Every Sunday in Raleigh a critical decision is made by those who are either finishing their services at church, waking up from sleeping in, or recovering from Saturday night's debauchery (or possibly all three): where to have that glorious mid-day meal often refereed to as brunch. This particular Sunday we were participating in some post-service chats when our friend Erik announced his love for Milton's lunch buffet. I've heard of Milton's before but it was always one of those North Raleigh restaurants beyond the Beltline, too far to compel me to visit. As Erik proclaimed the quality of their endless amount of Italian-American food, my mind started to envision the joys of feasting on the delights.
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| Garlic bread, buffalo wings, sausage and peppers, pepperoni pizza, mushroom and chicken pizza |
Plate one. I grab for the first thing I see, which was the garlic bread. I was hoping for a nice crusty bread saturated with butter and garlic but instead it was overly toasted and dense. Roughing up roof of my mouth and hard to chew, I finished the rest of the bread just off of principle. Being close to football season, and the fact that we will actually have a football season, I was craving for a tailgating classic: queue the buffalo wings. They were fried nicely and tossed with a mild buffalo sauce. On my way to the wings, I saw a couple of individuals spoon sausages and peppers on their plates. Decent taste, but left a bit of grease on the palate. I skipped the pasta to arrive at what I was really looking forward to, the pizza. With limited space on my plate I went with the freshest looking pies, the pepperoni and a mushroom and chicken pizza. I bit into the slice of pepperoni and immediately realized that pizza had been out much too long under heat lamps as the crust was stiff. Along with the unpleasant crust, their red sauce packed a salty punch. The mushroom and chicken pizza helped redeem the mediocre plate. Still at a ripe freshness, the crust still had flakiness. There was a creamy alfredo instead of a salty red sauce. And both the chicken and mushrooms were tender and flavorful.
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| Ribs, lasagna, jalapeno pizza, vegetable pizza |
Approaching my second plate, Erik repeatedly commented on the quality of the ribs. To my delight they were flavorful. The meat was tender with a good bit of fat and coated with a red sauce. At first I was tempted to pass on the lasagna. In a deep tray and not pre-sliced, I considered it too much of a hassle to fish it onto my plate. But my sense of culinary duty got the best of me and I figured I could not determine the quality of an Italian restaurant without tasting the lasagna. The cheese had a nice ooze, the sausage inside was nearly overly sweet, and the pasta was tender. The jalapeno and vegetable pizza was decent but I started reach my food wall, thus making it difficult to appreciate any flavors by this point of the meal.
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| Wings and pizza |
When I go to a buffet and see the typical steep price that comes attached to it, I always eat myself into oblivion in hopes to "get my money's worth." Plate three was purely a plate to get my money's worth. Though cheese and carbs were expanding in my stomach I suffered through some more wings and pizza.
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| Dessert plate |
When we were first seated, our waitress insisted that we save room for the cheesecake. While I didn't save room, I never pass on trying dessert. Unfortunately, the cheesecake bites were warm. The graham cracker crust was loosely packed and flavorless. The whole thing tasted of left out cream cheese rather than cheesecake. Along with the brownie, both were disappointing. I did, however, enjoyed my cookie square. It was soft and chewy, sweet and chocolaty.
The best part of the meal came at the end where the three of us sat and talked for two hours while the waitress kindly checked in on us despite the fact we had long but finished our meals. And no matter what you are recovering from on your Sunday, that's a good way to spend it.
Milton's Pizza and Pasta
8853 Six Forks Road, Raleigh, NC
(919) 847-0604
