By Marilyn Otterson
Correspondent

Is it Salona or Salona’s? The sign and menu have it both ways, but however the name’s written, we had a good lunch there the other day.

Salona is a smallish place, not far from Manchester’s downtown, hidden away on a corner. There’s a neat dining room with comfortable padded booths and banquette, tables, and a connecting lounge/bar with television. It’s a casual eatery with an entree menu featuring pasta and seafood dinners, steaks and chicken, as well as soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, steak subs, grinders, pizzas and calzones. It would be hard to visit Salona and not find something one likes on the menu.

We were attracted to this place by an ad we saw offering a Friday lunch special of haddock, scallops, clams or shrimp and fries for $6.95, and decided we’d try it.

We were glad to get out of the raw drizzle and into a cozy booth where our server told us we could have soup with our meal for $1 extra. We decided to start with a cup of homemade chicken-rice soup, warming, hot and good, served with oyster crackers.

My friend ordered haddock and I ordered scallops, wondering as I did so what kind of scallops and how many one could expect for $6.95. We didn’t have long to wait to find out. My good-sized serving of lightly battered scallops was cooked just right. These weren’t little bay scallops, but were larger sea scallops, sweet and tender – delicious. The fries were ordinary, commercial ones that I left on the plate. Served with a small cup of tartar sauce, the scallops were just what I wanted.

The haddock, also, was fresh and cooked just enough, neither glassy nor dried out, and a serving of at least a half pound or more. Considering the price of fresh haddock and scallops, for $6.95 these luncheons were a bargain. Of course some coleslaw would have been nice on the side, but soup and seafood was a great meal.

There were other items on the menu that I’d certainly consider for another lunch. Greek salad is always a favorite of mine, $5.95, and there was also steak tip salad, $7.95, or grilled chicken salad, $6.95. Spaghetti meals started at $5.95, there were seafood dinners served with potato or rice and soup or salad, steaks, chicken, and barbecued lamb plus a gyro platter served with Greek tzatziki sauce. The Greek infl uence also shows up in an “International” baked chicken or haddock with spinach and feta cheese. Our friendly server told us that sometimes-homemade Greek favorites like spanakopita, pastitsio or moussaka are on the menu as a special of the day.

There are a variety of pizzas and calzones from $6.50 with the dough made fresh daily at Salona. We found most prices very moderate. The only thing that would have made our meals more pleasant is better ventilation because the scent of cigarette smoke drifted heavily into the dining room from the bar/lounge.

We were told Salona offers special meals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, two dinners for $16.95, with soup or salad and a choice of baked haddock, chicken or eggplant Parmesan, or steak tips. We’ll try that bargain one of these evenings. The steak tips have a reputation for being delicious.

Salona is located at 128 Maple St., in Manchester, and is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday until 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. Park in the rear. For more information call 624- 4020.

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