Martinelli's Little Italy

This was a review done by our very good friends +Yu Damman. 

Ate tonight at Martinelli's Little Italy in Salina, KS.

Four people ate all they could eat of some really good food.  Not stuffed but full.  Full and happy.

Like the dearly departed Belisle's of Anaheim, CA they specialize in large portions.  1/4 portions, our waiter Zach explained, were for one person.  1/2 for one or two.  Family portions for up to four.

Bart had a soda, tomato and mozzarella appetizer, 1/4 portion of the house salad, and a 1/4 Chicken Carbonara with penne pasta.

Dee had a 1/4 lettuce and tomato salad and a 1/2 Lasagna and a water.

I had a regular coffee, in a huge cappuccino cup, a 1/4 spinach salad and a 1/4 Chicken Picatta with fettuccine pasta.

Dustin had a special which was a chicken breast, capers, provolone, and pancetta.  His pasta dish was spaghetti marinara.  A meatball on the side and after dinner he ordered two cannoli of which he gave me one.  I forget his drink order.  He was odd man out and on another bill.

House bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar which never saw the bill and we had three or four half loaves among the four of us.

Bart and I had more than we could eat and brought some home.  I couldn't finish my pasta and Bart had some of his salad and entree and pasta left over.  I am a big guy and a big eater.  They could serve me more than I could eat and that is a credit to their portions.

I had some of Bart's appetizer.  Super.  Just nice mozzarella, basil and tomato.  Just like a traditional pizza if you only ordered the toppings.

I asked for extra salad plates so Dee and I could swap some samples.  Lasagna was excellent.

I had a hard time deciding which was better between my salad and my entree.  Rare for that to happen.  When all was said and done I finished my salad even to the extent of letting my pasta get cold.  Spinach, grape halves, walnuts and a rich dark dressing.

I didn't think it was possible for this quality of Italian food to exist in Kansas.  Especially not in a small town that comedian John Bowman joked looked half like a real city and half like the set for Grapes of Wrath.

Even with an appetizer we cleared a bill for three people that would be about the same in any diner in the little berg that I live in.

This is not an Italian themed restaurant but a proper Italian restaurant.

I grew up eating a combination of German, Italian, and Midwestern field-hand food.  I could beat their meatballs, at home and to my liking at least, in texture but not in flavor.

The meatball was a side dish as is traditional and thank goodness that it was too much for Dustin to finish so I could have some of it.  I prefer the texture of the more home-style meatball that poor folks make that is about 2 parts bread to 3 parts meat.  I could never match Martinelli's traditional seasoning and flavor that I haven't tasted since the 1970's.

According to our waiter and unlike most Kansas establishments the staff actually takes their lunches from the same kitchen that they work in.

Short of Italian restaurants in California wine country it was some of the best Italian food that I have ever had.  Those restaurants could not touch Martinelli's portions or cost.

If I could have had a sprig of fresh Rosemary on my Chicken Picatta I would have cried.  If I had ordered a carafe of wine I would have sang.

I think that if they would have arranged some sort of trial by combat for seconds on the cannoli I would have removed my shirt, in Latin and Italian brawling style, and fought it out against all comers for at least another two or three of them.

Service excellent.  The hostess, the manager, one waiter, and two waitresses worked our table.  Primary waiter, Zach, knew the menu and preparation of the dishes well.  Handled Dustin's pasta change order with no fuss.

I live about four or five hours driving time away from Salina and Martinelli's.  In the future I will contrive a reason to go back to Salina so I can eat there again.

http://www.martinellisonline.com/