December 28, 1 9 9 5 - January 4, 1 9 9 6

Noodles Café

The Noodles Special at the Noodles Café is the perfect winter lunch: a homemade, hearty soup of long noodles, fresh vegetables, and herbs in a chicken broth, served in an enormous glass cup ($2.25) or bowl ($3.75). But there are other good choices here. The grilled eggplant panini with fontina and roasted red peppers was perfectly seasoned, and I can't wait to try more of the orange-and-black fettucine salad -- pumpkin pasta mingled with squid-ink pasta -- with walnuts and scallions.

There are over a dozen hot pasta entrees, ranging from a filling cheese ravioli with pesto ($6.95 lunch; $7.75 dinner) to a done-just-right spinach fettuccine with peas, prosciutto, and cream ($6.25 lunch; $7.25 dinner), a huge portion beautifully presented. Weekly specials include such delights as spinach ravioli with mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce, and a perfectly grilled chicken breast with herbed spaghetti and sautéed fresh vegetables, at $6.95 each.

Noodles also sells a large variety of uncooked pastas for home cooking. Their raviolis include pumpkin ($5.25 per pound) and goat cheese and caramelized onion ($6.95 per pound). And their homemade eggplant sauce can't be beat.

Noodles Café is located at 414 Washington Street, in Somerville, at the intersection of Beacon, Kirkland, and Washington Streets, across from Dalí. Open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Sundays. Call 492-1770.

-- Nancy Kalajian