February 16, 2007

Dino's Ristorante Italiano

With the Feast of Saint Valentine upon us going out to eat falls under customary to manditory. Living in a smallish city in the middle of the woods tends to bring mostly blue collar fare. Kill it, Cook it, Eat it... with beer... is the typical.

Other then the obvious fast food we do not have many franchise places to choose from. There are some great places for sandwiches, breakfasts and pizza. The kind of fare that lumberjacks like to eat.

Then there is Dino's. This place stacks up to any fine food experience anyplace anytime. It's quaint and downtown. The service is very italian and everything about the place is for your senses. Book selves with various travel guides and picture books. There is an 'Actual' Dino who seats you and prompts you as two what the finer dishes are and the wine to match. We sat next to some of his picture albums showing how Italy is never far from his heart.

Depending upon when you go there is musical entertainment from classical, jazz to barber shop. With prior commitments we opted to go the night after the Vanentines day feast. Dino look noticeable tired. He was very open and friendly and moved with the slower pace that let you know this was NOT fast food!

We ordered and as the meal was prepared we had time to look at the books and pictures. As the food was prepared.

We must have looked hungry because Dino decided we needed some soup and brought out a bowl for us to share (on the house). It was a bean soup and very full flavored and savory. That was followed by fresh bread and finally the main dish.

OH MY GOODNESS it was good! Tina got smoked Salmon Ravioli and I got the special which was Sweet potato in a hazlenut sauce. I had to restrain my eating to make sure every bite was chewed to full delite. The Salmon was 'smooth' in flavor and in a cheeze sauce that was not heavy as you would think.

We ended with Black forrest cake. It is easy to spend two hours just enjoying the experience. As they are now an Icon and Dino enjoys 'teaching' good food to the Pac NW.

1 comment:

Tina said...

Dino's wife is the chef. She came out to check everything was okay.

One especially nice thing: Even when a soup has no meat in it, often it's still made with beef or chicken stock. Since people have asked Mrs. Dino if she uses veggie stock, she's changed her soup recipe to make sure it's completely vegetarian. Yay! It's awesome soup!

Dino also asked his wife to give us a sample "woodland" ravioli with our others. It's a portobello mushroom & nut ravioli, which was also extremely good.

As Lee said, I had the smoked salmon (and I'm the only one in our family that eats fish - I refused to give up my tuna when we became vegetarian). OMG that was SOOO GOOD!!! Anyone coming to visit us has to try that. It was one of those dining experiences where you're literally concious of every taste bud in your mouth.

YUM!!!

Don't let us forget to have you go there!!!