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Basil's is not for carb-counters

October 20, 2005 1:06 am

By LINDA SALISBURY

For THE FREE LANCE-STAR

There's a country song that says, "too much of a good thing is a good thing." Too much good bread falls into that category--good bread made by Basil's Bistro in The Galleria in downtown Fredericksburg.

Pizza and bread are made inside the tiny Italian bistro, which includes seating that spills out into the corridors of the Galleria and even outside. Friends who like Italian food joined My Dining Partner and me for dinner.

We chose to eat in the corridor because the air conditioning was more evident than inside, where pizzas were under construction. We sat at two little round tables that had been pushed together.

Basil's was recommended by former Fredericksburg residents who ate there often. We were impressed how quickly the tables were filled by families, college students and retirees--and people were willing to wait for tables.

We decided that Basil's popularity was probably due to the ample portions and relatively low prices. And for bread-lovers, the bread.

While there was no breadbasket, bread came with everything--salads, appetizers and entrees. We felt like we had acquired a loaf by the time we had finished.

My Dining Partner decided to skip the salad ($2 extra with dinners) and have two appetizers and an entree. He had his reasons.

Aside from wanting to try the antipasto tray ($6.50), which came with pinwheels of provolone and Genoa salami, parts of artichoke hearts, olives, marinated sliced mushrooms and grated Parmesan cheese, he had spotted an Italian sausage roll, which was described as having a "secret hot sauce."

It was actually two sausage rolls ($4.95), about a foot long, with a sausage and cheese filling. The sausage filled the middle half of each; and the cheese, onions and peppers squeezed into the tapered ends, meaning that there was more bread than filling.

The dipping sauce was the disappointment. Advertised as hot, it was quite bland. Not enough of a good thing is not a good thing.

I ordered tomato bread ($4) as my appetizer. The bread was crisp as described, but I failed to detect the garlic. The two pieces each had two slices of tomato and mozzarella cheese.

Despite the restaurant's name, there was only one leaf of basil on each piece of toast. A basil-lover, I would have liked at least one leaf on top of each piece of tomato for flavor.

Two of us ordered house salads with Italian balsamic vinaigrette. The salad (with a slice of bread) consisted of a wonderful medley of fresh spring greens, but the dressing lacked tang. It needed more of the balsamic vinegar to balance the oil. We did enjoy the greens--and bread.

Our other friend ordered the antipasto salad ($6.95) as her main course. It came, not surprisingly, with many of the same ingredients MDP had in his antipasto appetizer. She described it as a very good salad, and especially liked the marinated mushrooms--and the bread.

Her husband ordered angel hair marinara ($4.95) with meatballs ($2 extra). He liked the pasta but felt the four or five generous meatballs would have had better flavor if they had been immersed in sauce for awhile, rather than added to the plate.

MDP selected chicken breast Parmesan--a clear case of when the word "value" should be capitalized. We were all astonished by size of the chicken breast. It was not overwhelmed by melted Parmesan, but was not as moist or tender as MDP would have preferred.

I ordered chicken Florentine with penne pasta. There were nice touches of green spinach, lots of ricotta and mozzarella cheese, mixed with the tasty chunks of white chicken meat, and a small amount of mild marinara sauce. Ah, and the bread.

The pizza menu was inviting: the usual toppings on pies ranging in price for $1.50 for a slice, and $8.50 to $9.50 for a full pie, with toppings extra.

Basil's also makes specialty pies ($12.95-16.95) with such names as Heart Attack Heaven, Annie's Roasted Chicken and Momma Laurie's Vegetarian.

Another good thing that there is never too much of--service. Despite our location in the hall that leads to other shops in the Galleria, our server was attentive, helpful and very pleasant. We noticed that other tables also seemed to be getting excellent attention from other servers.

Knowing that we were about to ask for take-home boxes for our bread, our server nonetheless tried to entice us with the dessert menu.

But alas, when we learned that as delicious as they sounded, the desserts are not made by the restaurant, we decided to pass them up--tiramisu ($4.95), cannoli ($2.95) and chocolate mousse pie ($4.95).

Sometimes too much of a good thing is not a good thing.

Linda Salisbury, who has written five books, works with self-published authors. E-mail her at lgsal isbury@gmail.com.