Ideally, I would give this restaurant 4 1/2 starts but since I can't, I rounded up.
I had dinner here tonight with five friends and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I love the vibe and decor of this place. It has dark and modern decor with funky lighting fixtures. The music was a little on the loud side but we didn't mind. It gives the place a "happening" feel - definitely not a stuffy place to eat. There also appeared to be a few more private areas to the restaurant which catered to larger private parties.
Our server was great. I don't have anything negative to say about him. He was friendly, knowledgeable and attentive but not in an intrusive way.
On to the food. The waiter brought us a basket of bread and unlike another reviewer who said the bread was cold and possible stale, our bread was warm and delicious. Maybe the management read his review and made a change.
We shared four different apps and like the other reviewers, we thought that they were superb (all but one of them were amazing). The only disappointment for me was the gamberi coco (coconut shrimp) which I found to be dry and overcooked. I like coconut but found it to overpower the shrimp.
The grilled calamari was outstanding - perfectly cooked and served on a greens on top of a spicy sauce. I can't wait until the summer when I can come back to sit on the patio with a glass of wine and this dish. The one member of our group who was not a calamari fan actually tried and enjoyed it.
We also shared the antipasto italiano (which was yummy) and the caprese salad which the waiter brought to us in individual portions (which was very cool). Each portion had two pieces of flavorful slices of tomatoes with bocconcini cheese on a huge bed of arugula (my favorite).
We all enjoyed our entrees (five of us ordered pasta dishes and one person had the salmon). I ordered the linguine monte mare (linguine with tiger shrimp and mushroom in a rose sauce). It was delicious and the portion was huge! I took most of it home since I was full from the apps. Looking forward to eating it for dinner tomorrow night.
We were pleasantly surprised by the manager's unsolicited offer to treat us to coffee/cappuccino/espressos, etc. which four of us gratefully ordered. It was a classy touch and a nice end to a great evening.
I will most certainly be back.