Maldini's

The first restaurant I chose to find the very best Linguine and Clams in Richmond was Maldini's, located at 4811 Forest Hill Ave., near the intersection of Forest Hill Ave. and Westover Hills Boulevard, and across the street from O'Toole's restaurant.

Linguine and Clams is one of my all time favorite dishes. As usual, good Linguine and Clams can be found in many places, but great Linguine and Clams are very difficult to find. Many restaurants use canned clams, which in my opinion is a complete cop out, and then you have some places that use entirely too much oil, and not enough fish stock or clam juice. The basic ingredients for Linguine and Clams are, linguine, clams in their shells, butter, oil, garlic, parsley, and red pepper flakes. Some people add clam juice, some a little white wine, but the aforementioned ingredients are the most widely used.

Maldini's is owned by the same people that also have Mary Angela's, Prontos's, Mediterraneo's, and maybe a few more I'm missing. But the point is, they should have their Italian cooking down to a science. I went to Maldini's on a Monday afternoon, and with very few patrons present, was seated by a very nice waiter who asked for my drink order and within a few minutes, arrived with my iced tea and a basket of nicely warmed bread with butter, and a sun dried tomato sauce for dipping. The bread was very fresh, and the sun dried tomato sauce went excellent with the warm bread. After 5 minutes or so, my waiter came over and asked for my order, and I told him I would be having the Linguine and Clams. My order went in at 12:05. The cost for the clam dish is $14.95, which comes with bread, iced tea, and a salad, but if you do not want a salad, the price is dropped to $13.95. At that price for lunch, I was really hoping for a spectacular meal.

At 12:41 I saw my waiter coming towards me with my order, and was thrilled to see in front of me a beautiful bowl of linguine, with 18, I kid you not,(I counted them), beautiful little neck clams placed around the edges of the bowl and around the linguine. It was a very nice presentation. More than half of the clams were still in their shell, with the remaining ones mixed in with the linguine and the butter and oil. The linguine was cooked perfectly( al dente) and the clams were not over cooked, which can easily be done with this dish. My complaint, if any at all, was with the amount of oil that was gathered in the bottom of my bowl. Don't get me wrong, one of my favorite things to do, is to take a nice piece of crunchy bread and dip it in the broth mixture at the botton of the bowl, but this was just too much oil, butter combo, and not enough clam juice,broth combo. I also felt there was not nearly enough garlic with this dish. I don't really recall seeing or smelling any garlic, at all. There just needs to be garlic in a dish like this, and if I cannot even smell it, much less taste it,then there needs to be more. The amount of pasta was perfect for lunch, not too much, but just enough to fill you up. I thought this dish could have had a few more pepper flakes included, to notch it up a bit, but that could be a personnel preference.

All in all, a nice bowl of Linguine and Clams. I will definiely go back to Maldini's and try a few of there other dishes. Maldini's has the strong potential of being a very good restaurant, and with this being my first installment to find the very best Linguine and Clams in Richmond, Maldini's started this month off with a bang. Bring on the other restaurants!  




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