Address: | 40 Edwin H Land Blvd, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA |
Phone: | +1 617-497-4200 |
Site: | restaurantdante.com |
Rating: | 3.6 |
Working: | 5:30–10PM 5:30–10PM 5:30–10PM 5:30–10PM 5:30–11PM 5:30–11PM 5–10PM |
A
A Private User
The only good thing about Dantes were the primi and secondi dishes we ordered. They were delicious but pricey. I would kill for another plate of the ravioli with ricotta and beef brisket. I am giving Dantes a three star rating only for these dishes. The Sfizi, or small tastes, in Italian were ok. My husband loved the arancini (and he is Italian). I had the bresoala (thin sliced beef with lemon and arugula) but thought the beef was mediocre. Ive had supremely good bresoala in the North End and in Italy so I dont think Dante gets more than a few stars for that one. He should know better! The rest of our experience at Dantes warrants a one star! Our waiter, Justin, took a long time to take our drink orders (and spent his time waiting on guests who arrived well after we did). Then, once he took our three drink orders (two red wines and one beer), it took forever to receive the drinks. Honestly I could have gone out to the nearest liquor store and gotten the drinks faster than the bartender could prepare them and Justin to deliver them to our table. The dining area was extremely noisy with all the tables having filled up after we sat down. One table had about 6 or 7 very loud young men who thought it appropriate to shout their conversation to each other, laugh loudly and clap. At the end of our dinner, loud music suddenly started up from the bar area and then we had an even more difficult time hearing one another in our conversation. All in all, I just dont think Dantes has the level of class to be a high end restaurant. It takes a lot more than tasty food to give the restaurant class. Several additional comments: the wait person whose job it is to fill up the water glasses didnt speak English. Wait! Am I in a restaurant in a foreign country? Another irritation: the bread. Why serve tasteless bread (4 slices no less)? We had to pour olive oil on the bread and went to use the salt/pepper shakers only to find nothing came out of the shakers! Ah!!! Oil already poured on the tasteless bread with no salt or pepper? Good grief! Another annoyance was being seated (for three of us) at a table right next to the exit door while several wait staff or kitchen staff and a guest or two or kept going in and out of the exit door. Every time they did that theyd let in a lot of cool windy air right onto me. My chair was literally right next to the door. I saw one staff member repeatedly going in and out of the door for what reason I dont know. Maybe we were seated next to the exit door as punishment for making a last minute reservation? I think so. We thought Dantes lacked class because of all these annoyances and slowpoke delivery. To add insult to injury, after Dantes validated our garage parking ticket, we had to pay 20 dollars to exit the garage. Can you say, "RIP OFF?"
AL
Alan Wong
On Valentines Day, my GF and I went to Dante as I have reserved us a table for the "Perfect Date" four course dinner. I have read other reviews that seems like the place was OK. When we entered, the decor and ambiance was welcoming. The staff was very courteous and seated us promptly after asking if we wanted to check our coats and we did. Note: If you want the final review because you dont want to read my super long post, skip to the last paragraph :) We were promptly seated and we ordered our food. First to come out was the Shrimp Cocktail, we both ordered this as we have no idea what the other item was and it was great! I love shrimp cocktail and the shrimp was fresh, but really...you cant make shrimp cocktail wrong (its a couple of pieces of shrimp with sauce on the side!). Next up, I ordered the scallop ravioli (a.k.a Pillow from the menu) and my GF ordered some kind of pasta (a.k.a Canoodling Noodles). The scallops were VERY tiny but it did pack a smoked flavor, which seems to overpower the taste of scallop. Also, the dish had a very unique taste and thats not the good unique either, but I finished my dish! I tried my GFs pasta and that also tasted kind of funky as well. For our Entree, I ordered Beef Tenderloin "in crostata" (Italiano) and my GF ordered the Chicken Scaloppini (Love Bird). the Beef tenderloin came to the table warmish-cold and it was definitely cooked too rare. Also, it was made with some kind of doughy crust which I didnt like. One side of the beef tasted REALLY weird as well. I nearly threw up and I did not finish this plate. The chicken was actually pretty good though, but my GF found a piece of hair on one of the chicken and she did not finish her plate as well. I told the waiter about the hair, and all he said was "Oh!? A hair!? ", took the plate and left. After that, we had dessert, it was a passion fruit mousse and a chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was pretty bitter (I believe the syrup was made from dark chocolate) and I do not like dark chocolate but we did finish the cake. As for the passion fruit mousse, for some reason, it was doused in vodka or something and that taste was very, very over powering. I took one bite and spit it back out. Finally...we were supposed to get a strawberry nectar and chocolate cigarettes, but we did not receive that and the waiter just gave us the bill. At this point we just didnt care anymore and just decided to leave, so we paid the bill and got our coats and left. In conclusion, my thought on this place was below average. The food is definitely not worth 75$ per person. I have never tried the other food at Dante before, therefore I cant say that ALL their food sucks, but the Valentines Day menu was a big let down! So much for "The Perfect Date"...
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A Private User
We felt rushed by the wait staff. Our plates were cleared (for each course) almost immediately after we put down our forks. Yes, this was an attempt to be attentive, but the approach backfired. And when I wanted the waitress to stop by, she was no where to be found. After, they served our food (which by the way was WAY too salty), I wanted to order another glass of wine. But, nobody was around to help. Eventually, the waitress did come by and I did order the wine. Unfortunately, by the time I received the wine, I had finished more than half of my entree. In the end, the food was overpriced for what we got. And on top of that, we had to pay $10 extra to park in the garage...after validation. I probably wouldnt have minded if my dining experience was better.
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A Private User
We went there on 24 of December- to enjoy Christmas Eve-well it was dissapointing. The server was filling for someone,it took him 15 minutes to get us the first round of drinks,he wasnt knowlegable nor was he proffecional. The Christmas Eve dinner was 4 course-first we had seafood antipasto,it was baaaaaaaaad. Secondi was angel hair pasta with capers and golden raisins-it was kind of dry-i think its been on the foodline for a while. Main course was bass wraped in cabbage leaves,it was OK. The desert was the best we had that night. We were 5 of us , and we were all dissapointed. And before I forget the tip was 20 % included in check-so we ended up paing 700 dollars for nothing