The Mediterranean Cafe

Restaurant: The Mediterranean Cafe
Location: 33 Blackstone River Road, Worcester, MA
Meal: Dinner, Saturday night
Attendees: Diary Queen, Buffalo Girl, and Steak and Potatoes

When you hear "Mediterranean food" the first thing that probably comes to your head is "Oh, that's Greek food. Lamb, gyros, and feta." A visit to The Mediterranean Cafe will set you straight. Mediterranean cuisine is considered the cuisine of the countries who border the Mediterranean Sea, and that includes Italy. Now that that's settled, let's get to the meat of things.

The Mediterranean Cafe is on the former Millbury Street, and is a small building across the street from the White Hen Pantry. They have a light-up sign, so it's easy to find. Parking might be tough during the busy times. We were able to parallel park in the driveway, and there is probably room for 4 or 5 cars. We went around 8, and there seemed to be some empty spots on the street.

The menu here leans heavily towards Italian food, notably pasta. You will also find a lot of Green items, such as Greek salad and chicken and other meat kabobs. They don't have gyros. You can choose from 5 different sauces (red, tomato cream, alfredo, oil and garlic, and ... one more. can't remember.) The main meat options were chicken, seafood, and veal. No steaks or red meat, except for meatballs.

Buffalo Girl and I had the Greek salad. It was delicious. Lemon mint dressing, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, super large pepperoncini (almost 3 inches long and hot!) red onions, and calamata olives. The only flaw we found all night was with the olives - they were flavorless. Steak and Potatoes (a frequent dining companion) had the house salad with good blue cheese dressing.

For entrees, BG and SP had the Chicken and Broccoli with alfredo and penne. They both really liked it. I sampled and it was great. Good alfredo sauce, with plenty of cheese flavor. I had the Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. They make their own marinara sauce, and it was nice and tomatoey, fresh tasting, not too sweet, nor very thick. It's like I'd make it at home. It came with two thin tender breaded chicken breasts, cooked to perfection. We all ate about half of our huge portions, and took the rest to go. My favorite part of to-go: the waitress fit it all into a small container, which takes up less room in the fridge. Today, I'm having leftovers for lunch.

Dessert - Even though we were full, we shared the cream puffs. They were the opposite of how you might think of cream puffs: filled with chocolate mousse, topped with whipped cream and white chocolate sauce. Delicious.