Our biggest challenge when visiting Ralph & Rosie's Restaurant and Lounge wasn't what to order from the surprisingly long menu, but where to park when we arrived.

When my wife and I and a friend visited on a recent Friday night, the lounge part of the restaurant was filled with folks waiting for the band to begin for the evening. So we decided to sit outside at one of the few tables left available.

I tried not to think about the cars on U.S. 1 whizzing by my back just a couple of feet away while I perused the extensive menu. Pasta, beef, seafood, pizza, veal, chicken - Ralph and Rosie seemed to have a little bit of everything.

We decided to start with a dolphin fingers appetizer ($8.75), which our young waitress said was an excellent choice. We also ordered a vegetarian white Venetian pizza ($15), house garden salad ($2.95), queen size prime rib ($16.35) and broiled scallops ($15.95).

We spent the next 20 minutes or so trying to figure out whether our waitress Flavia's accent was Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, or what. Finally, when she returned to fill our drinks, I asked. Brazilian, she said kindly. Our job applications for the United Nations are all on hold now.

The wait for our meals was a little long, but considering the crowd that night, it wasn't too bad. We kept ourselves occupied with some of the tastiest fish fingers I'd ever eaten.

When our meals did arrive, the only surprise was that our friend's pizza had red sauce and pepperoni on it instead of white sauce and vegetables. It was soon exchanged for the correct pizza. My prime rib was cooked more like medium well than medium rare, but it was surprisingly good, despite the fact that I would never order it that well done. The scallops were great, too, but, oh, those dolphin fingers!

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