You might be tempted to skip the salad and the bread with olive oil dipping sauce at Marchetti’s Restaurant because the entrées, like the Chicken Mushroom Wild, above, are huge.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

CRANSTON — There are more than a few reasons why Marchetti’s Restaurant has been a landmark in the Knightsville neighborhood’s “Restaurant Row” for most of its 26 years.

Marchetti’s features good food and reasonable prices that left me wondering how the heck they do it. And enormous portions, too.

The philosophy of the Marchetti brothers, David and Donald, is that their customers should not only be satisfied with their food, but that “we also know that you are going to enjoy the rest of your dinner for lunch tomorrow.”

Lunch? Judging from the sizes of the leftover portions that waiters were sliding off plates into carry-home boxes at Marchetti’s, there would be enough for the average person to make another complete dinner of it. My Italian Cioppino — a house specialty that had a huge mound of linguine smothered with a wide array of seafood — could easily have fed two hungry diners.

Later, reached by phone, David Marchetti said that huge portions are the secret formula that keeps customers coming back “two and three times a week” and which has resulted in a 20-percent increase in business over last year, when other restaurants are struggling.

I hadn’t been to Marchetti’s in some time, but did remember those huge portions. So when I pulled into the parking lot, which was jammed on a midweek night, and saw people exiting with plastic bags brimming with the take-home boxes, I had to chuckle. Well, some things haven’t changed. And that’s a good thing.

Then again, some things have changed quite a bit at Marchetti’s. About a year and a half ago, an extension was added near the front of the building for new restrooms and a waiting room. The three dining rooms were given a facelift, too, with attractive new wooden booths with red vinyl padding and walls painted a soothing burnt rust. Those walls are now covered with big photos of movie and TV stars past and present. James Dean, John Belushi, Lucy & Desi, Ben Stiller and Elvis Presley were among the luminaries gazing down into the Bourbon Street Room. If you hadn’t been to Marchetti’s in a while, you might think you had made a wrong turn and wound up in a restaurant in Hollywood … or Las Vegas.

The hallway leading to the restrooms has been christened Elvis Presley Boulevard and photos of The King line the wall, along with posters from some of his hit films — King Creole, Blue Hawaii — and concert posters. On Feb. 16, 1957, Elvis played the Chicago Civic Center, where all seats were $3. A few weeks later he was in Buffalo, N.Y., a smaller city, where tickets were just $1.75.

The Elvis theme is carried out in the men’s restroom, too, with more Elvis memorabilia on the walls, while the ladies’ room has a Marilyn Monroe motif. David Marchetti said he’s the big Elvis fan who started hanging the photos that now fill the place.

Fun as all this is, Elvis and Belushi and the Fonz and all the other stars on the walls are not why you’ve come to Marchetti’s. It’s the food. And it’s very good, which is why the 200-seat restaurant is usually full and the wait to get in on weekends can be 90 minutes — so be sure to make a reservation.

This is not one of your fancy restaurants where the chef tries to outdo himself with unusual ingredients and architecturally designed presentations. The menu prepared by executive chef Rick Petrella, who has been in Marchetti’s kitchen for six years, is a mix of old family recipes and his own touch. There is fried calamari, Clams Casino, fried mozzarella and stuffies among the appetizer choices. Veal parmigiana, Sirloin Steak Pizziola, Chicken Saltimbocca, fried clams, and fish and chips (Friday only) and an enormous King Cut roast beef (Saturday nights only) are among the entrées.

It’s the sense that one might be at an Italian family’s Sunday dinner that has kept the parking lot filled for more than a quarter century. Indeed, David Marchetti said that if he isn’t there, his brother is … or his mother … or his father … or his son, who is a manager.

On a warm, late summer evening we decided to bypass the reasonably priced wine list — most bottles are $15 to $24, house wines by the glass just $4.25 — in favor of a couple of frozen drinks. Both my Frozen Piña Colada and my dining companion’s Frozen Toasted Almond ($6.75 each) arrived — whoa! — in enormous, thick glass goblets that must weigh a good three pounds each …empty. As we wondered how some frail senior citizen might hoist the thing, we sipped happily from straws. Both drinks were creamy and seemed more like milkshakes, but after a few sips there was no question that there was a good round of alcohol in each. The Toasted Almond — a blend of ice cream, vodka and Kahlua — was even sweeter than my piña colada.

We began with the Calamari Alla Mama ($7.95) “tossed in our special alla mama sauce with sliced hot pepper rings,” as the menu said. The creamy, light brown sauce vaguely reminded me of something I’d had at a Chinese restaurant. David Marchetti allowed that there is white wine, hot peppers, alla mama garlic butter and brown gravy in the mix, but said the recipe is a house secret. It was mild enough to take some of the heat off the pepper slices. The calamari — rings only — were lightly fried, not at all greasy and perfectly tender. And, like most servings here, it was a huge mound.

