A tip before you order at Mariah’s: Try something served with the homemade red sauce, a house specialty. The flavorful tomato sauce, which is rich with herbs, spices and onion, is light in texture and tastes like it just came off your stove at home after simmering for several hours.
Mariah’s restaurant opened this fall in the former Fox Run Restaurant on the
city’s west side. The huge log structure resembles a ski lodge, something you’re
more likely to encounter in the Colorado Rockies than in Springfield. Natural
wood planks cover the walls and ceiling. Chandeliers fashioned from antlers
hang from above. My husband and I dined near the center of the room, next to
the circular fireplace, which sits atop a platform of stone. It’s the best seat
in the house, providing a cozy atmosphere in the spacious building, which tends
to get noisy due to its size and soaring ceilings.
Considering the building’s architecture, you’d expect a menu of wild game
and steaks. But the theme here is Italian, a reflection of owner Sam Alkhayyat’s
13 years with Olive Garden. This is Alkhayyat’s first venture as a restaurant
owner. He and his wife, Mary, named the restaurant after their daughter.
“People love Italian,” he says, explaining the menu options. People also love
friendly service, something Mariah’s has down pat. A hostess even came outside
to greet us as we entered the restaurant.
Appetizers include calamari, stuffed shrimp, mozzarella sticks, and shrimp
cocktail. The mozzarella Dijon sounded enticing, featuring Italian prosciutto
ham and honey mustard wrapped in mozzarella and breaded and fried. But we chose
one of three combination platters ($7.95), which featured stuffed portabella
mushrooms (filled with shrimp, crab, herbs, and cheese), toasted ravioli, and
zucchini straws. I would order the mushrooms and toasted ravioli again. Both
were more interesting and superior in flavor to the fried zucchini sticks.
The menu offers soups and salads, a wide variety of pasta, six steak options,
Cornish hen and chicken and pork dishes. Mariah’s salad includes fresh greens,
carrots, cabbage with artichoke hearts, tomatoes, black olives, and onion topped
with croutons. The prime rib salad offers the same salad with prime rib served
on top for $8.95.
The entrées, which are served with house salad, include an extensive list
of Italian dishes, including spaghetti, linguine, lasagna, manicotti, pasta
primavera, jumbo ravioli, chicken Marsala and eggplant or chicken parmesan.
We ordered the stuffed pork chop, the special of the night — a thick and flavorful
bone-in chop stuffed with ham and cheese and topped with smoky sauce. It was
perfectly prepared. However, I was disappointed when a bland mix of frozen vegetables
replaced my choice of green beans, the vegetable of the day. My other option
was a side of spaghetti.
Our second entrée was a veal dish called a nightgown, a recommendation from
our waitress. It was a cut of veal wrapped around prosciutto and Fontina cheese,
then covered in homemade red sauce for $14.95. It was a provocative combination
and served with a side of fettuccine alfredo, a thick, white sauce with garlic
and parmesan. While the veal was tender, the real achievement was the red sauce.
In both dishes, however, the prosciutto tasted a bit overcooked.
The house salads were better than most salads that accompany a meal, with
black olives, purple onions, cucumber, and tomatoes. The house and low-fat Italian
dressings were full of herbs and very flavorful. A loaf of warm bread was served
with the salads.
The lunch menu, which range from $5.95 to $8.95, offers many of the same Italian
entrées, in addition to sandwiches such as chicken salad, chicken parmesan sandwich
and meatball and Italian sausage subs. If you’re really hungry, you can order
the Mariah’s combo for $13.95: a trio of lasagna, manicotti, and cannelloni.
Desserts include chocolate cake, New York style vanilla and café latte cheesecakes,
tiramisu, raspberry bread pudding, and caramel apple pie. We chose the Kentucky
bourbon pecan pie. The description promised a hint of bourbon in the rich and
gooey pecan filling. My husband, a Kentucky native and bourbon fan, deemed it
too light on the taste of bourbon.
There are many drink options, from moderately priced wine to martinis and
frozen concoctions. If you are in the mood to celebrate, you can even order
a bottle of Dom Perignon for $150.
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Mariah’s is located at 3317 Robbins Rd. Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sun.-Thu., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Phone: 217-793-1900. Reservations are accepted
but not required. Take-out is available.
Menu changes at
Z Bistro
Even fondue is going low-cal.
Z Bistro, central Illinois’ only full-service fondue restaurant, is offering
a few changes to its four-course fondue menu.
Tempura dipping is now available with all entrées upon request and a new chocolate
and peanut butter dessert fondue has been added to the menu. For health-conscious
patrons, white wine and chicken broth cooking pots are now offered, instead
of the traditional oil.
And if you’re too lazy to cook your own food, for an additional $1 per person,
owner Abbas Zolghadr and his staff will prepare the fondue entrée of your choice
and serve it over fluffy rice. Entrées start at $12.95 per person and are served
with a house Caesar salad and warm Paseano bread.
Z Bistro is located at 220 S. Sixth St.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2003.
