We're back at CAFE PASTA. I will not tell you why. You will remember our thoughts about the restaurant were mediocre.
This report will be brief as you are probably tired of hearing about CAFE PASTA. You can read about our July visit by clicking here. Our November visit can be found here.
I will warn you we may visit there again soon. If it happens again, I will not explain why we returned.
For a Tuesday night when it was cold and the wind was blowing like hell, the restaurant was fairly busy. According to soothsayer Debbie, a lot of people were there for company Christmas parties.
The very sweet red sauce shown above was for our bread. If you're concerned about sugar, beware of this sauce. It tastes good, but it is very sweet.
Our shared appetizer was CAFE CRABCAKES. I'm not sure what to say about this appetizer. The cakes were very light without a heavy crab flavor. This means there was a lot of bread involved in making the cakes. They were nicely fried with a thin layer of crispy. This made for a good appetizer, but it would have made a poor entree. The tartar sauce was no doubt restaurant-made. It contained non-identifiable chunks of something that was tasty. Debbie ate the green stuff and had nothing to say about it. My view of the green stuff was that it was meant as decoration. This is the way I feel about most green food.
This is my entree. It is WILD MUSHROOM RAVIOLI. The ravioli is hard to see under the red vodka cream sauce. The ravioli were not fully stuffed. They were very thin. The mushroom flavor was lost in the very sweet sauce. Beware of this sauce, too. It was sugary. I'm starting to believe all the red sauce at CAFE PASTA is heavy on the sugar.
If VEAL PICATTA is on the menu, Debbie will order the VEAL PICCATA. Believe or not, there is actually a piece of veal under the pasta. She said she would have been satisfied with just the pasta with no veal. I tasted her dish. I was not impressed. There was no identifiable flavor.
Debbie smiles as the pepper piles up on top of her pasta.
About half through dinner we noticed the CAFE PASTA owner handling a large wine glass. It must have been about three-feet tall. He decided to place it on the end of the bar in front of a mirror.
As we were leaving, I snapped this photo of Debbie with her hand on the glass. Because he said he would be filling the glass with wine I asked the owner how many bottles of wine it would hold. He didn't know but said he would not be putting corks in the glass as was illustrated on the box that he pulled the glass from.
CAFE PASTA's bar features several large cocktail glasses. They are filled with colored water. It now has a super large wine glass.
If you like large glassware, CAFE PASTA is recommended.
I received an unexpected $4.00 discount on my $14.95 WILD MUSHROOM RAVIOLI. Apparently, it was on special that night. There was no sign indicating any special and no waitress ever said a word about a special. The only way I knew about the discount was when I received the bill. I asked the waitress about the $4.00 adjustment and she then explained WILD MUSHROOM RAVIOLI was the special of the evening.
Note everything on CAFE PASTA'S website menu is not available in the restaurant. I wanted CHICKEN CORDON BLEU BITES for our appetizer. Our waitress said the CHICKEN CORDON BLEU BITES were no longer offered. She promised she would tell the owner about the discrepancy. I am confident she never said a word about the problem to anyone.
Lessons learned: If you eat at CAFE PASTA, avoid everything with red sauce and always ask what the special is for the evening.
