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| - I want to really like this place. I want to like it for the crazy wooden sign and the really awesome server we got last night and the delicious olive oil with balsamic vinegar we got with the bread. I want to love it for the wonderful time I had.
But I have issues with mis-placed expectations. I'm trying to work on it. So poor Rocco gets 3 stars, because I can't bear to give it 2.
Are there people in the windows? That's because the lights aren't on in the rest of the restaurant. It's deads-ville back there and who wants to eat in the dark? Go to the window: natural light and something to look at besides the slightly bewildering interior decorating.
As I mentioned, the server was swell, a real nice guy. My Other wanted something not on the menu - hey no problem. I wanted the girliest drink available - try the Kanadian Koolaid. Need a lighter - here you go, see you in a few.
The menu gets a sad face though. Lots of things in italics - but all the appetizers are seafood? Or salad? The thing not on the menu we ordered was spaghetti bolognese... not on the menu? Then it's two hard to read menus of equal length - one printed off (but looks like a couple of years ago), the other laminated. I defaulted to the gnocchi so that I could stop reading already.
Then the food. Bread, as said before, yum. Great olive oil and balsamic vinegar mix with other spices.
The gnocchi was, again, one of those things I want to love so badly. But reality crashes through the Kanadian Koolaid and it's really a one-note sauce of parmesan rose with a lot of parmesan slathered over chewy gnocchi. The sauce was tasty, but it was tasty because parmesan is tasty, not because there was anything else to it. The gnocchi was tasty because gnocchi is tasty, but the texture was difficult and made the heavy sauce even heavier.
I didn't eat the whole plate of spaghetti, but from the couple of forkfuls I scored and the review of the Other, it was good food, but bland food.
Dinner came to $42 +tip (earned!) without any appetizer, but with a monstrous cocktail.
So it's an okay place. It's got okay food and okay atmosphere. It's got an amazing server and a fun sign outside. It's kinda expensive, but definitely not the most I've ever paid for so-so Italian.
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