Maggiano's Little Italy Happy Hour. Summerlin

Maggiano's anchors a spot in Downtown Summerlin with the mall's easy parking right outside the door. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday, 3 to 6pm, and the sweet spot is the early end of that window, before the after-work and early-dinner crowds fill the bar area.

The pricing is the whole reason to come. During happy hour, calamari, bruschetta, wines, and cocktails are all $9 each. That flat number makes ordering simple: grab a couple of shared plates and a drink, and you can put together a real Italian-American sitdown for the price of one entree elsewhere. The calamari and bruschetta are the obvious starters to split if you're with a friend or two.

This is a chain, and it doesn't pretend otherwise, but the kitchen and bar are run with the consistency that comes with that. The cocktails stick to well-made classics rather than anything experimental, and the wine list covers the usual bases.

The dining room is polished enough for a low-key date and roomy enough for a group, with a bar that suits solo sitting too. Weekend-only diners are out of luck since the deal is weekday-bound. If you're planning around the $9 menu, confirm it still applies before you go, since chains adjust these periodically.