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Sunday, June 20, 2004

Rate-A-Restaurant, #43 in a series

Restaurant: Scarantino's Italian Inn

Location: 1524 E. Colorado Blvd.

Type of restaurant: Italian

They stipulated: No reservations necessary.

What we ordered: Baked Stuffed Lasagna; Fresh Tomato & Basil Pizza

High point: Just about every neighborhood has one: An inexpensive, Old World-themed Italian restaurant. It's comfort food, Americanized Italian-style. The portions are big, the sauce meaty, the pizza cheesy. And the food keeps coming: the lasagna order included minestrone soup, salad, and bread.

Low point: Because it's old school, you're not going there for gourmet tastes. And don't expect much of a wine list -- pick the house wine.

Overall impression: But you're not going there for gourmet tastes. For what it's meant to be, Scarantino's fits the bill nicely. Craving some pasta? You could do much worse. Alas, we would still place Palermo's -- the Old World entry in our Old Neighborhood -- up higher. (Particularly because of Palermo's 25 cent wine-as-you-wait -- or did they raise it to $1?) But Scarantino's has some serious charm of its own. And you won't leave hungry.

Chance we will go back: Hungry for pasta? Not in the mood to cook? Don't want to drive all over town? I'm sure we'll be making another visit.

For a complete archive of our Rate-A-Restaurant reviews, check out our companion ratearestaurant.blogspot.com website.

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