Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Dante Come Over

Prepare yourself, gentle reader, for a lengthy blog post today. In trying to give Dante Boccuzzi's new Akron-based D.B.A. restaurant as much chance to impress as possible (or not), I ended up going to the restaurant twice during its opening week and have included both experiences in this one post.

D.B.A. (aka Dante Boccuzzi Akron) is Dante's latest restaurant opening and his first in the Akron area. Located in the old Vegiterranean space situated across the street from Luigi's, it doesn't represent a brand new concept for him, but merely an extension of his current offerings at Restaurant Dante in Tremont and The DC Pasta Company in Strongsville. That being said, there are far fewer restaurants in Akron to compete directly with D.B.A., both in terms of cuisine and price.

D.B.A. was located at 21 Furnace Street, Akron, OH 44308 and can be reached at 330-375-5050 or by fax at 330-375-1670. While there is parking available in a lot across the street from D.B.A., it can be tricky to find a spot as Luigi's shares the same parking space. I was easily able to find a space to park during my first visit on a Tuesday. For my second visit on a Friday night, I gladly paid the $4 valet charge to not have to worry about it.

Once inside, I was impressed at how the interior had been transformed from the rather hard and edgy space of its predecessor to the more broken up and darker look that the restaurant space currently has. One of the problems that Vegiterranean always seemed to have in the past was that when full, the noise levels were extremely high and it was often difficult to have a conversation with dinner companions without having to yell at them. Smartly, the bar area now has a wall between it and the main dining room and the space at the front of the restaurant has been converted into small nooks, each containing three or four tables.

As Dante is also a musician, cleverly, the dinner menu comes presented on an LP album with an actual record inside:

Just as with Dante's other restaurants, many of the dishes are offered at various sizes, from a tasting to an appetizer to an entree sized portion. As a restaurant reviewer, I greatly appreciate this because it can be difficult when going out by yourself to get as many tastes as possible during a single visit. Immediately, my brain began to devise a plan on how to get the maximum number of courses for a minimum amount of cash.

While there was no prix fixe meal available at D.B.A. (at least, my server didn't indicate that there was one available on my first visit), I decided to take matters into my own hands and ordered a five course progression, three from the appetizer section, one from the pasta section, and a final course from the entree section of the menu.

Within just a few seconds of placing my order, standard Restaurant Dante bread service arrived at my table:

The breads are sourced from a variety of locales (one of which is Mediterra in Pittsburgh) and arrived in an old vinyl LP that has been heated, remolded, and shaped into a bread basket. The hummos that accompanied the bread was also identical to what is served at Restaurant Dante. Both were fresh and delicious and a nice way to start the meal.

What came next was the onslaught of food I had originally ordered, each course skillfully arriving at my table only mere moments after my previous course had been removed and new silverware carefully placed in front of me. First up was the half portion of the Mackenzie Goat Cheese appetizer:

I had assumed that the chevre would be inside the fried squash blossom, but it was actually under the dressed salad greens. The squash blossom was exquisitely fried -- crispy, tender, and not greasy -- and seasoned perfectly. All of the elements on the plate worked very well together, but the one standout that made my mouth swoon was the zucchini agrodolce. It was sweet and sour (as the name would imply) with just a touch of heat to it.

The next course was one of the menu's many vegan offerings, the half portion of the Asparagus Salad:

In addition to the shaved asparagus, there were asparagus spears, frisee, pickled Chanterelles, and an eggless bearnaise that served as the dressing. The seasoning of this dish was a bit uneven as the frisee was more heavily salted and the asparagus a little less. But, at the end of the day, when combining a little bit of each element from the plate, everything evened out and I thought it was quite tasty. The eggless bearnaise (I'm assuming the yellow color probably comes from the use of tumeric) worked quite well and gave the salad an acidity and richness that really balanced the other flavors well.

