Basilico

Type: Italian
Location: 324 Millburn Ave., Millburn, NJ
Price Range: Semi-Expensive (easily $50 per person for an appetizer and entree for dinner)

As is typical, Basilico's lunch menu contains fewer options than the dinner menu, for a few dollars less. The cream of wild mushroom soup (crema di funghi) is to die for, but can be a bit too salty, even for this salt-lover. Order it, savor it, and deal with the salt overload later, with your entree. The mushroom soup is why I keep coming back to Basilico.

Lunch portions aren't that huge, if you order pasta, but if you order the Luca panini, be prepared to ask for a doggie bag. It's that good. And, no, they won't give you a snooty look, for asking for one. The Luca is smoked turkey, brie, romaine, and tomatoes, on a killer foot-long piece of crusty Italian bread. It comes with some strange eggplant concoction, but that's alright, as long as you scrape it away from the bread, so it doesn't get soggy. Prices for panini are around $9-$10. I can easily get two meals out of one of those.

Dinner portions are huge. I've always ordered some sort of fish for dinner, and can never finish it. Others in my party have ordered chicken and veal dishes. Nobody complained.

The menu is semi-seasonal, so do go to their website to see what's there at the time.

Pros: excellent food; attentive wait staff
Cons: parking in downtowm Millburn can get nasty, but there are a couple of lots, only two blocks away