Lidos Italian Foods

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Lido's Italian Foods is here to stay... We're celebrating 44 years of Quality Service
Lidos Restaurant is a family business in every sense of the word. Angelo Simi has owned the 40 year old restaurant for 20 years, taking it over from a friend who retired.

CHEF'S CORNER The Daily Californian
Simi's family-wife Wilma, son Marco and daughter Elezabeth, all work at the kitchen. That's not, however , a novelty in the restaurant business, especially an Italian restaurant where the sense of family is usually a strong one. What makes Lido's even more of a family restaurant is that patrons keep coming back, generation after generation. .
"We have one family that comes in with three generations," Simi said shaking his head in disbelief. "This is an everyday restaurant. People come here to eat." Simi learned to cook at an early age when his mother would sit him on the kitchen counter next to the stove. His job was to stir the sauce.

He sees cooking as being intuitive. "Cooking is a feeling," he said, adding you have to have good taste in order to cook.

Born in the Toscany region near Florence, Italy, Simi claim the difference in the regions' food is mainly in the different spices they use. He said the best food is when you don't taste the spice.

Lido's menu features a good selection...there is plenty here to suit any taste. The old standbys of spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna are represented as well as almost any variation of them you can think of.

Having spent a few years in Chicago, Simi offers a selection of barbecue items such as chicken, ribs or a combination of both. Steaks-a 16-ounce New York steak and a 12-ounce steak are featured as well as a couple of seafood items.
An unusual feature on a menu for an Italian restaurant-and a sure sign of the times-is a selection of vegetarian dinners. All dinners are served with a green salad and choice of French fries, rigatoni or spaghetti, galice bread, soup and coffee (a perfect way to end a meal).

Prices range from $2.45 for an Italian Meatball sandwich with a salad to $18.50 for a chicken and rib dinner for two. Pizzas range from $5.80 for the 12-inch size to $11.90 for a large pizza with the works.
We cater to Clubs, Groups, Organizations, Special Events, Private Luncheons or Dinner Parties of 15 to 50 people from $6.50 per person. Please call Liz or Mark. We have put our complete 1959 (just to date you ) and 1999 menu on line for you to view or call us with a take-out order. .