Louie's

Louie’s has been serving great food for many years, and now that they’ve moved to SW Allentown, parking and elbow room has increased greatly.

They have many good appetizers, my favorite is the rice balls. Sometimes the appetizers ‘rotate’ like specials so look for others that are only occasional.

Their entrées are pretty much standard fare for local Italian restaurants, but they are well-prepared and delicious. The manicotti shells are very thin crepe like shells filled with ricotta cheese mixture, not the usual thick ‘noodle’ used by a lot of other restaurants.

Servers have always been prompt and friendly, even on busy days. There’s also live entertainment on Fridays and Saturdays. Some acts seem better than others, but that’s a matter of taste – you may like something I don’t.

All-in-all, a very good place to eat Italian.

I recently visited Louie’s again after long hiatus and to my suprise, they had moved. The location is much nicer with much better parking. The food and the service were just like I remembered them, incredible! You have to try the stuffed hot cherry peppers! My mouth is watering now just thinking about them.

If you have an expectation that food you order actually makes it to your table, this place is not for you.

The sad part is that I’m 100% serious.

On our first visit there we ordered soup, something for the kids, and Louie’s “Special” Brick Oven Pizza. Items marked with an “L” were supposed to be specialties of the house. This Pizza was so we thought it was a sure bet.

Let’s start with the soup, an Italian classic – Chicken Pastene. Well it was hot. However, it was not seasoned at all and had a burned taste.

Next up was the House Special Pizza. After about 25 minutes the restaurant filled with smoke. You can’t make this stuff up. To my wife’s credit she predicted that was our Pizza. Five minutes later the waiter came over and said our pizza was “almost ready.”

I asked him if it was ours that burned. He smiled and said “yes.” Okay, well stuff happens. We’ll wait for the re-make. Twenty minutes later it still had not arrived. Did you ever make a Pizza? I have at home and in restaurants. At restaurant oven temperatures it takes about five minutes.

Needless to say we asked for our check and left hungry.

I won’t even take the time to comment on the kids’ pasta. Especially to Italians sauce [gravy] and meatballs carry very personal preferences. I’ll cut Louie a break and keep my opinion to myself. The facts about the rest of the experience are what they are.

I said this was our first visit; It’s our last as well.