| rev:text
| - I was lucky enough to get invited to the soft opening of Chinato and to no surprise. So as always in the spirit of full disclosure I am slightly biased to Zack Bruell's restaurants, however, I'm not afraid to criticize if I felt it necessary. While this is only the second one I've been to, (the other being Parallax) I absolutely love what they do with food. Chinato (pronounced Key-na-too) is no exception. Don't expect to find your Americanized italian food here, as you'll be disappointed, if that is what your looking for. The inspiration for the cuisine is Italian food like they do it in Italy, and to me that is just what Cleveland needs.
So first the decor, its a nice mix of modern and classic with an amazing mural along in the main dining area that stretches the length of the room of what I'd imagine is of some where in Italy. The seating is intimate much like Parallax and I like that. I sat in a booth but didn't feel overcrowded by those around me.
Next the appetizers, or Antipasti. We tried the Salumi Platter and the Beef Tongue with Sweet and Sour Eggplant. The Salumi platter aka salami was very tasty, although I had wished the server would have told us what the different kinds were or I should have asked. Either way it was good, didn't blow me away but if you like salami its nice, go for it. The beef tongue was unique, I hadn't had it before so I really don't know if it was good for beef tongue. It had a very beefy flavor with an interesting texture. I'm not a fan of eggplant to begin with those so that threw me off a bit. I'd try it again though to give myself a better feel for it.
On to the pasta and entrees. For the pasta we had the Pappardelle with creamed cauliflower, pecorino and pepperoncini. This pasta was very nice, it was slightly creamy, but not heavy, and a very nice spicy kick to it. Gets my approval for sure. The entrees were Beef Braised in Amarone with creamy polenta, Sea Scallops with pepperoncini, garlic oil and roasted potatoes and Sweetbread Fritto Misto with fried caper berries, carrot and zucchini julienne. The braised beef was excellent, very flavorful and tender, and the creamy polenta was the perfect compliment with plenty of flavor itself. Polenta can often be very plain but this certainly was not. The sea scallops were done perfectly, I find that scallops are often done one of two ways, excellent or very poorly. These were done perfectly, my only complaint was the potatoes seemed to be a little dry, but wouldn't keep me from ordering the dish again. The Sweetbread Fritto Misto was a very nice dish. Its definitely a different twist on sweetbreads than what I've had in the past. Often sweetbreads are served with some sort of heavier sauce. These were slightly breaded and I believe sauteed, and it made the dish much lighter with the julienne vegetables. A nice touch was very thinly sliced lemon pieces that were roasted as well giving a nice lemon flavor and additional crunch to the dish. The dessert I had was the ricotta cheese cake which was a nice finish to the meal, it was slightly lighter and sweeter than a normal cheesecake, I'd order again.
We tried two bottles of wine, one was a Chianti and the other was a Sangiovese. Both were very good, unfortunately, I'll have to update later with the names when I get back there since they are escaping me at this time.
Overall Chinato is a must try in Cleveland which is sure to become a hot spot. Check it out and see how Zack is at it again.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)