Wayne and I recently had dinner at Flavors of Italy located at 10330 Dayton Pike in Soddy-Daisy. It’s in a little building that used to be a house with a gravel parking lot.
On the night we were there, they were very busy, so a lot of people must really like it. We can’t say we are among those people. Not that it was bad, it wasn’t; it’s just that if you live nearby, you might enjoy it, but if you have to drive across town, there wasn’t anything to make us want to do that.
We decided to start off with an order of Fried Calamari ($7.95) while we were perusing the menu. Before the calamari arrived, our server returned to take our entree orders, which are served with a choice of soup or salad and rolls. The server made mention of the fact that she wouldn’t turn in our order until we were finished with the appetizer. Little did we know, that didn’t include timing for the soup and salad. She arrived at our table with the calamari in one hand and my soup in the other. She immediately brought Wayne’s salad. We were not impressed with this at all.
The calamari was made up of the larger rings that were very tough and chewy. I wouldn’t order it again because we prefer the smaller, crisp, chewable, more tender calamari. I asked for my soup to be put in a cup to take home. Too much at one time! The soup was called Italian Wedding Soup containing spinach, tiny little meatballs and orzo. Wayne went ahead and ate his salad while the calamari cooled.
Wayne couldn’t decide what he wanted because, as he said, “nothing said, ‘order me’” to him. For the pasta dishes, Flavors of Italy offers your choice of rigatoni, spaghetti, penne or angel hair. Wayne likes linguini. He finally settled on the Four Seasons Personal Pizza ($8.50), which includes homemade pizza sauce, and mozzarella topped with broccoli, mushrooms, chopped chicken and chopped ham. Not his favorite toppings, but it sufficed after he removed the broccoli. He said he didn’t especially care for the sauce, but it was OK.
I settled on the Chicken Marsala ($13.95), described as a chicken breast with mushrooms in a Marsala brown sauce. The chicken was tender, but rather bland and served with a side of pasta. It was just OK for me, not bad, just nothing special. I find the Chicken Marsala at Carrabba’s far more flavorful. They may be a chain, but to me, they have good food!
Other appetizers you will find at Flavors of Italy are Fresh Mozzarella & Tomato Caprese ($6.95), Eggplant Rollatini ($7.95), and Hot and Cold Antipasto dishes ($7.95). Pasta dishes include Primavera, Italian Sausage, and Carbonara, among the eight listed (priced from $7.95 to $10.50).
There are seven chicken (Pollo) dishes such as Chicken Parmesan and Chicken Giovanni with prices ranging from $10.95 to $13.95 and two Shrimp dishes priced at $14.95. If you are vegetarian, there are a couple of Eggplant dishes priced at $11.95.
Children’s (Bambini) meals are $5.95 and desserts of the day are $3.95.
Hours for Flavors of Italy are Monday through Friday for lunch from 11:00 AM until 3:00 PM and dinner from 4:00 PM until 9:00 PM; Saturday 3:00 PM until 9:00 PM; and Sunday 11:00 AM until 8:00 PM.
READER PET PEEVE OF THE WEEK:
“Why do people talk on their cell phones while in the buffet line? Nothing can be so important that it cannot wait until they sit down for their meal (which is another pet pieve). Nothing is worse then standing in line behind someone talking on their cell phone, not paying attention to the line behind them waiting to get their food.”