Marchellos Neighborhood Italian — Restaurant in Cornelius

If you know me, you know I have been on a mission to find the best eggplant parmigiana, meatballs, and lasagna around the greater Charlotte area. Today, I took a drive to Denver to continue the search and finally found my top spot: Marchellos Neighborhood Italian.

Marchellos is tucked inside a strip mall and opened back in August. It is not fancy, just a perfect no-frills Italian restaurant where you can bring the family or stop in for a casual meal. The decor threw me off at first. Behind the host stand is a framed photo of Adam Sandler from Happy Gilmore at the putting green. Looking around the restaurant, I realized they had various photos of movies and actors from the 80s and 90s, giving the place a fun and casual atmosphere.

My server Calvin was super friendly and helpful when I asked questions about the menu. I also had the chance to meet Marshall, the owner, who runs Marchellos with his partner Sandy. They are from Long Island, New York, and previously owned two Italian restaurants there along with another one in the Hamptons. You can tell right away they know how to make NY Italian American style food the right way. Almost everything except the pastas are made fresh in-house. I am incredibly grateful they brought their Sicilian Italian expertise down here.

The menu is reasonably priced and offers a wide variety. You will find brick oven pizzas, seafood dishes, heroes, Italian American classics, homemade desserts, and even a gluten-free menu. They also have a full bar, $5 margaritas on Wednesdays, and half-priced bottles of wine on Tuesdays. A large chalkboard wall highlights the daily specials, but today I was focused on the eggplant parmigiana, lasagna, and meatballs.

Before my meal came out, they served a complimentary basket of warm, soft garlic flatbread. A great start.

Here is what I ordered: • Eggplant and Chicken Parmigiana Combo with a side of spaghetti and tomato sauce, and the Soup of the Day (Stuffed Pepper Soup)

The stuffed pepper soup was hearty and delicious, with a tomato base full of ground beef, diced peppers, tomatoes, and onions.

Now to the Eggplant Parmigiana: This was exactly what I have been searching for. The eggplant was expertly fried with the skin removed, sliced longways, and baked under a layer of bubbly mozzarella. No frozen pre-breaded eggplant rounds here. The red sauce had a slight sweetness, which I personally prefer. It was perfect.

The Chicken Parmigiana was also great. It was pounded thin, breaded, fried, topped with the same red sauce, and finished with melted mozzarella cheese.

I also ordered the Baked Pasta Combo to go, which included: • Lasagna: A traditional NY Italian American style lasagna with layers of mozzarella, ricotta, meat, red sauce, and pasta sheets. A solid, hearty choice. • Meatballs: Two meatballs with a perfect firm but tender texture. They held together well without falling apart and were seasoned spot-on. • Stuffed Shells: Exactly what you would expect. Pasta shells filled with ricotta cheese and topped with red sauce. A dependable choice if that is your go-to dish.

For dessert, I grabbed two of their homemade options to take home: • Key Lime Pie: Made by one of the owners who has roots in Fort Lauderdale. It had a whipped yet dense filling with the perfect amount of tart key lime flavor. The graham cracker crust was a little softer and thinner than I usually like but complemented the pie well. • Italian Ricotta Cheesecake: Served with your choice of sauce. I went with caramel. To be clear, this is not your typical NY-style cheesecake that is dense and cream cheese based. This is a true Italian ricotta cheesecake, lighter with a smooth texture and a subtle sweetness from the ricotta. It tasted like a homemade family recipe. I would absolutely...

A group of ours went to eat last night for a friend's birthday. We were all very excited to try a new place - this was NOT the place to try. We ordered a variety of food: chicken marsala, fettucine alfredo, linguine Pescatore and chicken parm to name a few. Each dish came with its own issues (aside from being served at room temperature).

The chicken marsala was unlike any I had ever tasted, and that is not a compliment. The verdict at the table was that the chicken tasted like either sausage or frozen tv dinner Salisbury steak. It was truly unidentifiable as chicken.

The fettucine alfredo left a lot to be desired - 4 people in our small group ordered this and each of them tried their best to nurse it with parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes that were provided with the meal. Each dish was dry and unseasoned. One ordered blackened chicken with her alfredo and was served exactly that - it was burnt and looked to be the Tyson frozen pre-sliced chicken strips. Another one ordered the shrimp and much to her dismay was charged $7 for three total shrimp. The shrimp she was served were seasoned but came with one issue - they had not been peeled. After she peeled them, she was left with each smaller than a quarter.

The linguine gave no indication that it was fresh (which is understandable to an extent), but came out and smelled like it had already gone bad.

The chicken parm seemed to be the highlight of the table, but still lacked the quality expected from the price point.

To say this was a disappointment is an understatement. There is nothing about the food that led any of us to believe it was fresh and not frozen. The best part of the experience was the service, and it was subpar at best. I hope that this was an off night and is not the norm, but after our experience, we are not willing to give it...

I always have problems with the prices or the amount of food I am getting. Pasta is one of the less expensive foods to prepare. The zuppa di pesce was very tasty, but beside the pasta, the amount of seafood in the dish makes it a very expensive plate. They use small scallops, probably a 1/2 cup, but that doesn't make a difference in the whole taste experience. I will need to get a full tablespoon to taste them. Five clams, four mussels, three shrimp, and probably one cutted calamari makes this dis very profitable for the restaurant. I don't believe that a big plate of pasta and some seafood is worth $30.00. The fried calamari were the best in the area. The sausage and broccoli Rabe special was good. $6 for a 16oz Pellegrino? Cost them less than a dollar. Talk about greed. The wine chart is also expensive. Malbec is considered the best wine in the whole world, and they don't have it. And if they would buy one of the less expensive bottles in the supermarket, they will pay less than $10. I doubt that they just will double the money. I can't figure out why they want to be like that. Too much rent or taxes? I noticed that friends of the owner were dining at the same time, and some were from Long Island, NY. Restaurants there pay more rent and more taxes, and the minimum wage is like $18 there; and the food is better and less expensive. It is time for them to review their business plan. It's still time before the customers catch up . We will see.

Added. They charged $3 to upgrade the "included" salad to a Ceasars salad What a joke, small dish with romaine lettuce, a little of grated cheese and some dressing that was oily but definitely not a Ceasars salad dressing.

The owner asked me, in his response, to come...