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| - Home in Cleveland for a week, our plans to go to the Indians game were dashed by rain, so we decided to try out Chinato, Zack Bruell's Italian joint in downtown. As someone who is not typically a fan of Italian fare, I was quite impressed by Chinato overall. We had two appetizer plates, the Suppli al Telefono and the fried artichoke hearts. Both were really nice, and pretty light on my palate despite being fried. We were particularly impressed by the artichokes (a little salty for me, honestly). For dinner I had the Beef braised in Amarone with polenta. It was very good, although there was a heck of a lot of polenta on the plate, which pulled some of the flavor out of the beef, which was basically a short rib. The polenta was simple and good, but fell a tad on the salty side. For dessert, I tried some pistachio cheesecake and some chocolate mousse cake, and both were great, the cheesecake especially. It's a flavor profile I haven't had before, and it was memorable. Overall, this was a great meal that had a few shortcomings in the entree department. Really wonderful appetizers and desserts. I have no complaints at all about the service-- I remember being pleasantly surprised at the short wait for our food, even with a decent crowd in the restaurant.
Overall, Chinato is definitely worth a try. Pretty reasonably priced menu too; there is definitely a lot of worse food on East 4th that will cost you pretty much the same.
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