A friend and I recently had a delicious meal at “Dolcetto”:http://www.dolcetto.ca a lovely Italian restaurant in London, Ontario. It is one of these new modern places with lots of wood and stone – a large open building with high ceilings and the noise was quite loud as it was packed with customers. We went on a Thursday night which is oyster night at the bar side of the restaurant. We arrived just after six and there were many families with small children finishing off their early meals as well. After about an hour things quieted down a bit and we were able to hear each other without yelling or leaning in close.
We had a reservation and were seated immediately. The wine list is small but has a good selection. I had a 2016 Valpolicella Classico. If you want to try a few wines they do a flight of three to sample. My friend opted for one of the house cocktails featuring pear vodka and enjoyed it. I try to stay away from tomato-based meals and there were quite a few things I could have tried on the menu, despite it being an Italian restaurant – I checked the menu out before booking. I ended up having the wild boar which is slow-cooked in a red wine sauce served over mascarpone infused polenta which is in the starter menu but is large enough for a main course. My friend had the house fettuccini which is regular and spinach fettuccine tossed with slices of chicken breast, fresh garlic, sliced mushrooms and sundried tomatoes in a white wine cream sauce. Both were delicious! For dessert my friend had the chocolate gelato and I had the Italian pudding which is chocolate pudding with fresh whipped cream on top and a nicely chewy and crunchy Italian biscuit.
The only down side was waiting quite a while for the dessert menu – our server forgot to bring it then when he did come he asked if we wanted the bill. Then after dessert and he brought our bills we had to wait quite a while for him to bring the machine so we could pay. That aside, the food was good enough that we’ll be back. The word “dolcetto” means “little sweet one” and is an apt name for this establishment.
