Parasson's in Stow offers No-Frills Italian Food

The food at  doesn't need to be presented with extraneous garnishes and creative plating, the taste speaks for itself.

I visited Parasson's on a quintessential Ohio winter evening (snow coating the roads, wind biting my face). Needless to say when my girlfriend and I arrived the restaurant was fairly empty.

There were some nice touches to help set a scene, however: the fireplace roaring at the entrance, soft Italian music playing over the speakers, smiles and laughter from other patrons. We were immediately seated at a booth and got to pondering options for dinner. The menu is pretty no-frills (much like the presentation); standard Italian fare is found throughout the menu. Aside from the baked sub section of the menu, a fairly innocuous selection is found in its pages.

After a few minutes of mulling it over, I decided on the spaghetti with Italian sausage ($7.99) while my girlfriend ordered the cheese ravioli with meat sauce ($8.99). Each entree comes with a choice of a regular side or a premium side for $1 extra. I decided to keep it simple and ordered the minestrone while my girlfriend chose the wedding soup. After a few short minutes, the soups were brought out along with a basket of four slices of garlic bread. The minestrone was good, but I have to give higher marks to the wedding soup. It had a much more refreshing bite to it with strong undertones of parsley coming through. 

Five minutes after our soups were consumed, the main course was delivered. As mentioned above, none of the food is presented as something it's not; rather, it's simply Italian food at its simplest.

My spaghetti with sausage was a good sized dish, consisting of standard spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce and a long Italian sausage cut in half. My only complaint comes from said sausage. I found it had too much fennel in its encasing. This might not be a problem  for those who like that spice, but it was a bit overwhelming for these tastebuds.

My girlfriend's cheese ravioli was also good, and the meat sauce in particular was a nice touch. I'm not normally a fan of cheese filled pastas (or any filled pasta for that matter), but I could see myself being able to eat a good amount.

The total for my meal (including tax) ended up being only $8.51 and my girlfriend's meal only cost $9.57. Our waitress Christina deserves mention as someone who exemplifies service. She was very attentive and knew how to treat customers.

Olive Garden this isn't, but that's a good thing.