Iaria's Italian Restaurant

best ingredients. If you're tired of all the chain restaurants and noodle huts, make your way over to place where real Italian flavors reign, and where it means more than just a plate of spaghetti or slice of pepperoni.

Iaria's offers plenty of ways to please any pallet, and the best way to start is at the beginning, with some of their scrumptious appetizers. Take a bite of their crostini with caponata, combining fresh eggplant, celery, capers, tomatoes and olives with toasted Italian bread, mozzerella pomodoro, fresh sliced mozzarella with sliced Roma tomatoes with olive oil and fresh basil, or their delicious breaded calamari with homemade marinara or their mozzarella fried in their very own homemade breadcrumbs. You can also try garlic bread in regular or cheese flavor, with their famous sauce on the side. They also have a fantastic selection of soups, salads and sandwiches to choose from, if that's more your style.

When it comes to entrees, they have a number of different options to choose from. You can chooose one of their tasty pasta dishes, including fettucine alfredo with grilled chicken breast or sauteed shrimp, baked penne with bolognese and Italian cheese, manicotti, gourmet ravioli, or cheese tortellini with tomato and cream sauce, all served with minestrone soup, salad, bread, and your choice of two homemade meatballs or sausage. You can also choose something from their specialties menu, including eggplant, pork, chicken or veal Parmesan, chicken, group or veal piccata, or chicken or veal Marsala, as well as their baked lasagne, seafood pasta, with shrimp, scallops and mussels, and the chicken drogato, chicken breasts topped with penne and pepper in a spicy cream sauce. If pizza is more your style, they have many different specialty pies to choose from, such as the Bianco, with grilled chicken, bacon, Alfredo sauce and provolone, or Mimo's Maximus, with sausage, peppersoni, salami, onioons, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, garlic and pepperocini. There are numerous others, and you can always choose to make a pie your own way.

Few places last as long as Iaria's has, and few Italian restaurants keep the flavors and feel of the old country alive and well quite as well. For those Indianapolis apartment-ites looking for a real taste of Italian, not just what they find it chains or pizza parlos, give Iaria's a try, and you won't be going anywhere else.