The next course to cross my table was the Crispy Calamari and Rock Shrimp appetizer:

Accompanying the fried items was a chile-spiced mayonnaise and sliced pickled Shiitake mushrooms. The spiced mayonnaise had a considerable amount of heat, but nothing that I would consider excessive. The squid and shrimp were very tender and the coating on both was crispy and not greasy. The only real complaint I had regarding this dish was that the rock shrimp were fairly aggressively seasoned and the calamari a tad underseasoned. Eaten together, they balanced each other out, but woe to the diner who decided to eat three or four rock shrimp in a row.

Having finished three appetizer courses, my fourth course came from the middle portion of the menu. Items from here were available as a taste, an appetizer-sized portion, and as a full entree. I decided to go with an appetizer-sized portion of the Arborio Risotto Carbonara:

The portion was HUGE. It might be because I had already eaten three courses already, but I realized as soon as this was sat in front of me that I should've ordered the tasting size. I immediately knew that I would be leaving the restaurant with leftovers.

Nestled in the center of the dish was a soft poached egg with a small dollop of black truffle puree next to it. The trick, of course, is to break open the egg and stir the contents of the bowl together before eating it (much like the Korean bibimbap). After thoroughly mixing, I took my first bite. First, the good points. It was rich. It was earthy. It was creamy. The pancetta has excellent texture. Second, the not-so-good points. It was incredibly salty.  Just to rule out the possibility of the pancetta's salt being the culprit, I made sure I found a forkful that had none in it. I repeated the experiment several more times. I quickly reached for my water. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't inedible. It just wasn't balanced. I ate about one-third of this dish before asking for the remainder to be boxed up.

The final course of this first evening at D.B.A. was the Seared Sea Scallops:

Perched atop three potato cakes, the scallops were dressed with balsamic glazed strawberries and lemon zest strips. In between the scallop mounds was fresh arugula, baby Shiitake mushrooms, and sliced dehydrated strawberries. As opposed to my fourth course tonight, this one was spot on. The scallops were cooked perfectly, seared brown on the outside and beautifully translucent on the inside, the strawberries and balsamic played so well together on my tongue. The salad had a lovely bit of pepperiness to it and the dehyrdrated strawberries really reinforced the fresh strawberry flavor nicely. The only thing I didn't care for was the texture on the lemon zest "strips." While I dig the visual presentation of the strip, I think I might have preferred a more finely grated zest.

My second visit to D.B.A. was during the same week as my first, but this time on a very busy Friday evening. Whereas I had been seated at a small corner table in the main room before, this time we were seated at a small two top right by the front window. One of the trickier aspects of food photography when done in a restaurant setting is the natural light coming in through the windows in the evening. The color temperature of the light can change rapidly as the sun sets and over the course of our two and a half hour meal, I found myself recalibrating the white balance on my camera in between each course and actually having to use light painting on my dessert course because of the lack of good light.

To start off tonight's meal, I went with the half portion of the vegan-friendly Cold Soup:

Made from heirloom tomatoes, it also had a basil cream mousse and was dotted with bits of crisped pita bread. The acidity and sweetness of balsamic vinegar added to the complexity of flavor in this quite delicious and refreshing dish. The seasoning was spot on and the crispy pita added a wonderful textural contrast to the smoothness of the soup and the mousse. Truly, this was an excellent way to start my second visit at D.B.A.

My next course was also from the appetizer portion of the menu and was something I had been eying since I first gazed upon the on-line menu, the Hudson Valley Foie Gras:

Served over a raspberry short cake and topped with duck prosciutto, this dish truly delivered in every way possible. As I took my first bite, I think my eyes must have rolled back in my head just a little bit as I savored the wonderful balance of salty, sweet and tart from the various components of the dish. While this is one pricey appetizer at $19 (indeed it is more expensive than several of the entrees), I decided to consider this my entree for the evening and was very happy that I did. The raspberries, both used as a garnish and baked into the short cake added a very necessary amount of acid to combat the heavy richness of the foie gras. I'd order this again in a heartbeat.

