Wooohooo I won a free meal voucher from Yelp's 2015 Charlotte Restaurant Week giveaway to Aqua e Vino so I was super excited to try this place out. Free food is basically my favorite thing ever.
Making a reservation was a bit of a process. I am a spoilt millennial and it has been ages since I made reservations without an online option. It took 3 calls but we finally snagged a Sunday night reservation (they are not typically open Sunday but made an exception for restaurant week).
Basically as soon as I received the certificate I eagerly pulled up their menu. I was bamboozled by that amount of unfamiliar Italian words so I did extensive googling before we reached the restaurant. Turns out all the wait staff were happy to answer questions on the menu. They provided complimentary bread and marinara sauce which were both delicious.
I started with the Bresaola Cornet which was my first time eating bresaola and robiola cheese and they made a completely delicious combo! The boyfriend was adventurous and ordered the Fritto Piemontese - sweet bread, polenta, sausage, apple. I had never had sweet bread before either and the sample I had was interesting and tasted better when combined with the apple. The sausage was amazing!
For the main I ordered the Catch of the Day "Pesce Al Cartoccio" which was a tropical fish I had never heard of. It came wrapped in the parchment sheet it was baked in. This was a novel experience and I am still unaware of the proper way to unwrap a meal. The fish was good but a bit dry but the vegetables baked under it had a great flavor.
For dessert he ordered the mixed berry tart and I had the Pesche Farcite both of which were excellent. The entire meal was an adventure of new tastes and everything was wonderful. We will definitely return!