Paul’s features a wide array of Italian foods ranging from soups and salads to pastas with a variety of different sauces to veal and seafood. We took several minutes to finally decide on what to order.

Our meal began with a basket consisting of slices of Italian bread as well as garlic bread. Although some of the slices were more than crispy around the edges, it was good nonetheless.

One friend and I split the chicken parmesan ($17.95).

The entrée itself came with two huge pieces of breaded chicken topped with parmesan cheese, and on the side we were offered a dish of spaghetti with marinara sauce or sautéed spinach.

My friend and I opted for the spaghetti with marinara sauce.

The chicken was cooked just right, not too crispy or soggy, and the sauce had good flavor, but it was also not anything absolutely spectacular. Additionally, the size of the meal, had we not split it, would have been astronomically unmanageable for a single person’s meal.

Another friend chose to try the capellini papalini ($13.95), a mixture of angel hair pasta tossed in cream, tomato and meat sauce mixed with prosciutto, mushrooms and sweet peas. Her meal was very appetizing, what with the array of flavors in it. However, she was also unable to finish all but a small portion of her pasta.

Another friend ordered plain spaghetti with marinara sauce ($12.95). He thought it tasted good, but then again, it is pretty difficult to fail at making a simple meal of spaghetti. This dish was a manageable portion compared to our other entrées.

Although we enjoyed our meals, we all felt that they were slightly overpriced. Our food was good, but nothing spectacular.

It was comparable to Olive Garden. Many of the entrées on the menu were priced at well above $20 or $30 each. All of the veal entrées were nearly $40.

I’m guessing that although it is veal, if it was similar to the quality of our meals, it would not be worth that price.

Overall, I found Paul’s Fine Italian Dining to be a good restaurant but not anything dazzling. Additionally, it is not necessarily a good venue for people of college age to go to on a Friday evening with their friends to unwind after a stressful week of classes.

Instead, I would suggest it as a good, local place to take parents or grandparents should they come into town for a day or two.

The ambiance is quiet and elegant, making it appropriate for a formal dinner with the family. Our experience there was decent, but it was definitely too quiet a place to be perfect for us.

On the plus side though, Paul’s is only a 10 minute drive from campus, located on Robinhood Road.