Molto Bene
We had such high hopes for this Italian place and in spite of the rave reviews it’s received, we were slightly disappointed. Formerly a private house, it felt like a quaint little place to dine. In spite of it’s size, and the fact that there aren’t too many tables, it doesn’t feel cramped. On this Tuesday night, it wasn’t crowded, in fact there was only one other occupied table. The first disappointment was the fact that we obviously didn’t read the website too thoroughly, so we were surprised that they served no alcohol, but we got over it quickly. The menu is pretty extensive and has something for everyone. As he does with most first visits to a new Italian restaurant, Mr. Z ordered the chicken parmesan. There is a notation on the menu that states that they only serve VEAL on the weekends, so we were both very surprised to see that his chicken parm looked AND TASTED just like veal. When we brought this to the server’s attention, she looked clueless and said she’d ask the chef. Quite sometime later, she came back and said that HE SAID he was pretty sure it was chicken. In all fairness – it doesn’t take a culinary expert to know the difference between chicken and veal and this was clearly veal. In any case, we could tell that we weren’t going to get anywhere with this conversation, so Mr. Z ate it (it was pretty tough for either veal OR chicken). I went with the eggplant parm which, while it was delicious, was totally overcooked and had a mushy consistency. Another disappointment.
Overall, I can’t disagree with the other very positive reviews, but OUR experience was less than positive, so as I’ve said before – with SO many amazing Italian restaurants to choose from, it’s doubtful we’ll go back to Molto Bene.
Molto Bene is located at:
18401 Detroit Ave.
Lakewood, OH
216/273-7333
FYI – NO RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED