Showing posts with label modern american. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern american. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

A Cornocopia Of Choices At 111 Bistro

Fair warning -- I cannot give you an unbiased review of the food at 111 Bistro. Perhaps this surprises you, gentle reader, given the myriad of reviews on this blog where I assert that very quality, an unbiased attempt at describing to you what the average consumer can expect in terms of food and service when dining at an establishment.

In fact, my relationship with 111 Bistro has always had a personal quality to it. The original sous chef invited me to the "friends and family" night prior to the restaurant's actual opening back in June 2014. I had first learned of the restaurant's planned existence earlier in 2014 when the chef, Anthony Scolaro, and sous chef, Joe Holmes, each hosted a course at a Dinner In The Dark event at Crave in Akron. And, of course, at the friends and family event, I first met Anthony in person.

Is the food fantastic? Yes. Is the service great? Yes, with the caveat that I almost always sit at the bar, so I tend to be waited on by the same bartenders/servers over and over again. Have I ever had to send food back to the kitchen? Once, because of a mix-up with how my order was entered into the system. The kitchen made my entree with salt because they didn't realize it was for me. However, one of the line cooks saw that I had received the salted entree and immediately flagged me down. Grateful for the assist, I sent the plate of food back to the kitchen and they re-fired the entree, this time sans salt.

So what value can I add without this sounding like an (unpaid) advertisement for 111 Bistro? What I like about the menu at 111 Bistro is that not only does Anthony draw elements from other ethnic cuisines (although the menu is billed as "modern American", Japanese, Thai, Indian, French, and Italian all play a role), but dishes for diners with more common dietary restrictions are already represented on the menu, everything from vegetarian to vegan to gluten-free. And as I've already mentioned, when it comes to salt and seasoning, restaurants come in two varieties: those that season during prep and those that don't. 111 Bistro, more or less, comes squarely in the second camp.

That doesn't mean that the entire menu is fair game. Some elements are seasoned during prep because there is a marinade or brine involved; some of the confit preparations involve the traditional use of salt to bring out moisture from the protein. However, where I can normally expect maybe one thing on the menu to be low-salt/salt-free, at 111 Bistro, at any given moment, there will be a dozen items that I can order. They also run seafood specials quite often and many times, those dishes can be made salt-free.

Think I'm exaggerating? Let's take a look at their current menu (Fall/Winter 2015). Here are the items I can order and know that the kitchen can reasonably accommodate me:
  • 111 "Poutine" (minus the cheese)
  • 111 Fries (plain with the house made salt-free ketchup)
  • Pork Belly Steam Buns (minus the sambal mayo)
  • Shrimp Fried Rice (minus the soy)
  • Greens Salad (as is)
  • Greens Salad add-on proteins -- chicken, salmon, tuna, or shrimp
  • 111 Burger (no cheese, bun has a very low amount of salt)
  • Smoked Bison Meatloaf (subbing roasted potatoes for potato gratin)
  • Faroe Island Salmon (minus bacon)
  • Lake Erie Walleye (as is)
  • Brussels-bacon-onion (minus bacon)
  • Roasted carrots (as is)
  • Fingerling potatoes (as is)
You can also usually add the weekly seafood special to this list. Here is a picture of last night's seafood special, a pan-seared barramundi over coconut curry rice and roasted heirloom carrots with a piquillo pepper puree:


Or, how about last weekend's seafood special, a pan-seared black sea bass over chanterelle and porcini farro, truffle honey drizzle, and micro greens:


Seafood isn't your only option -- I tend to have the 111 Burger about once a week with either unseasoned French fries or a side of fresh fruit:


This particular burger had the optional fried egg on it.

It's hard to believe, but all of these entrees are no salt added, no butter, and no cheese. That's not to say they are salt-free (as in 0mg sodium), but I'd venture to guess that any one of these three entrees probably has under 300mg of sodium for the entire plate of food (the burger with egg on it probably having the most natural sodium). For those who are managing their salt intake, the menu and the preparations at 111 Bistro are truly a godsend. The fact that they are utilizing quality ingredients and preparing them correctly just makes it an even more attractive package.

I do occasionally indulge in dessert. While there is at least one item on the dessert menu that is 100% off-limits -- salted caramel cheesecake, I'm looking at you -- the seasonal creme brulee or just a scoop of the vanilla bean ice cream (occasionally with a freshly brewed espresso poured over it, affogato-style) is sometimes all I want.


