Maria's Front Room, Ferndale, Michigan

During a long week of not being able to cook due to some minor construction at home, Todd and I headed out for a quiet dinner last Thursday at Maria's Front Room, a Ferndale mainstay on 9 Mile. It's a totally old school Italian restaurant, complete with plastic vines weaving through trellises, faux stone-paneled walls, and travel posters of Sicily. Don't get me wrong--it all adds to the homey charm of the place. However, the best thing about Maria's is its menu. With typical Italian restaurant fare--speidini, fried calamari, linguini with clam sauce, garlic bread--Maria's does a terrific job of transporting you back to the days before manufactured, taste-free chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Papa Vino's took over the American restaurant stage. We each ordered a glass of the house-made red wine--if I understand correctly, while Maria's does not have a liquor license, they are still permitted to make their own wine. We then shared a classic Caesar Salad--dressing good, lettuce crisp, but dock a couple of points for soggy croutons. Then, after a recent, POOR pizza experience at neighboring Como's Restaurant, we opted for Maria's round, thin-crust pizza with broccoli, artichoke hearts, black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms. Props for the VERY fresh veggies, unlike Como's bits of frozen spinach and canned mushrooms. We finished dinner by sharing a HUGE cannoli, with its crispy shell, overflowing with ricotta cream. Dock another point for garnishing with chocolate chips in place of the traditional crushed pistachios. Aside from that, however, it was heaven. We left in the midst of an evening deluge, satisfyingly full from another wonderful meal at Maria's. Photo from AOL CityGuide restaurant review