Saturday, June 18, 2011

Café Paisano Italian Grill & Pizzeria

I had the pleasure of dining at Café Paisano Italian Grill & Pizzeria on a rather rainy and stormy Friday evening. Yes, we got wet trying to get back to our car during a downpour, but it was all worth it--the food was very good!

Lisa, our waitress, took very good care of us. After we ordered, our Garlic Knots arrived. They were good, more like fresh yeast rolls with just a hint of garlic and oil, but definitely fresh-baked, light and airy. They stood on their own and didn't need anything like butter, they were delicious with a hint of sweetness, hint of garlic, and hint of oil. Yumm.
For an appetizer we ordered the Stuffed Mushrooms. They were delicious. A dish of mushroom caps had been stuffed with a very flavorful crabmeat stuffing, then topped with cheese and alfredo sauce and baked. They were quite hot when they came out, but oh, so delicious. The crab stuffing was the predominant flavor here, not lost at all in the mushroom and afredo/cheesy flavors. So this was a very good dish.

Our salads arrived in short order (the timing of the food was fantastic). They were quite ordinary, but good. Just a nice little "start" before the main course.

For his main course, my friend Tommy ordered the Friday night special, the Haddock Fish Fry. This was very good. The haddock could not have been cooked better. A large, 12 oz portion of haddock had been breaded and fried. The breading was crispy but not greasy, the fish underneath was tender, moist, and flavorful. It was very very good. The french fries that accompanied the meal were also very good. The only real disappointment was the coleslaw--it was not that good. Now, it's really hard to make a coleslaw I don't like, but this was missing something. I think it needed a touch more acid, it was just a bit on the bland and flavorless side. But given the great taste of the haddock and the good french fries, I'll overlook this little miss-step. Overall a very good dinner.

My main course was the second Friday night special, Broiled Haddock and Shrimp. A 6 oz filet of haddock was nicely boiled and served along with three quite large shrimp, cooked just right. It was all served on a bed of linguine and topped with a lobster cream and mushroom sauce. It was also all very good! The haddock was broiled just right, the shrimp had a nice flavor and texture. The rich sauce added a lot of flavor to the dish and had mushrooms and roasted red peppers in it. It was good to look at and good to eat as well. I enjoyed this a lot.

When we finished eating, we were quite full. Usually we don't have dessert, but it was still pouring rain out, so we opted to split a single cannoli. It was good, though a bit sweet--or it may just be that I'm not used to desserts and sweets. Still, it was a good cannoli, the shell was nice and crisp, the filling creamy and sweet, with chocolate chips. It was also fun to eat, cracking the shell, getting the crisp shell with the creamy filling. Yumm. 

It was still pouring when we were all done, and we decided to dash to the car and take of in the downpour. But we left very full and very fulfilled. We had a very good meal here and I'd go back again, for sure. Next time I want to try their pizza, it looked good.


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