Chicken Marsala - Fresh boneless chicken breast, pan sauteed with fresh mushrooms, onions, spices and marsala wine. Served with house-made spaghetti and a salad topped with Lebro's famous dressing.

(photo: Rose Mattrey)

My “ideal restaurant” is one that serves good food at reasonable prices and offers excellent service. You can arrive dressed as casual as you like and no one will think twice. The emphasis is on good food, not décor. And since we’re talking “ideal,” this restaurant should be located a short distance from my home.

The only qualification on which I will compromise is distance, which allows me to add Lebro’s at 330 Campbell Boulevard in Getzville to my list of preferred dining spots.

It’s a stone’s throw from the Lockport Extension of the 990 and a full five miles from my home. In fact, there’s not much of a “neighborhood” surrounding Lebro’s, and few of those living nearby—maybe with the exception of some of Amherst’s deer population—are going to amble over for a bite to eat. Lebro’s is clearly a dining destination. If it has a “neighborhood,” it’s all of Amherst—and beyond. Lots of people make the trip, so be sure to make reservations if you are planning on prime-time dining.

Affable owners Lee Federiconi and Carm Paolini opened Lebro’s 26 years ago. When it comes to pleasing their customers, they have the shtick down pat. Consider the placemats, containing a calendar advertising the lunch specials for the month. I’m still bummed that I didn’t put a big circle on my calendar around April 19, when Lebro’s was featuring pasta with lentils. Talk about comfort food! Lebro’s has won “best” awards three times at the “Taste of Buffalo” and each of the past four years at the “Taste of Williamsville.” How can you not cast your vote for a restaurant that advertises that it is “making a difference one ravioli at a time”?

Accompanied by my daughter, we made the trek to Lebro’s on a recent Thursday evening. We began our meal with an order of crab cakes ($8.50) and an evening appetizer special. There were two generous crab cakes, a nice blend of “real” crab meat, according to the menu, and breading served with coleslaw. Even better was our second appetizer: leaves of Belgium endive stuffed with an artichoke and olive (and very garlicky) bruschetta (only $4.95). Hopefully this special makes a regular appearance on Lebro’s menu.

There are a sizeable number of choices on that menu, which also doubles as the lunch menu. There are burgers, cold and hot sandwiches, pasta (lots of choices), chicken, veal and seafood.

Admitting that I was overwhelmed with the options, I went for an evening special: baked haddock topped with a relish made with calamata olives, oranges, celery and red onion ($11.95). With my dinner, I got a choice of starch or vegetable and a house salad. Many of the dinners come with sides included.

The haddock and relish were excellent. I substituted a very good spinach salad with mushrooms, chopped eggs, bacon and a hot bacon dressing ($6.25 for small, $7.95 for large) for a house salad. And while I voiced disappointment that there wasn’t a baked potato to be had and “settled” for French fries, those were some of the best fries I’ve ever had, maybe even better than the legendary fries at Papa Jake’s in Buffalo.

Other evening specials were homemade lemon-pepper linguine with julienne vegetables and chicken in a creamy tomato-leek sauce ($13.95) and calamari over homemade pasta ($10.95). Minestrone is always on the menu at $2.50 for a cup, $3 per bowl. The soup of the day was black bean ($3 and $3.30).

The guest and daughter were the “Parmesan twins”—the first ordering fresh eggplant Parmesan ($9.95) and the second, the chicken Parmesan ($13.95). Both dishes came with choice of soup or salad (both chose the good-sized house salad, served with Lebro’s bottled house dressing, the recipe for which is on the restaurant’s Web site) and a side of spaghetti or French fries. Both were very satisfied with their enormous servings—half of the daughter’s went home for another evening’s dinner.

Other entrée selections include cheese ravioli ($9.25 and $11.95) with $1 from each serving of the “Ravioli for Roswell” benefiting Carly’s Club for Pediatric Cancer Research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. There’s also sun-dried tomato ravioli ($8.50 and $11.95), shrimp and crab ravioli ($8.95 and $13.95), deep-fried “chicken in the basket” ($9.95) and veal Francaise ($14.95) dipped in egg and pan-fried in butter, garlic, fresh parsley, white wine and finished with lemon. On the pasta menu, there’s spaghetti and butter (at $7.25 and $8.50, you can’t get more basic than this entrée), spaghetti Carbonara ($8.95 and $11.95), linguine with clam sauce ($9.75 and $11.95) and spaghetti al’oglio-e-alio tossed with chopped garlic, olive oil and fresh basil ($7.50 and $9.75).

Notable among the hot sandwiches, which come with choice of French fries or side of pasta, are a grilled capicolla special that includes bacon, lettuce, tomato and mozzarella cheese ($8.50), a six-ounce, char-broiled tenderloin steak sandwich with greens ($9.95) and the “330 Campbell Blvd.” featuring turkey, ham and Swiss cheese and “special dressing” grilled on New York-style rye bread ($8.75). Lebro’s is very kid-friendly with a $5.50-per-item kids menu and beverages at $1.50.

Desserts at Lebro’s are from the Dessert Deli, which means you know they are going to be excellent. We devoured slices of apple torte, carrot cake and cheesecake with fresh strawberries at $4.50 each.

Lebro’s serves lunch from 11am to 4pm, Monday through Saturday. There’s a “cocktail hour” with hors d’oeuvres from 4 to 7pm, Monday through Friday. Dinner hours are 4-11pm, Sunday through Thursday and 4pm to midnight Friday and Saturday.