For the next course, my dining companion and I each ordered a "tasting" portion ($5 each) of one of D.B.A.'s pastas and decided to share them with each other. The Pappardelle alla Bolognese is a popular dish at Restaurant Dante and makes its appearance on D.B.A.'s menu, too:

This dish was rich and hearty, the pasta was cooked perfectly, and the veal, pork, and beef ragu that dressed the noodles was present without being too much. Honestly, if I wasn't attempting to get in as many tastes of the menu as possible, I could be a happy man with a nice big plate of this pasta.

I, on the other hand, ordered the Green Spaghetti:

Topped with garlic braised rock shrimp, spinach, poor man's cheese, and finished with crispy bread crumbs, this pasta also delivered, albeit with a little less intensity than the pappardelle. Once again the pasta was cooked and dressed perfectly, but I felt that the rock shrimp were a bit too salty. I had first noticed this when I tried the Crispy Calamari and Rock Shrimp appetizer on my first visit. I'm not sure whether the shrimp themselves are naturally salty or if the coating used on the shrimp is the culprit.

My final savory course on my second visit was the appetizer-sized portion ($12) of the Hong Kong Style Mussels:

As opposed to the appetizer-sized portion of the Arborio Risotto I had ordered during my first visit, this time, the portion was perfectly in line with what I had room for in my stomach. The mussels were tender and flavorful and all except one of them had steamed open during the cooking process. The broth had been infused with chiles, lime and cilantro and while the broth by itself was a bit aggressive in seasoning, when paired with the sweet mussels, it was a nice complement. One thing that was missing from this dish was a nice piece of grilled bread to soak up some of the broth. Fortunately, I asked my server for some fresh bread and she was happy to oblige.

While I didn't have room for dessert on my first visit, on this second one I purposely made sure not to stuff myself such that I couldn't sample something from the dessert menu:

Continuing in the vein of cleverness, while the regular dinner menu was presented on the album cover of an LP, the dessert menu came on the liner notes of a Compact Disc.

After considering all of my options, I ended up going with the Double Baked Chocolate Brownie:

I had originally thought that perhaps the brownie would be more like a biscotti, the twice-baked Italian pastries that are often dipped into coffee or espresso to soften. Instead, what arrived was a nut-free brownie wrapped in phyllo, brushed with butter and then baked until golden brown. Paired with a stone fruit compote, chocolate sauce, and a scoop of apricot sorbet, this turned out to be an unusual, but delicious dessert. The brownie, even though it had been twice baked, was decadent and moist and the tartness from the apricot sorbet did a great job of cleansing my palate from the rich and sweet brownie. The chocolate sauce didn't do a whole lot for me and something like a raspberry coulis might have better served this dessert.

Over the course of two visits, I was able to try eleven of the twenty-nine dishes on D.B.A.'s current dinner and dessert menus. Of them all, while the seasoning on a few of the dishes was a little uneven, and one of them was way too salty, on the whole, I think the flavors were spot on, and most dishes I tasted had no issue with seasoning.

Service between my two visits was interesting. With only a third full restaurant on my first visit, it took approximately one and a half hours to enjoy a five course meal. During my second visit during a busy Friday night service with a full restaurant, a similar five course meal took two and a half hours. As you can imagine, the first visit felt a bit rushed as the minute my plate was cleared and silverware replaced, the next course appeared, really giving me little time between courses to relax. On my second visit, the pacing at the beginning of the meal was much better, but as the courses progressed, so did the lag time between each course. Between the pasta course and the mussels, my dining companion and I probably waited a good thirty minutes.

While the servers during both visits were knowledgeable about the menu, the server during my second visit forgot to bring a glass of wine requested by my dining companion and decided to drop off the final check to our table before we had actually finished our meal. I realize that this is the first week of D.B.A. being open and I can easily chalk up these glitches to the staff getting its collective feet wet. Given a few weeks, these problems should correct themselves.

As you can imagine by looking at the menu and some of the prices I've quoted along the way, eating at D.B.A. can be reasonable or expensive. I had water with both of my meals and the totals for each of my meals, with tax and a twenty percent gratuity were $80 and $65, respectively. I imagine that were you to throw in a cocktail and a glass of wine, you could easily approach $100 per person. That being said, if you stick to three or four of the $5 options or simply choose one entree, you could get away with a check totaling closer to $25 to $30. While this is certainly comparable to what you would spend at some of Cleveland's more upscale restaurants, D.B.A. finds itself on the pricier end for an Akron-based restaurant.

