Score: 4 out of 10

"Why am I smiling?  This isn't going to be a good review."

DISCLAIMER: Let me preface this score by saying, this score is SOLELY based on the exact meal we (my brother and I) had ordered.  This  is not for the service, the presentation, nor any of the other entrees at Lady Lasagna.  And this score is reflected from my own taste buds and the consensus of my brother.  There's nothing worse than giving a bad score to a location that may have more delicious options.  And being the adventurous eater type, it would be very sad to lose the option to try different and new establishments. 

Moving on:

I've seen this place come into existence from a simple 'Coming Soon' sign, to an opening, to a, "Hey, I haven't eaten there yet, but I see it often because it's RIGHT NEXT to the Starbucks/Baskin Robbins that I frequent."  So it was always on my peripheral as somewhere new to try.  I like lasagna.  Oh shit, I like LADIES too.  This might work for me.  I've stopped by the one in North County Fair once and looked at the options.  So it was inevitable I would eat here.

We were greeted by a cute cashier who probably HAD to get a job to pay for her cell phone or some non-critical expense that her parents wouldn't pay for.  That means she was above legal working age, and perhaps not too far into college, if at all.  Either way, they forced her to wear an Italian flag colored neck band to finalize her outfit.  She was knowledgeable about the franchise, and moderately helpful in recommending the different items.  Her Italian chef in the back wore an all black chef outfit topped with a black poofy chef's hat.  He also didn't speak a lick of english.  I was pretty excited to eat food that was THAT authentic.  They even sold home-made fettucine noodles that were crafted in the back kitchen.  We were told they used authentic Italian sauces in their lasagna instead of westernized traditional tomato sauce.  And the 'Ricottina' was essentially a dessert lasagna with the noodle layers replaced with sweet ricotta, nutella, and chocolate chips.  I was sold. 

My brother opted for the Bolognese lasagna and I asked for a recommendation.  I was offered the "Lady Lasagna Special", which to my understanding, meant it was a little of most of the other stuff.  A couple vegetables here, a bit of bolognese there, yadda yadda.  So I figured, 'what the hell, it's a little taste of everything!'.  The meal comes with salad and choice of dressing along with some fresh baked Italian bread.  Add a drink for each of us, and a Ricottina to share, we're looking at 20 bucks for a meal for two.

Now 20 bucks for two people at a fast food joint ISN'T technically too expensive.  As long as you either get a SHITLOAD of food, or the food is RETARDEDLY SPECTACULAR and worth every penny.  Think about it this way:

20 bucks is like -

• two small sodas and 18 McDouble's.
• 3 Large Combos at Carls Jr.
• 3 Footlongs + Drinks at Subway
• Two 3-item combos at Panda Express (and they give you a decent amount of food.)

Now when it's NOT a shitload of food AND it's NOT retardedly spectacular.  Guess what?  Your score goes down a LOT.

Opening the to-go box, you get:

• One medium sized portion of lasagna
• MAYBE two spoonfulls of salad.
• two tiny pieces of toasted italian bread
• The Ricottina, however, is huge.  But there's a problem with that. (You'll find out below)

So the meal alone is pretty sparse.  If you're trying to lose weight, great!  If not, you got hosed.  Now, on to the flavor.  My 'Special' lasagna tasted like a mushy peas and carrots casserole.  It didn't have a dynamic or exquisite flavor.  It was almost blended like a quiche but without the egg fluffiness.  Lasagna I'm used to, have layers of flavors and textures that you can differentiate.  To the credit of the homemade noodles, they broke very easily.  Actually, the noodles were prepared perfectly, melted in your mouth and had a great texture to them.  But because the filling was so unremarkable, GREAT lasagna noodles don't really add much value.  The same goes for my brother's Bolognese.  Boring, mushy, and uni-flavored you could hardly get a hold of any 'meat' that was in it.  No chunks of ground anything that you could savor.  I would almost liken it to meat and tomato sauce flavored pudding.

The salad was tiny and basic, so there was no add or take-away for that.  The small pieces of toasted bread was actually quite crispy with a good seasoned flavor.  But it was not supposed to be the star, so the general upstaging by the 'bread-roll' is not exactly a good thing.

And THEN there's the ricottina.  UGHHH.  If I had this meal ALONE, before the dessert; I would've been happy to give it a 5.  If I paid 20% less, I would've even given it a 6.  But the cost was a lot, and we DID get the ricottina.  And it's not-delicious.  There's "par" and there's "bogey".  This dessert was a complete bogey.  Served chilled, it was as mushy as the real lasagna, but now 'cold'.  The ricotta was decent, but I'd be happier if it was in a canolli or something else.  The lasagna noodle layers did not help the dessert at all.  The worst part was that nutella cream mix, that was just gooshy-mooshy and not a great flavor mix with the rest of the dessert.  To be honest, the dessert was a straight 3, but I scored it all as one meal.

So yeah, our lunch kinda sucked.  We weren't happy with the main course.  We were unsatisfied with the amount of the side dishes, and really put off by the dessert.  If that isn't a 4, I don't know what is.  It was a good thing the store had nice and knowledgeable workers.  (Not that I hold her 'recommendation' against her.)  I'll probably come back again, but my brother won't.  He'll probably spread a nasty word about the place to anyone who mentions it.  But I'll swing by, and try thier other flavors.  There's like 8 total.  I WON'T get the ricottina ever again.  And I won't buy the combo because frankly, it's not worth it.

Sorry Lady Lasagna. 

Ciao Bella.