Dining Out: Adriatic Restaurant & Bar

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After a fun outing to the "Hats" exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum last weekend, my mother, my aunt and I went walking around Salem in search of some lunch. We stumbled upon Adriatic Restaurant & Bar and walked up to the menu on display in the front window. It looked like a great mix of Italian soups, salads, pizzas and sandwiches.

Adriatic has a large, triangle shaped bar at the front of the restaurant, perfect for watching football.

The dining room is simply decorated and reminded me a bit of the Olive Garden.

After placing our order, our waiter delivered a basket of focaccia bread and a dish of bright green olive oil.

Our food came out very quickly. My mother decided on the chicken milanese. The breaded chicken was topped with arugula and shaved parmesan cheese, then garnished with four, juicy, oven roasted tomatoes.

She loved the dish and kept insisting that my aunt try it.

I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy, so I skipped the pizza and pasta and instead ordered the portabello mushroom sandwich. Though the sandwich was described as being served on ciabatta bread, it wound up being more like pita bread.

The sandwich was portabello mushrooms, roasted red peppers, feta cheese and hummus. It was surprisingly light and quite delicious.

For a sweet note at the end of the meal my mom ordered a cappuccino which looked divine!

It's always hard when you're in a town you're unfamiliar with to know if you walked into a great restaurant or a terrible one. Adriatic was pretty empty throughout the typical lunch time, but our food was very good. When I return to Salem (I'm going to a wedding at the Hawthorne Hotel in December), I'll plan to do a little research and pick a new place to try.

Do you have a favorite restaurant in Salem?