Noise levels during my Friday night visit were light to moderate and I had absolutely no problem carrying on a conversation with my dining companion. Unlike Restaurant Dante where, at times, it can be nearly impossible to carry on a conversation without yelling at the person across the table, D.B.A. was much more conducive to productive conversations.

Everything said and done, I would recommend that you check out D.B.A. The food and the service have a lot of promise and given a couple of weeks to get everything running like a finely-oiled machine, I imagine an experience will be similar to any of Dante Boccuzzi's other restaurants. While the menu isn't a huge departure from Restaurant Dante, it also offers a nice assortment of vegan, vegetarian, and meat-based options that can be enjoyed by all audiences. I know that I am looking forward to returning soon and giving some of the remaining menu items a try.

Preview of Dante Boccuzzi's The DC Pasta Company

Dante Boccuzzi seems to be on a roll. Having established his very popular restaurant in Tremont, Restaurant Dante, he added Ginko to that list, and starting two nights ago, his latest venture, The DC Pasta Company. The newest restaurant, a collaboration between Dante and Carmela del Busso, was designed around the concepts of affordability and sharing a lovely meal with the other members at your table. The DC Pasta Company was located at 12214 Pearl Road, Strongsville, OH 44149 and can be reached at (440) 238-8500. Parking was in front of the restaurant and the rear of the complex.

My friend and partner in crime for this evening's dinner was Edsel, who not only made the reservation for tonight's dinner, but was also almost immediately recognized by the general manager, John Williams, as he stopped by our table to check on us and introduce himself. While having the food paparazzi suddenly show up at your restaurant can often unnerve the staff, tonight's complement seemed to handle it in stride.

Having arrived slightly earlier than my table companion, I had the chance to check out and photograph the one page menu:


I immediately liked three aspects of DC Pasta's menu. First, it all fit on one page. Second, even though it fit on one page, it had plenty of choices. Third, this menu was definitely designed around affordability. As a patron, you could go a more traditional appetizer - salad - entree route, or if you were feeling a bit more adventurous, you could build a meal entirely on small plates and get to try a greater number of tastes. I'm sure that you can already guess which route that Edsel and I took tonight, gentle reader.

To start out our meal, we decided to order a trio of Le Cose Marinate (i.e. "marinated stuff"):


DC Pasta was offering marinated items that originate both from Italy and are made in house. Tonight we choose the carciofi (artichokes), melanzane (eggplant) and peperoni picante (peppers). While this was the first I've had artichokes where they didn't have that canned flavor, they also didn't have a lot of other flavor either. They were so-so. The peppers, however, really stepped up the game and by the time I tried the eggplant, I was blown away. Of the three, the eggplant was not only delicious, but also paired well with some of the cured meats we ordered.

Next up was the sole appetizer that we ordered, the Fritto di Mare:


This dish was a combined trio of fried shrimp, calamari, and smelt. Honestly, what caught both my eye and Edsel's were the smelt. Smelt is a small oily fish that is by far more popular in Italian cuisine than in American. Always on the lookout for something unique and interesting, when I mentioned possibly ordering this dish to Edsel, he quickly agreed. Served along with the fried seafood was a lemon-caper-olive dipping sauce that most closely resembled a sauce remoulade. The seafood was fried perfectly with a crispy exterior and tender interior. While it could've used just a touch more seasoning after coming out of the fryer, the sauce remoulade made up for this slight shortcoming. This dish is highly recommended.

Along with our marinated vegetables and fried seafood, we decided to add a trio of house-cured meats, or Salumi Affetati. First up was a plate of the Coppa Dolce and Sopressata:


On a second plate was some additional Sopressata and the Mortadella:


All three were delicious, but the coppa dolce and the mortadella really stood out. Each plate was also adorned by several gressini (e.g., breadsticks), which was a very nice touch and added something with a bit of crunch to balance the softness of the meats. With the exception of the Prosciutto de Parma, all of the salumi listed on the menu were being cured at Restaurant Dante. If you are a cured meat aficionado, you'll want to pay special attention to this part of DC Pasta's menu.