I will say that the dessert menu has become less adventurous over time (and not necessarily in a bad way). When the restaurant opened, Joe Holmes (mentioned earlier) was both the sous chef and the pastry chef. When Joe and 111 Bistro parted ways mid-summer 2015, Anthony decided to not only scale back the desserts (smaller portions and simpler desserts), but the prices as well. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss some of Joe's desserts, but at the end of the meal, often times you just want a small taste of something sweet, not another full-blown course.

I'm in a unique position in that I've had the opportunity to try 111's food both as a salt-eater and now as a salt-free eater. As a salt-eater, one of the qualities that always stood out for me was Anthony's philosophy on salt -- add just enough to enhance the flavor of the food, but never enough to make the salt noticed. As a salt-free eater, now I can completely appreciate the food on an entirely different level, both the high quality of the ingredients and the creative use of elements on the plate to balance savory, sweet, bitter, and spicy.

As you can imagine, I really highly recommend you give 111 Bistro a try, and not just because I eat there multiple times a week. Co-owners Anthony Scolaro and Meghan Pender (Meghan manages the front of the house) want you to have a fantastic experience and in my opinion they take that goal very seriously. They have been open to constructive feedback (and I've given them both positive and negative feedback over the last eighteen months) and I can't stress enough how much I appreciate the kitchen's flexibility in being able to provide the myriad of no-salt-added choices on the menu.

If you're interested in seeing more of my images from 111 Bistro (and trust me, there are nearly 300 to look through currently), feel free to visit my Flickr album.

111 Bistro is located at 2736 Medina Road, Medina, OH 44256 (it's in the same building as the new location for the Medina On Tap Bar and Grill) and can be reached at 330-952-1122. They are open Tuesday through Saturday for dinner and Sunday for brunch. Reservations are accepted and based on what I've seen, I'd encourage them for the weekends.

If you do decide to go, look for the guy sitting at the end of the bar with the large camera. Chances are, it'll be me.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Rosewood Grill: Where Do The Desserts Come From?

I'll be the first to admit that sometimes it takes a little push to get me going. I knew that Turner's Mill had transitioned into Rosewood Grill several years ago. I also knew that they were serving upscale cuisine and that initial wait times for a table were crazy long. So I kept putting it off and off until I finally forgot about it. That is, until two friends and fellow photographers told me that they had gone for a meal to celebrate their anniversary and loved it.

Seizing the opportunity, I stopped out for two meals, after work, both weeknights. Fortunately, weeknights seem to be the time to go in order to assure a table with minimum wait. After being seated, handed the menu, and told about the specials, I only had to deliberate for a short time before the server came back to my table to take my order and deliver the standard Bread Service:

Bread Service

The butter was cold and firm, but the hot, salted bread more than made up for it. The cold nuggets of dairy that I dug out of the ramekin with my knife melted easily into the bread and I was rewarded with a delicious starter to my meal.

Hearing that one of the specials for the night was a Salad Caprese, I knew that a simple salad like this could easily be terrific or terrible. Shortly after the bread arrived at the table, my salad was delivered:

Salad Caprese

I've had many a salad caprese in my days and this one was right up there with the best of them. Really, it is a salad that is only as good as its ingredients. The mozzarella was tender and soft, the tomatoes were perfectly sweet and acidic, the fresh basil added a great herbaceous quality to the dish, and the balsamic vinaigrette tied all of the flavors together to bring home a true taste of summer.

While there were lots of interesting choices on the dinner menu, for some reason the Lobster Ziti was speaking to me tonight:

Lobster Ziti

The ziti was cooked perfectly al dente and the sauce nicely coated the pasta. I would've liked a bit more lobster meat, but generally this was a pleasing and filling dish. The spinach was a nice touch in terms of color, texture, and flavor. The mushrooms and grated cheese added a bit of earthiness and body to the pasta. Overall, a very good dish.

I decided to entertain the notion of dessert and thus took a look at the four item menu. When my server handed me the menu, as I quite often do, I asked her which desserts were made in-house. She declared that only the first two, the creme brulee and the chocolate "moose" were done on premises. Seeing as the creme brulee was straight up vanilla (and by vanilla, I mean both in flavor and excitement level), I ended up choosing the Chocolate "Moose" along with a cup of decaffeinated coffee:

Chocolate "Moose"

The Chocolate "Moose" was a parfait-like concoction of chocolate mousse and crushed oreo cookies with moose antler cookies sticking out of the top. While definitely a tasty dessert, there were a couple of items with which I took issue. First, this seemed like an awfully simple dessert for a restaurant of Rosewood Grill's caliber. It felt like a dessert a non-pastry person would have come up with. Second, and the more important of the two items, was that the mousse itself had been overwhipped slightly and the result was a slightly grainy texture. Sort of like little nuggets of butter had formed throughout the mousse.

