Food at Talia's Tuscan Table in Boca Raton Is Impressive

This cramped deli and restaurant looks straight out of a Bronx tenement, where every spare inch of wood and brick is covered with Polaroid photographs of patrons posing with their food. And that food is impressive: hulking sandwiches, platters of shrimp with broccoli and potato, and fat rigatoni pasta napped in homemade marinara. Show up most nights, and the place is full of families digging into shared platters, and wise-guy types slurping up antipasto as they watch sports on the restaurant's one flat-screen TV. Order up-front at the deli counter, grab a drink from the cooler or the $1 "help yourself" beer keg, and get ready to eat — it's all about food. Talia's makes its own mozzarella, fennel sausage, and meatballs, all of which find their way into some truly great sandwiches. The house specialty, the Michelangelo, takes two pieces of crusty focaccia and piles on thin chicken cutlets, roasted eggplant, charred red peppers, basil, marinara, and some of that homemade mozzarella. Shrimp, chicken, and veal entrees come in every combination imaginable (Parmigiana, diavolo, Francese, and more), and go well with original appetizers like roasted portabello Napoleon and Talia's "kick ass" garlic bread. Virtually everything is large enough to share and costs less than $15. Talia's even offers cooking classes with Chef Andrew once per month.