Our appetizer portion of the meal now complete, something familiar to Restaurant Dante appeared on our table after ordering our second round of food, the bread service:


Our server dropped off some fresh bread served in a reshaped vinyl record accompanied by a rosemary bean dip. While delicious, I was kind of curious why this was served in the middle of the meal instead of at the beginning. Regardless, Edsel and I scarfed it down with contentment.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the key points of DC Pasta's menu was the ability to customize the dining experience to suit many different moods. All of the pastas were offered as a taste ($4), an appetizer ($8) or as a full-sized entree ($15). Continuing along our sharing theme for the evening, we decided to round out our meal with a pasta tasting. First up was the Bucatini Con Salsa Di Agnello:


The bucatini had been infused with lovely tomato-braised lamb and fresh chopped mint. Of the four pasta tastes we would enjoy tonight, this was by far the stand-out and the one I would have no reservations about ordering as a full-size entree. The lamb was tender and the mint added a lovely bit of contrast that was at the same time unusual and delicious.

Our second pasta was the Lumache e Polipo:


The pasta was dressed with toasted garlic, octopus, snails, broccoli, parsley, and chile flakes. Of the four pastas, this was definitely the most spicy, nothing obnoxious, but the heat still hitting you at the back of the throat after that first bite. The octopus and snails were lovely, having a bit of chew to them without that "rubber band" effect that can happen if overcooked.

The third pasta taste of the evening was the Linguine Alla Carbonara Con Tartufo:


Having had a very similar dish at Restaurant Dante, both Edsel and I knew what we were in for and this dish didn't disappoint. Dressed with a barely cooked egg on top, the first thing Edsel did after we snapped our pictures was to break the egg open and allow the golden, runny yolk to ooze out over the linguine, enriching an already rich dish. While this pasta was indeed delicious, I didn't really pick up too much on the earthy truffle notes that I was expecting. Even without the truffle, this was still a dish worth seeking out.

Our final pasta taste of the evening was the rather unusual Pizzoccheri Con Patate:


Consisting of a buckwheat noodle, this vegetarian dish was also complemented with cabbage, potatoes and Fontina cheese. Interestingly, both the noodles and the potatoes had a rather firm texture to them. One might be inclined to think that they were undercooked, but they weren't. While tasty, by the time I got to this last dish, I was ready to cry "Uncle!" and as such, managed to just get in a taste of it before throwing in the towel.

When the check finally came, Edsel and I were shocked that between the two of us, without wine, we had only managed to spend $44, including tax. For a mere $22 per person, we had managed to try a trio of marinated vegetables, a trio of cured meats, a seafood appetizer, and four different tastes of pasta. If DC Pasta was going for affordability and value, they certainly achieved it. Edsel had also decided to accompany his meal with two glasses of wine, priced at a very reasonable $5 each.

While technically this "review" is a preview since we went on the day after their big opening, there were no service or kitchen glitches during our visit. In fact, our visit was on par with a restaurant that had been open for several months. I can safely say that I really enjoyed my experience tonight at The DC Pasta Company and Edsel expressed more or less the same opinion at the end of the meal. I am still not a fan of the location of this restaurant, but I can definitely recommend that you take the time to find and check them out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Part II

I thought long and hard about where I wanted to use the $25 American Express gift card that was part of the Bonefish Grill Challenge Kit I received and talked about in the first part of this story. The woman who had initially contacted me, Anna, had suggested that many people go to Red Lobster. Considering that I rarely cover national chain restaurants, covering two of them in a row seemed an unwise path for me to follow. If MS&L was willing to send me a gift card, I wanted to showcase something local in Cleveland that was comparable.