For my second visit, I decided to skip the bread service and go with one of the on-menu salads, the Berry and Bibb Salad:

Berry and Bibb Salad

I love the theory of this salad. Combining Bibb lettuce with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, crumbled goat cheese, toasted almonds and dressing the whole thing in a citrus vinaigrette sounded delicious in my head. However, the execution was a bit off as most of the Bibb lettuce wasn't coated with any of the vinaigrette. This undressed lettuce had a serious bitterness that the sweetness from the vinaigrette would've gone a long way at alleviating. That being said, were this salad more properly tossed, I think it would've been a hit. I did enjoy that the toasted almonds added a lovely little crunch to each bite.

After hearing about one of the nightly entree specials, I found myself waiting with anticipation. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long as the Pan-Seared Salmon with Asparagus and Red Lentil Hash arrived shortly after my salad plate was cleared:

Pan-seared Salmon

The preparation of the salmon was executed with immaculate textbook-like precision, seasoned perfectly and pan-seared with a crisp exterior and a melt-in-your-mouth medium rare interior. The skinny asparagus and the accompanying buerre blanc added a further lusciousness to the dish. The red lentil hash was a nice idea on paper, but it felt a bit too overworked in the ingredient department. It definitely didn't need the added pop of color from the spinach. The rather large onions (compared to the small lentils) felt out of place. Perhaps had all of the ingredients been cut to the same size and the resulting mixture been pressed into a ring mold, this might have worked better for me.

Dessert during my second visit to Rosewood took an unexpected turn. After handing me the dessert menu, I asked my server which of the desserts were made in-house, the very same question I asked the other server I had during my first visit. Expecting him to point out just the creme brulee and the chocolate "moose", I was a bit surprised when he claimed that all of the desserts (with the exception of the Mitchell's ice cream) was made in-house. When I told him what my previous server said, he claimed that she was misinformed. In fact, he had personally witnessed one of the items previously considered out-of-house being made on premises.

With that new nugget of knowledge, I decided to continue with my chocolate dessert theme and ordered the Chocoholic:

Chocoholic

The menu didn't lie. For $6, I received an enormous portion that could've easily fed two people. Positioned between thick creamy layers of dark chocolate ganache were a brownie with nuts layer and a chocolate cake layer. Additional chocolate sauce was drizzled over the top and the plate was dressed with slightly sweetened whipped cream and macerated cherries.

I had decided to forego the usual cup of unsweetened decaffeinated coffee that I often use to cut the sweetness of desserts. My server had asked me if I wanted a cup of Mitchell's vanilla ice cream to accompany my dessert and I said, "No," thinking that I really didn't need the additional sweetness. That was a mistake on my part because you need something, ANYTHING, to help cut through the incredible chocolate flavor avalanche you are about to embark upon. I actually liked the Chocoholic quite a bit, other than there was just too damn much of it. Fortunately, this wasn't my server's first rodeo and he graciously brought me a complimentary scoop of vanilla ice cream anyway. As odd as it sounds, the vanilla flavor was a welcome relief every now and again to the intense chocolateness of the dessert.

Like my previous visit, the check before tip and tax was roughly $40-$45. Despite the various quibbling over under dressed salads and dessert provenances, I rather enjoyed both of my meals at Rosewood Grill. The service was pleasant and (mostly) well-informed both nights I went and I was able to get a table within about ten minutes of arriving. I would strongly recommend calling for reservations if you are planning a visit on a weekend.

Rosewood Grill is definitely recommended.

Rosewood Grill on Urbanspoon

Saturday, July 7, 2012

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:

D.B.A.

D.B.A. Dinner Menu Back

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:

Bread Service

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:

Fried Squash Blossom

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:

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:

Crispy Calamari and Rock Shrimp

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Pappardelle alla Bolognese

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:

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:

Mussels 'Hong Kong' Style

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:

D.B.A. 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:

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.

Dba [Dante Boccuzzi Akron] on Urbanspoon
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