Salvatori's Leo — Restaurant in Indiana

12 July 2024: My friend invited me to go to lunch at Salvatori's and catch up on our lives. We arrived Saturday around Noon, and there was plenty of parking available. The restaurant was tidy and clean, and we were warmly invited to select our table by a pleasant young woman. She told us of the specials and went to get our waiter.

He arrived, presented menus and after we discussed the options, ordered an appetizer: Bruschetta. It arrived looking invitingly delicious - and it was! Finely chopped tomatoes with fresh herbs, olive oil and parmesan cheese on slices of rustic, toasted bread. Excellent, and plenty for two persons.

We both ordered one of the specials of the day: Chicken Marsala, which came with a side of salad (house or cesar) or soup. We both chose the house salad. When our orders arrived, we were each treated to large dinner portions of tender chicken atop diced, roasted herbed potatoes and generous sliced & sauteed mushrooms in a creamy marsala sauce. The presentation was very nice, and the meal was truly delicious. Since it was a mid-day meal, neither of us could eat it all, so our kind waiter boxed the remains of our plates with swift effort and presented our checks.

For a small restaurant in the Leo Crossing shopping area, our meal was extraordinary. Impressive. My sincere compliments to the chef, management and staff for providing an outstanding meal and service today. And as I write this review tonight, I can report that this evening's meal was just as scrumptious.

I recommend this dinning experience to...

The first thing you notice when you walk in is the smell. It's a good pizza pasta smell, rich and spiced. The staff are friendly, and the place is packed with couples and families with their children. It's pleasant, comfortable, warm.

The breadstick are a-mazing. We picked garlic butter and pecorino as our dips and they did not disappoint. The garlic butter arrived with a little piece of butter still melting in the cup of ambrosia. The breadstick themselves were top notch with the right amount of chew, but once you dunked it in either sauce it was a wonderful rich flavor.

I got the calzone. Ham, bacon, pepperoni. The sauce was nice and bright, offering a good balance to the rich salty meats. The crust was the right kind of salty chewy bready that I was torn between whether I wanted to experience the full bread meat salty satisfaction with or without the balance of the sauce.

My wife got the manicotti. She loved it. We agreed their sauce recipe was on point. I can't elaborate much more because I was focused on my food.

We have leftovers. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow. We got a moscato berry tiramusu to go. It was the exact right amount of sweet. The berry flavor was so good, like fresh berry not old berry.

If I were local to this part of Indiana I would be a repeat customer. Regardless, if I'm in the area this will be on my shortlist for...

Ordered an hour ahead for dinner. I was there about 2 minutes early and everything was ready. Perfect, I thought. As the young man handed me everything I noticed the pizza box was barely warm on the bottom. I handed everything to my daughter who then sat it all on her lap. Typically when a pizza is straight out of the oven it's too hot for her and we place something between the box and her lap. In this case there was a bag with 2 dinners and breadsticks sitting on top. She said it wasn't hot and I continued the 6 minute trek home. I took everything straight to the kitchen and checked the pizza. It was barely warm. They must have made it first and let it sit until the rest was ready. Trying to be positive I ate a couple pieces and put the rest in the fridge hoping for really good cold pizza for breakfast. It's definitely not a good cold pizza. I should have listened to my 10 year old when she said the pizza isn't good there. Apparently she has gone with her friends and their family and it wasn't a big hit. The other 2 dinners were good. Not great. Just good. We weren't a fan of the breadsticks either. Shame on us, I suppose, for expecting all breadsticks to be like Ziano's. We gave it a try and it wasn't for us. That's not to say it's not for...