I dug around restaurant websites and asked a few friends who they might recommend for a mid-priced local Cleveland restaurant that specializes in (or at least does well) seafood. Ironically, no one could really come up with a good answer because most of the suggestions were at too high of a price point. But, through a bit of luck, I happened upon my answer. I am a member of the Cleveland Restaurant MeetUp group and they had an upcoming dinner scheduled at Restaurant Dante (warning: no music, but semi-gratuitous use of Flash). Having never been, I was eager to check out Chef Dante Boccuzzi's always interesting menu. While the menu wasn't quite as fish centric as Bonefish Grill's had been, it did have a nice selection of seafood and more importantly, it was comparable in price to what I had eaten at Bonefish Grill.

Now before I get any comments on the subject, the core of both meals was very similar. Had I stuck with an appetizer and an entree at Dante, my check would've only been several dollars higher than Bonefish Grill. That being said, at tonight's dinner I was paying for myself and a guest and as there was wine, multiple appetizers, coffee, and dessert as well, clearly, the check at the end of the meal was much more expensive than what I had received at Bonefish Grill.

The original plan was to meet my dining companion, the lovely Miss Penny, in Dante's bar area for a pre-dinner cocktail. Sadly, when I showed at 6:20 PM or so to grab us two seats, the entire bar was already filled. Instead, I waited for her outside and when she walked up, I suggested we walk around the corner and grab a drink at the 806 Martini & Wine Bar. Located at 806 Literary Road, Cleveland, OH 44113, they are just a few short steps from Lolita, Lago, and Dante.

I also knew from having been there in the past that they had some Happy Hour specials. Martinis were listed for only $3, but sadly when I inquired about them, apparently you couldn't get a regular vodka martini for $3, just the fruity ones (such as a Cosmo). The Stolichnaya martini, up, with cheese stuffed olives was a bit more at $9:


For some reason our server kept pushing the "dirty" martini, but I insisted several times that I wasn't interested in a sullied beverage. The resulting cocktail was actually pretty good and the cheese stuffed green olives added a nice salty balance to the vodka. As the time of our group reservation approached, we paid the check and returned to the entrance of Dante.


Valet parking was available, but if you are willing to walk five minutes, there was plenty of curbside parking on the street. After walking into the entrance and telling the hostess of our party affiliation, she directed us around the corner to two long tables where most of the rest of the group were already sitting. After taking our drink order, I got about the business of photographing the menu:



We waited for a bit while the few remaining stragglers trickled in. It gave Penny and I the chance to take in some of the interior decor. Previously a bank, the interior had been transformed only insomuch as the contents had changed. The walls and ceilings had been repainted, yes, but no treatment of any kind had been applied to help with the steadily building noise level. It became apparent soon enough that the only way to hear someone or even better yet, have a conversation, was to sit directly next to them. The restaurant and bar area were both full tonight (which was great for a Thursday evening), but I would suggest Dante invest in some type of acoustical wall and/or ceiling treatment to help with the noise.

After taking our orders, the waiter started the bread service. Here was a shot of our bread:


Instead of butter, small ramekins of white bean and garbanzo bean "hummos" drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Hungarian paprika were provided to spread on the bread:


The bread was the only item not made in-house. It actually came from the bakery Stone Oven on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights. While Penny selected a multi-grain slice, I ended up with an olive bread. I don't know that I've ever had bread from that bakery before, but I have to tell you, both pieces were absolutely delicious, even without anything to top them. I definitely need to look them up.

Here were shots of my olive bread, plain and topped with a shmear of the hummos:



The "hummos" was correct texturally, but it seemed to be missing the hallmark calling cards of a great hummos: tahini, garlic, and lemon juice. As a spread, it worked well because it didn't mask the flavor of the bread. But calling it hummos? That might be taking too much liberty with the word. All of us sitting at my end of the table agreed that we would ever called it that.

One of the niceties of Dante's menu is that many of the menu items are available in three sizes: Taste, Appetizer, and Entrée. This meant that Penny and I could try a few "tastes" and then still have room for our main courses. Penny left the ordering up to me, so I decided to go with a trio of tastes and ordered what I thought would be two heavier and one lighter taste.

