For Mother's Day, I made reservations to bring my mother, who loves to eat out, somewhere new. We had to cancel due to weather on the actual date, so when we finally made it to dante a week later, we were shocked to find the hostess remembered our party and seated us in our requested booth with a gorgeous view of the river.
Our server was friendly and really accommodating, especially of me as a vegetarian. He seemed eager to answer our questions about the menu and went out of his way to help me order. Although dante is listed as Italian food, you won't find any eggplant parmesan or pasta with red sauce - their menu spans a range from elegant seafood and vegetable dishes to the downright unusual and playful, like a grilled baby cuttlefish, a "mini lobster clambake", and the micro greens and baby asparagus we saw garnishing appetizers on tables across the restaurant.
On our server's recommendation, we shared three small plates to start: the cremini & zucchini salad, the onion tart tatin, and a few oysters, which we were told they ship in fresh every day. We only wished we'd ordered more while we waited for the next course. For entrees, I had the potato gnocchi (ordinarily an appetizer topped with pancetta), my mother had the scallops with truffled tapioca, and my sister had the mustard-glazed salmon. Even though we'd ordered these individually, we couldn't stop sharing them as well.
We were full when we finished, but we tried the coconut lemoncream from the dessert menu -- and the pastry chef himself came out as we finished to ask what we'd thought of his latest dessert! My mother couldn't have been more thrilled. The care and passion of the chefs here is obvious, and it showed in the food - some of the best we've ever eaten. We had a great time, and we'll definitely be back.
Pros: Easy parking, great service
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