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| - I visited during Charlotte's Restaurant Week on Saturday, 1/30/2016 around 5:30 PM.
Let me tell you! The food here is DELICIOUS! I can tell it's homemade because some of it really tastes like I'm walking into some of the kitchen's of my Sicilian family members. The food is made with love.
As a starter, fresh bread is brought to the table. The bread is soft in the middle and crusty on the edges. The olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette were good. In the basket were also white beans, which I'm not a fan of.
For my appetizer, I had the Napoleon. It was a piece bruschetta style bread layered with fresh eggplant grilled to perfection, then a fresh slice of tomato underneath a hunky piece of mozzarella. It was drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette reduction and goat cheese. The plate was adorned with a freshly hand-picked plump basil leaf! I devoured everything and wiped the plate clean! Flavors were popping in my mouth! I love Napoleons and similar dishes wherever I go.. I was extremely pleased with Dolce's version and would EASILY come here again.. just for this dish! Excellent!
For my entree, I chose the Cannelloni, which is a basically a wrap type of noodle. You put the ingredients in it and roll it. This particular dish of cannelloni was filled or rather stuffed to capacity and overflowing with spinach, ricotta and mascarpone cheese. A small amount of creamy Parmigiano and a touch of tomato sauce was sprinkled on top. It was garnished with something I was unfamiliar with, but ate it anyways. This dish was delectable, however it was extremely heavy and rich. I only ate a third of it and had it boxed to go. I had another third of it later that evening and the remaining third the next morning for breakfast.
For dolce or dessert, I elected to enjoy the Limoncello Chiffon Cake! It was light and airy, yet still creamy. It was sweet, but not overly sweet. I also loved the strawberry sauce drizzled on the plate. It was the perfect ending to a hearty meal.
So why 4 stars and not 5? Service. The lady servers who brought the food and took the finished plates were great, but my server not so much. He never introduced himself after I was seated. He sulked when I asked for water and not wine/alcohol. He checked on me by asking questions when my mouth was full with my appetizer and then walked away. He didn't give me time to finish my appetizer before bringing the main dish. He didn't check on me throughout my meal after that. He didn't keep my water glass full. I had to flag him down to ask and he did a million things before telling someone else to fill my glass. I was completely parched from the deliciously, heavy cannelloni. I needed my glass filled again later, but didn't even bother and it wasn't replenished. While I was eating dessert, he apparently brought the check, which I didn't notice because I was still eating.. who brings the check when you're still eating? How did he know I didn't want anything else? The Napoleon was so good, that I had wanted to take one home, but I felt so rushed that I later forgot my intention. It was only when he randomly popped up to grab the check and payment, while I was still eating that I noticed it was placed there. At that point, I advised that I was not ready yet. I took my time with my dessert, I believe food is to be enjoyed not just scarfed down. I enjoyed every flavor in that cake. I still left him a tip that was slightly greater than 15%. Now, if the service was more on the mediocre side rather than subpar or if service had even came close to the quality, love, preparation and presentation of the food, then my experience at Dolce would have been: hands down 5 stars and 2 thumbs up.
Each restroom is only suited for one guest, either a lady or a gentleman. The ladies room was a pretty shade of a purplish pink, a nice mirror, flowered plant, and of course a working toilet and sink. The soap dispenser was full. It was clean and tidy.
It is important to note that parking in this mini-plaza can be a bit tricky. There were no spaces in the immediate parking lot and I ended up parking in the Harris Teeter parking lot, which is a very short walk away (think less than a city block.. you're still technically in the same overall parking lot).
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