Fine cuisine for a decent price

My good friend Salva Dut, founder of Water for Sudan, a non-profit dedicated to providing clean water wells to the people of Southern Sudan, is in town this week. He's back from Africa for just two weeks and then he'll head back to get started building a new Water for Sudan compound and digging the next round of 30 wells.

Salva's visits are always reason to go out to a new restaurant. He basically survives on beans and rice when he's in Southern Africa, so when he's home, he tries to get his fair share of good meals. During this visit, we decided to visit Joey's Pasta House in Penfield, since neither of us had eaten there before. We had attempted to dine there on a previous visit, but we went on a Saturday night, and the place was packed with an over hour long wait. This time we went on a Tuesday, and while it was just as packed, we were lucky enough to score a two-top upstairs.

Over the years, I've watched restaurants come and go at this location at 1789 Penfield Road. Let's hope Joey's Pasta House is there to stay, because the price and quality of the food is something that will keep me coming back for more.

As I weighed my options, I gnashed some crusty baguette, soaked in a garlicky olive oil mixture with some hint of herbs in it. Choosing what to order was really tough. A sucker for a good salad, I was weighing the Arugula Salad with roasted beets, candied walnuts, goat cheese and roasted shallot vinaigrette; the Wedge with crispy pancetta, crumbly bleu, creamy bleu and red onion, or the Grilled Caesar with hearts of romaine, garlic toast and smoked Caesar dressing.

Entrees come with a house salad and a choice of pasta or potato, but the server informed me I could get any type of salad for a slight up-charge, so I hemmed and hawed and chose the argula salad, even though I hate goat cheese. In combination with the other ingredients though, it was incredible. I think my taste buds for goat cheese may be changing.

For dinner I was debating between the House-Made Potato Gnocchi with roasted plum tomato sauce, fresh basil and shaved Parmesan; the Risotto of the Day, which was a combination of seafoods ($29 and a bit out of my budget), or the Chicken French, described simply as sherry, lemon and butter. I chose the chicken french, with a side of homemade linguini, and Salva chose the Chicken Milanese, which was breaded in panko and served over arugula tossed with shaved Parmesan and lemon vinaigrette.

Our meals were both spectacular. The salads were to die for, tossed with just the right amount of dressing and not skimping on the beets and walnuts. Our chicken dishes were both superbly cooked and very juicy. The flour bath on my chicken created a perfectly consistent batter, and the french sauce was just right, with the sherry and lemon disguising the fact that the butter makes this a sinfully fattening dish. We didn't share our food, but Salva was equally as ecstatic about his dish, particularly the arugula, since he said you can't get salad greens in Africa.

Surprisingly, the bill was very reasonable at $44, without the tip.

Joey's has gotten some mixed reviews on both RocWiki and Urban Spoon. One of the comments I noted was the service. In my opinion, the service was just right, with time to converse (although it was a bit loud, but hey, people were having a great time), enjoy each course, and not feel rushed. It reminded me a lot of my experiences dining in Rome...the kind of meal that you dress up for and plan to spend hours enjoying.

For more information, visit Joey's Pasta House on Facebook.