The decor is reminiscent of a hotel/casino with tall ceilings adorned with glittering chandeliers, a large pizza oven on display, and lots of staff buzzing around serving and clearing tables. We were seated in a cozy corner table and had lots of time to peruse the menu. But first, I ordered us a bottle of 2017 Spelt, Montepulciano from Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - Abruzzo. It was very dry and tannic but paired well with our meal.
To start, we shared the Venetian “Risotto” - made from riced calamari, lobster stock, and topped with King Crab, this dish was very rich and decadent. The tiny bits of calamari were al dente and we joked whose job it was to cut up the tiny pieces. The sauce was a bit too salty, but we scraped the bowl nonetheless.
We also shared a sweet salad of Melanzana Agrodolce. Eggplant, tomato, dates, vinegar, pine nuts, and mint were tossed in this vibrant Mediterranean dish. The serving size was plentiful.
For my main dish, I ordered the Calamarata Nera. Squid ink pasta in the shape of calamari rings was tossed in a tarragon butter with ginger fennel, tomatoes, and studded with lobster chunks and topped with garlic breadcrumbs. This was another rich dish that was very delicious.
Keith ordered the famous 40-Layer Lasagna with Short Rib Sugo, truffle mornay, and Sottocenere cheese. This dish was stunning and also pretty indulgent albeit satisfying for a winter's night.
Lastly, though we were stuffed we were tempted by dessert and ordered the Torta al Cioccolato - a 13-layer chocolate cake with fudgy cacao ganache and a subtle coffee amaretto sauce. It was so rich and married with the last drops of red wine we had.
We also ordered an Espresso Martini to share, but it did not arrive to our table before the waiter brought our check. They had been having wifi issues all night with their ticket system, and we noticed some dishes were being sent to the wrong tables, etc... the manager came by and offered us the dessert drink on the house. It was more like an ice coffee topped with whipped cream and was very sweet.
Overall, we had a nice yet pricy meal. The service was a bit basic, like any other chain restaurant, with no real attention to detail or friendliness. They were pretty busy and clearly the wifi issues threw them off their game, but we left with full and happy bellies.
Total Rating: 3.83
Food: 4.5, Price: 2.5, Service: 3, Ambience: 3, Accessibility: 5
