text: My wife and I made plans with friends secured a reservation and traveled to dine for the first time at Giuseppes Overall I liked Giuseppes a lotnnAmbiance was that of a rustic Italianate setting with comfortable highbacked booths and nice touches like fauxexposed bricks in a wall and photos of narrow lanes of one or more towns in Italy mounted around the dining room Our choice of appetizer Fried Calamari started off the meal on a very high note The lightly battered squid rings all were ringsno tentacles were just excellent and enhanced by a homemade sweet and mild Marinara Sauce and a creamy White Lemon Garlic Sauce the latter tasted like a fine Lemon Aioli I had to consciously hold myself back from gobbling up all these morsels of the sea so others at my table could enjoy some too nnAfter this things got a little frenzied primarily because I ordered more items than I needed to be able to flesh out a more comprehensive review of the restaurants offerings Since no veal was available only sometimes on a few specials of the day I opted for Spaghetti Meat Sauce plus one meatball and mushrooms which came with a cup of the soup of the day or salad I discussed with my waiter whether to order one or two meatballs and he suggested one because of the meat sauce Since there were also several small meatballs in my order of Wedding Soup boy was he ever right I am a sucker for Italian Wedding Soup next to Onion Soup Gratinee it is my favorite soup So when I saw this on the menu I just could not pass it by And because the soup of the day was an interesting sounding Stuffed Green Pepper Soup and I love stuffed peppers I ordered this too Plus since a regular Dinner Salad or Caesar Salad came with my wifes order of Chicken Parmigiana and she does not eat any vegetables other than potatoes that was also going to be consumed by mewhich is what caused traffic control problems at my table nnAfter the empty Calamari plate was cleared the Stuffed Green Pepper Soup and the Caesar Salad were delivered to the table nextwhich was fine along with very good Italian bread and offered vinegar and oil But I had to ask for butter twice before it came and wait awhile for replenishment of my glass of Sprite and for the second soup When the Wedding Soup did finally arrive it was in a giant bowl that could comfortably serve four Yet it was all mine So I quickly downed the Stuffed Green Pepper Soup which was simply superb This dish featured ground beef and wellcooked pieces of carrot and celery in a flavorful broth and tasted exactly like a stuffed green pepperexcept the soup contained small torpedoshaped dissolini noodles instead of rice It then took me awhile to eat the freshtasting AND LARGE Caesar Salad with its crispy romaine lettuce croutons and fresh Parmesan Cheese shavings that was finished with a very nice and smooth creamy Caesar dressing while the second soup was waiting The only discordant note involving the salad was finding a small piece of the inedible bottom of the head of the lettuce mixed in with the greens At least I saw it before I tried to eat it nnI got halfway through the second soup and the entrees arrived But I cannot really fault the restaurant for the pileup of food on my table For once I tasted the Wedding Soup it was obvious that it had just been made from scratch in the kitchen Therefore it probably took as long to construct this soup as the spaghetti meat sauce meatball with mushrooms And my dining companions had a right to be fed too without waiting for me to finish off all of my several ordered preliminary dishes nnWith tasty meatballs and large leaves of spinach floating in the very tasty broth the second soup was also excellent But of course there was too much of it Even so I was not going to let any of it go to waste so I devoured it all Surprisingly my pasta dish was still piping hot when I began to tackle it With its immense size and how laden it was with meat sauce this imposing entree looked like a meatballtopped volcano of spaghetti that had recently erupted and discharged dark brown lava of meat sauce down its sides It was the only dish of the night with which I was not thrilled for on my first brush with the sauce it tasted more bitter than sweet Real Parmesan Cheese was grated onto it by my friendly server and the dish was still goodjust not with as sweet a sauce as I prefer But at home the next day for lunch I was pleased that any trace of bitterness in the microwaved meat sauce was all gone nnSince everything was homemade I just could not resist all of the tempting items presented on a large dessert cart And I am glad that I did not For a slice of Lemon Meringue Pie was fresh very lemony and delicious just as were supple hunks of Fried Dough that had been sprinkled with sugar nnThis was a very pleasant and satisfying dining experience