Three items were listed under the risotto section. I decided to choose the Bhutanese Red Rice risotto with asparagus and tarragon:


What many people don't realize is that the word "risotto" describes a style of cooking and not actually a rice dish. I've made a barley risotto in the past and the method is more important than the starch. That being said, while the red rice was completely cooked, to me it was more of a pilaf style dish than a risotto. There was no creaminess to the rice and the grains were completely separate. The flavor was quite light and this would've been a marvelous accompaniment to a nice piece of broiled fish or pan-seared chicken. The tarragon flavor blended so well with the tender fresh green asparagus that Penny had a hard time picking up on it. The rice dish also lacked a bit of the boldness in flavors that our other dishes seemed to serve up in abundance.

The second taste for the evening was a cup of the Saffron Fish Fume:


Loaded with shrimp balls, orzo and fennel, the soup was ... interesting. The clear broth had an intense, but not overpowering fish flavor to it. While my initial taste of the broth made me at first think the fume was oversalted, as I let the liquid wash over my tongue, I realized that there was a different flavor I was experiencing, and not salt, that was causing me to take notice. The orzo was nicely cooked, soft and tender, and the shrimp balls, tiny orbs floating in the soup, were perfect texturally and had a nice shrimpy brightness to them.

Our final taste of the evening was of the homemade Linguine alla Carbonara:


Served with a poached egg and housemade pancetta, both Penny and I were eager to try this dish out. When it was placed in front of me, I was surprised at how much sauce was already on the noodles. After breaking the egg yolk and mixing it into the noodles,


we each took a bite. The noodles were perfectly cooked, tender but still with a little chew and the yolk-ladened sauce was creamy and decadent. To be honest, I don't remember there being much in the way of pancetta flavor coming from the sauce, but the salt level was perfect. Traditionally, carbonara can also served with fresh peas and I think that the little bit of sweetness would've helped to enhance this dish even more. I'm glad we only got a "taste" portion as an entire entrée would've been extremely rich.

So now that we've finished the bread course and the appetizers, let's take a break and do a little quick comparison between Dante and Bonefish Grill so far.

The bread itself, far and away, goes to Dante. The crust and crumb were spot on and just delicious. Even though Dante doesn't bake their own bread, they get points in my book for using another local Cleveland bakery to supply them. As for the dip/spread, I do like the boldness of the olive oil pesto dip for the bread. However, I also like the fact that the rather cavalierly named "hummos" had a clean flavor and didn't cover up the flavors of the bread. The bread course, most definitely, goes to Dante.

For the appetizer course, it's kind of a mixed bag. The mussels I enjoyed at Bonefish Grill were tender, but the rawness and size of the red onion chunks overpowered the bites that contained them. In addition, there were a few broken mussel shards to remove so that I didn't accidentally eat them. While Dante hit some high points with the homemade Linguine alla Carbonara and the delicateness of the Bhutanese red rice, there were some minor misses as well. I'll call the appetizer course a tie.

Now on to the main event, the fish!

Just like I did with Bonefish Grill, I checked with the Seafood Watch website to make sure that the Alaskan Halibut I was thinking of ordering was on the approved list. Sure enough, the website gave me the green light I wanted. Having finished our appetizers, our tables were cleared, clean cutlery was put out, and soon, the entrées began to arrive.

Here was a shot of my entrée:


And a close up of the halibut:


I had asked for the fish to be cooked medium rare, and just like at Bonefish Grill, it was cooked perfectly to order. The fillet was a nice even thickness, so the flesh was tender, juicy, and slightly translucent from one end to the other. The seasoning was aggressive, but not to the point where I would've considered it over-salted. The surprise on the plate was the sauce on the fish. While the menu describes it as a coconut green curry sauce, which would imply a Thai curry, when I tasted the sauce by itself, I actually thought it tasted exactly like an Indian favorite of mine, Saag (or Palak) Paneer, minus the cheese, of course. I tasted it two or three times, just to make sure my taste buds were still working. When I closed my eyes, I tasted India, not Thailand.

