Thursday Night Taste Test: Michael's Restaurant

By Lyndsay Ollberding
12:00AM / Friday, February 09, 2007

Michael's Restaurant, Route 2, Williamstown, Mass..

Williamstown - An impromptu dinner date led my husband and I to Michael’s Restaurant on Route 2 in Williamstown.

The ambiance inside the restaurant reflects its vast history. Upon walking in, you can feel that the restaurant is family friendly, with booth and table seating and a casual, come-as-you-are atmosphere. The lighting is low and pictures of all shapes and sizes adorn the walls. The restaurant has been owned by the same family for over 40 years.

Owner Cindy Nikitas is also the restaurant’s chef. Using traditional family recipes and the freshest ingredients around, she makes most everything from scratch each and every day, according to the restaurant's Internet web site. The extensive menu has both Greek as well as Italian dishes to choose from.

Appetizers

The appetizer list offers a wide array to choose from. Some of them include, Hummus [$5.25], Tzatziki, which is a Greek yogurt dip flavored with cucumber and dill [$5.25], Greek salad [$6.50] as well as a selection of soups.

We chose to have the Baked Feta, which is baked with extra virgin olive oil, chopped tomato & oregano and served with pita chips [$4.95]. When it arrived at our table, it was served on a hot plate and was steaming. The salt from the Feta was complemented by both the tomatoes and the oregano

Dinner

The dinner menu has over 20 meals to choose from, both Greek and Italian. I choose to have the Fettuccini Alfredo [$12.95] which is a long time favorite of mine. The bowl arrived and it was a generous amount of egg noodles covered with a thick creamy, cheesy sauce. It was right up my alley!

My husband chose the Baked Penne with meat balls and a side of sausage [$12.95]. His eyes lit up when the waitress brought it over. It was a bowl full of penne bubbling over with cheese. I have to admit, it looked tasty! He was however awed by the side of sausage, it was so tender it could be cut with a fork.

Both meals included either soup or salad and a basket of garlic bread. We chose not to order dessert because we were stuffed but the special of the day was fresh baked, home made carrot cake. Other favorites on the menu include Mocha Brownie Madness [$4.95] and a Greek favorite; Baklava, which is phyllo dough, walnuts and honey [$2.95]

The bill totaled $40.53 including the state meal tax.

The food at Michael’s is very good and the portion sizes are very generous, though our waitress didn’t seem too eager to be there. The restaurant needs to fine tune its' serving timing; we had barely been served our appetizers when our salads arrived and minutes later, our entrees.

Upon leaving, we were greeted by Nikitas, which was a very personal touch. We did notice that many times throughout our meal, she stepped out of the kitchen to greet her customers with a friendly smile and to see how everything was.

Michael’s Restaurant serves dinner daily from 4 p.m. and is closed on Mondays. The complete menu is available for take-out, and a catering menu is also available for special events.

You may also visit their website at www.michaelsofwilliamstown.com