Restaurant Week - Lunch at Germano's

Because Restaurant Week got extended, and because I had to leave work early on Tuesday to use some of the furlough hours Maryland state employees have to take this year, I thought it would be a good idea to try Germano's for lunch. Mr Minx and I had been there some years ago with our moms for Mother's Day, but we have not been back since. Not because we hadn't enjoyed it, but because there are so many other places to try!

This time around, Mr Minx tried the pasta e fagioli soup.  It was a very clean and basic rendition, with not much more than cannellini beans and ditalini pasta in a veggie broth, served in a huge portion.  I went for the fried calamari with zucchini and was happy to see a few clumps of tentacles (my favorite part) in with the rings.  The appetizers themselves would have made a nice lunch, but wait - there's more!

Hubby had the linguine puttanesca, and it was delish, if a tad undersalted (pretty much everything was undersalted to my taste).  And the portion was so large, we took about half of it home.  My osso buco was even larger - a huge mound of saffron risotto topped with a large veal shank in an herbed tomato sauce and served with two pieces of garlic toast.  I barely made a dent in it.  The reason for our generous portions, our waitress informed us, was because the kitchen does not like to serve less food just because it's lunch.  So my osso buco was the full $24 dinner portion. 

For dessert, I went for the housemade pumpkin cheesecake because Mr Minx had to have the BongoBongo. The large slice of cheesecake was just the consistency I like - not too dense, not too frothy, with a nice pumpkin flavor and light on the spices. The BongoBongo was two immense cream puffs filled with what was probably pastry cream lightened with whipped cream, and topped with chocolate sauce.  

Let's do some math here: calamari = $8.99; soup = $5.99; osso bucco = $23.99; pasta = $13,99; cheesecake = $6.99; BongoBongo = $7.99.  Grand total = $67.94.  We paid $40.18 plus tax, and had so much food left over, we got two more meals out of it.

Our waitress, the only waitress, was terrific - friendly, knowledgable, and attentive, and part of what made the meal enjoyable.  Well, besides the cheap food.  

Although it wasn't the best Italian meal I've ever had, the abbondanza of it all more than made up for any lack of salt.  And now I'm going to go stretch that leftover osso buco with some home made risotto....

Germano's Trattoria
300 S High St
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 752-4515
www.germanostrattoria.com