That being said, the halibut was a sturdy enough fish to be able to handle the sauce. It was an interesting combination and the kitchen had put just the right amount of sauce on the plate so that there was at the same time enough sauce to eat the entire fillet, but not so much that it was drowning in it. I think I actually liked the fish marginally better at Bonefish Grill, but the green curry sauce at Dante was the better of the two sauces.

The halibut had been perched (I know, I know, bad pun) on top of a sauté of spinach and sliced shiitake mushrooms. Along with three slices of lotus root, these served as the accompaniments to my fish:


Penny had never seen, much less eaten, lotus root, so I gave her one of mine to try. Lotus root doesn't have a very strong flavor of its own, so I think the reason for its inclusion in the meal was as much visual as gustatory. We also gave each other tastes from our entrées. That way, I could include a description of her dish, too.

Penny decided to go with the Seared Dayboat Scallops:


Penny's litmus test for any kitchen was how well they could prepare scallops. Just a few too many seconds on the heat and they would be dry and chewy. Fortunately, everyone who ordered this dish tonight was rewarded with plump, succulent scallops that had a wonderful sear on the outside. They were sauced with an earthy, slightly bitter sauce which balanced well against the sweetness from the scallops. Penny also let me try one of her "potato strudel," which had the look, feel, and crispness of a nice Greek spanakopita, but was filled with a slightly melted tangy goat cheese instead of spinach and onions.

Having cleared my plate, I realized how pretty darn full I was at that point. When our server brought out the dessert menus, I wasn't sure I wanted anything, but I told Penny to order something if she wanted. She countered that she didn't particularly want an entire dessert either and asked if we could split one. That, I figured, I could do.

Here was a shot of the dessert menu:


Fortunately, the two items on the menu that appealed to Penny were two of the lighter-flavored ones, the hot caramelized Bartlett pears and the citrus and mango napoleon. Knowing that the napoleon had an orange curd as well as a citrus sorbet, I figured that it sounded like the perfect light way to end the meal.

After getting a delicious cup of decaf,


we were served our dessert with two spoons:


This was every bit as light as I had hoped it would be. The shredded phyllo was crispy, sweetened only slightly, and had a wonderful cinnamon undertone to the flavor. When it was set down in front of us, the first thing that popped into both of our heads was Frosted Wheat cereal. I can tell you with certainty, it tasted MUCH better than Frosted Wheat cereal. Sandwiched between the two crispy layers was the citrus sorbet, the orange curd, and fresh slices of pleasantly ripe mango. The plate was sauced with a light mint syrup that really accented the flavors already in the dessert without overpowering them. As full as I had been, I eagerly devoured my half.

Since I revealed my bill total for my Bonefish Grill meal, I feel it only fair to reveal what this dinner at Dante cost me. The bill, including tax, was slightly over $93. That being said, my halibut was only $26 and each of the tastes we had eaten earlier were $4 each. The halibut was also the most expensive seafood item on the menu. Penny's luscious scallops were only $20 and there was a salmon dish on the menu for $21.

So where does that leave us, gentle reader? Each restaurant had its pros and its cons. The food at both restaurants ranged from good to excellent. The service at both was also outstanding. While there were fidgeting and crying babies at Bonefish, the hard edges and lack of acoustical treatments at Dante left me with no conversational partner except the person sitting next to me. My personal proclivity is to return to Restaurant Dante, but that's because I prefer to support the local independent restaurants over the national chains. The flavors at Dante were certainly more adventurous than Bonefish Grill, but as Bonefish Grill has to appeal to a national audience, I would expect the menu to be a little less cutting edge.

Honestly, I think you'll get a good meal at either restaurant. To me it simply comes down to the philosophy of what kind of restaurant you want to support. As I concluded at the end of the first part of this blog series, Restaurant Dante helps to define Cleveland gastronomically from other cities. Bonefish Grill does not. That's not to say you'll have a bad meal if you eat at any of the locations all over the United States. But I know that personally, if I'm going to take the time and effort to travel to another city for business or pleasure, I am purposely going to seek out places of interest that I can't find anywhere else.