Sazio | Mastication Monologues

Getting All Sazzed Up

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Mark T

Today, I’m going to write you a blog post you can’t refuse to read. If you have a hunger that cannot be satisfied with a typical burger or fried chicken joint, I found Sazio in Delray Beach. It’s an Italian eatery that truly believes in the idea of abbondanza or abundance as I “quickly” found out.

After working my way through Delray’s various food genres, I was in the mood to mangia some good Italian food. While I did see that there were various pizzerias up and down the happening Atlantic Avenue, I wanted to see if there was any restaurants that could take on more substantial representatives of the Italian food famiglia. This is where Sazio came into the picture. It was a bit further away from the beach, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t doing booming business the night I visited. They have both indoor and outdoor seating, and I opted for the latter due to Delray’s impeccable weather even at night. The robotic but seemingly warm hostess told me it would be another 15 minutes for a table, but I saw there was a two-top (two person table in non-restaurantese) open on the patio. Having worked as a host in a restaurant before, I wasn’t going to hassle her about the table being open since I knew there were other seating arrangements they might use that table for. So I settled on looking at the menu while I waited. I could see they had a litany of sandwiches, salads, pastas, pizzas, and entrees. However, I was sad they didn’t really have any standards from Chicago like chicken saltimbocca or chicken vesuvio. Eventually, I was seated, but I had to once again wait at least 5 minutes for someone to come to my table similar to Lemongrass Bistro in my previous post. It seems that service is overall bit slower in the South compared to the North. Thankfully, I knew I wanted the chicken bruschetta sandwich ($10), so I just had to choose a drink. I went for a glass of the Ruffino Chianti 2009 that had fruity notes but a definite acidic bite for an aftertaste. As for my meal, it eventually came out, and it was quite intimidating. I think they might have sandwiched two full chickens between the fluffy, crustacular ciabatta bun halves. I slowly unhinged my jaw to take a bite, and after the first chomp I was impressed. Not only did they have monstrously large pieces of chicken breast in the sandwich but also a tomato relish, slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella, delicate arugula, and a balsamic glaze atop the mountain of greens to add a slight tang to the more mild mannered meal. The side salad was good but was a mere footnote when compared to the behemoth it shared a plate with. Sazio managed to reinvent a classic Italian antipasto with real gusto that left me one felice (happy) diner.