rev:text
| - Davanti Enoteca joins the very small group of restaurants serving fine food in attractive surroundings at reasonable (sort of ) prices. The cuisine is certainly Italian, but not like what you would find in a traditional Italian establishment -- this is more like what you would expect in one of the trendy restaurants in Bologna. For example: there is a bruscheta on the menu but there are also four "Vasi"s which are more inventive dips served with toasted Italian bread. We had the cannelloni (bean) and onion variety (the beans were pureed, and you spread it over the bread).
Davanti serves "sharing" style, meaning that dishes come out one or two at a time and the table is assumed to be sharing them. If you and your companion each order an entree, they may not come out at the same time. This presents Davanti with a challenge in pacing the meal -- but they manage to keep the food flowing without having dishes pile up at any one time. It also gives you a lot of changes to interact with your dining companions.
Three of the five dishes we ordered were five star, and the other two still pretty good. I think the pizzas are there least successful offerings -- perhaps they don't have the right oven and so the crust is chewy not crispy. The faro salad was spectacular. The asparagus came with tiny bits of rhubarb -- nice touch. And the chocolate budino dessert was right on target: a not-overly-rich chocoate mousse/pudding with toasted marshmallow.
As a wine bar, Davanti has a good selection of wines by the glass, and both of the ones we had were outstanding. The wines are not cheap, at about $10 a glass, but the pour is generous and you can get larger pours for slightly more. The food dishes run from around $7 to $13, and two per person is sufficient, so the total for us was under $100 for two, including tax and tip.
Two suggestions:
1. Reservations on weekends are probably needed.
2. Build you meal from the starters -- vasis, boards, appetizers, and salads, and then add a pasta or pizza. You don't need to emphasize the "main courses".
|