Grotto on Westheimer

Eat here for reliably good Italian food. It is noisy, popular (translation: you may have to wait for a table), and a lively atmosphere that makes it a fun favorite of ours. The food has maintained its high quality over the years, serving delicious fresh pastas, chicken, veal, pizzas, salads, and lots more. We never can resist the fabulous hot-out-of-the-oven focaccia and the crisp-on-the-outside soft-on-the-inside Italian bread in the bread basket. We inevitably fill up on the wonderful breads, which leaves little room for the rest of the meal. We shared a generous order of fried calamari, which featured a few plump ones uniquely stuffed with herbed ricotta cheese. Yum! Then we shared an Italian chopped salad that featured grilled chicken, provolone, salami (instead of the menu's prosciutto), chopped egg, Gorgonzola, extremely crisp bacon, and chopped iceberg lettuce. This is the lazy-man's special, since everything is diced up into tiny pieces, with no cutting and little chewing required. Service was excellent, as usual, with very attentive waiters who paced the meal leisurely, as we preferred, and bus boys who refilled our water glasses unobtrusively throughout the meal. The sweet, crunchy biscotti and Italian flag cookies that came gratis with the check added to the sweetness of this impeccable evening. Bravo, Grotto!