Restaurant Review

On Friday night, we headed out for a little family dinner at a quaint little Italian restaurant in the Wallingford neighborhood. The place is called Cantinetta and the company owns a few little restaurants around town. This is the second one I've been to (the first being How To Cook A Wolf on Queen Anne) and I have to say it is definitely the better one. While it was a bit of a wait, it was easy to understand. It is a popular place and we were there at 6:15 on a Friday night. At first it was slightly weird standing around the bar area, but the bartender made sure to pay attention to us, even though we weren't right up against the bar. Also there is a small partition, so even if you have someone in your party that is under 21, you can still wait in the area and have a drink. Once we got our table, we were served with some tasty olive bread (and I don't even like olives). My mom had been here before, so she recommended that we all start with a salad because the plates were small portions. I got spring greens with a balsamic dressing, while others had a roasted radicchio with a syrup dressing. It proved a little hard to cut, but I tasted it and thought it was pretty yummy. For my entree, I chose Tagliatelle pasta with clams. (Note: If there is something on the menu with seafood, you're almost guaranteed I will order it.) It was really delicious and very light weight. Also, all the dishes were served in smaller portions, which I rather like because you can have a whole meal and still feel good, not stuffed. We all ended with a little bit of gelato which was of course delicious. How can you screw up gelato?? Overall I really enjoyed the food. The atmosphere was very small and open and therefore created a lot of noise, sometimes making it hard to hear. And I'm glad we didn't get seated in the table right inside the door. I am more drawn to more private eating areas, but I would recommend this place for the great food and wine. They don't take reservations for parties under six so be prepared to wait, but you wont be sorry.