Restaurant Review – Chateau Waltham

As I write this I am enjoying some delish leftovers from last night’s Chateau dinner but since this is a post about the actual dinner, I need to back track a little. As we were headed out of a walk yesterday afternoon, my hubs suggested we look up the Chateau menu online and order something to go for dinner. I was all for that as it meant no cooking for momma! The Chateau is a bit of an institution here in Eastern Massachusetts with a whopping seven locations. With a name like Chateau, you’d expect it to be French, non? It’s actually a family owned Italian eatery, very popular with the early bird set, and offering a variety of traditional dishes at reasonable prices, especially when you consider the large portions. The first restaurant opened in 1933, so clearly they are doing something right! When I downloaded the menu I was surprised to see that it was 12 pages long! That’s a lot of food to choose from. The most interesting dish is the Tripe in Red Sauce. Now, I’m not big on restaurant food because more often than not, something goes wrong with my order. But I have had a few good meals at a couple of Chateau locations, so I was confident that I’d have a good meal. I ordered an Italian Trio, consisting of fettuccine alfredo, vegetarian lasagna, and eggplant parm. The hubs had the Veal Parm with ziti and we ordered the Toasted (cheese) Ravioli with Meat Sauce for Little Miss. Oh, and I cannot leave out the Rhode Island Style Calamari appetizer, which differs from regular calamari because it also has hot peppers. When the hubs went to pick up our meals he said that place was mobbed and getting in and out, he had to fight the early bird crowd as they were leaving. The place is huge though, so I have no doubt in my mind that we would have been seated quickly if we had decided to actually eat there.

The calamari was among the best I have tasted. Perfect texture, not rubbery or chewy at all, and the marinara dipping sauce was light and fresh tasting. My fettuccine was a little coagulated but I am sure that if it had been served piping hot in the restaurant dining room, it would have been fine. The nice thing was that it was not over sauced. The eggplant was heavenly. More eggplant than breading, not greasy at all and just the right amount of sauce. I left the lasagna for leftovers, which, as I mentioned was delicious. Just simple ricotta, pasta, and that beautiful marinara. I heard no complaints from the hubs about the veal. It included two cutlets so there was plenty for leftovers too. But, now on to the most important diner, Little Missy. Since she’s been teething lately and the other day actually flung her food across the room, I was a little nervous but she’s always liked pasta and sauce, so I was hopeful that dinner would be a success. Well, let me tell ya, mouthfuls of ravioli, sauce, calamari (without the peppers) and eggplant from mommy’s plate were accented with cries of “nami, nami, nami” and feet flailing, arms waving, and bouncing in the high chair. OK then, so she liked it I guess. I mean the other day she did say “nami” as she spat out her food, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and say this was a successful meal.