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| - According to friends Veranda is supposed to be at the same level as Eno Vino--and the person that told us that was SEVERELY mistaken.
Eno vino is a classy place with an amazing variety of dishes.
Veranda is good in its own right--much more expensive if you're going there for the tapas atmosphere as their tapas are expensive. You're better off ordering off the main menu.
We got bruschetta (Yellow Squash with bacon & gorgonzola, Smoked Salmon dill cream cheese, slivered red onions & capers, Beef Tenderloin with boursin & pickled red onion, and Prosciutto & Fresh Mozzarella, tomato, basil & balsamic drizzle) which were all great! And one main dish (Rigatoni Veranda Style sliced Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, Roma tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts, olives & fresh basil in a signature tomato sauce) to split between two. The pasta dish came already split for us in separate plates (much appreciated). We were stuffed and the bill was pretty low! Happy overall with the food and service. Very clean tastes and very true to the flavors of the ingredients.
As far as the ambiance, Veranda is certainly trying-the huge gilded mirror is beautiful and their outdoor area seemed pretty (we were indoors). The dishes are beautifully prepared and presented nicely. But the servers and host were all VERY casual. The way that they talked and conducted themselves left us both feeling like the restaurant's staff need to have more training before they can really be a classy place. Right now they are caught in the middle and need a bit more time to really hone their skills.
Besides that our waiter noticed our attire (we were pretty dressed up considering it was a Thursday night) and asked if we were celebrating something--we were, we just got engaged!!-- and he brought out a dessert compliments of Veranda. (Thanks!!)
It was a coffee ice cream stuffed inside a biscuit (not sure of the name-sorry) drizzled in some chocolate sauce with cream. It was really rich and great but definitely wasn't fresh, the ice cream was WAY frozen and the biscuit thing was good but a little hard.
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