The stuffies ($4.50 for two), billed as “Our Own,” were a bit on the gluey side, but had a good flavor, with bits of clams and peppers clearly visible. When we reminded our extremely cheerful waiter, Ryan, to bring the cocktail sauce on the side, the dish was complete.

The menu described my Italian Cioppino ($13.95), another house specialty, as a blend of seafood “sautéed in a spicy tomato sauce over a bed of linguine.” I’d call it more of a steep hill than a bed. It was topped with two plump, in-the-shell littlenecks, along with a good-sized portion of the sweet “crabmeat blend” (translation: imitation crabmeat), with a large scattering of medium shrimp, clams and bay scallops to complete the ocean medley. The seafood was light and wonderfully tender. The sauce, not spicy at all, had a rich tomato taste, with little chunks of tomato that only enhanced the flavor.

The previous week, at another restaurant, my dining companion (MDC for short) had been served a very disappointing veal parmigiana — a small piece of meat and marinara sauce that looked rich but was surprisingly bland — and I felt that I needed to order a side dish of veal parmigiana at Marchetti’s for the sake of comparison. (At Marchetti’s you can get side orders of everything from eggplant parmigiana to sausages and meatballs, just in case you’re insane enough to think you might otherwise leave hungry.)

The veal parm ($9.95) was a revelation after the previous week’s experience. Pounded thin, it took up most of an oval platter and was the size of a filleted trout. Dripping wonderfully with melted mozzarella and smothered in a rich, hearty marinara sauce, it was impressive just to gaze upon. It was tender and moist, although some of the edges of the meat had been overcooked to the point of being almost crispy. But that was such a small percentage of the meat, easily cut away, that I wasn’t going to carp, especially after the previous week’s disappointment.

The exotically named Chicken Mushroom Wild ($13.95) offered a selection of mushrooms, ranging from straw to Portobello, and chicken breasts sautéed in olive oil with basil and garlic. There were four large pieces of the tender chicken, which we figured would add up to at least two breasts if fitted together. It was served over bowtie pasta in a pleasantly light, but fragrant, tomato sauce. Both entrées could easily have fed two people, not to mention that big side dish of veal parmigiana.

Despite all the food, however, MDC wondered near the end of this cornucopia if we were supposed to have been served a salad. I sort of remembered seeing something on the menu about salads being served with entrées and had noticed big salad bowls being dropped off at several nearby tables. But I said, “Nah, probably not. There’s just too much food here.”

However, near the end of the meal, MDC asked Ryan about it and a distressed look crossed his face. He admitted that he’d forgotten our salad bowl in the midst of our big order, but offered to give us a salad to take home. We decided against it and quickly forgave the lapse as he emptied our still-groaning dinner plates into the carry-away boxes. We didn’t even mind that he’d also forgotten the bread (usually, Italian bread with an olive oil dipping sauce containing roasted garlic is served, said David Marchetti) until MDC asked about it midway through the meal. Yet at that point, I thought that even the three rolls Ryan delivered was overkill.

Nevertheless, we plunged onward. Although none of the desserts are made in-house, we ordered the tiramisu ($4.75), a deliciously moist slice that came with dollops of sweet whipped cream on the side.

As we trundled our plastic bags with their boxes out the door, MDC and I agreed that Marchetti’s, where entrée prices, except for the steaks, are mostly in the $12.95 to $16.95 range, is a boon for college students and families on a budget. We had ordered more than most couples would and our bill, without tip, was still under $75. And we’re talking what was really enough food for two meals each!

We’ll be back, but we’ll make sure next time to start with the bread dipped in olive oil and the salad bowl.BILL OF FARE

Dinner for two at Marchetti’s Restaurant might look something like this:

Frozen Piña Colada…$6.75

Frozen Toasted Almond…$6.75

Calamari Alla Mama…$7.95

Chicken Mushroom Wild…$13.95

Italian Cioppino…$13.95

Tiramisu…$4.75

Total food and drink…$54.10

Tax…$4.33

Tip…$11.00

Total bill…$69.43

Marchetti’s Restaurant, 1463 Park Ave., Cranston. (401) 943-7649, marchettis.com. Casual. Handicapped accessible. Child seats. Reservations. AE, MC, V, DC. Parking lot. Open Tues. to Thurs. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun. noon to 10 p.m. Appetizers $3.25 to $7.95. Entrées $7.95 to $24.95. Wines are $4.25 to $6.25 by the glass; $15 to $36 for a bottle.

mjanuson@projo.com