Downtown Oakville, steps from a park along the coast of Lake Ontario, is a great place for shopping and that’s what a friend and I were doing, Christmas shopping to be exact, when we stopped in at “Paradiso”:http://oakville.paradisorestaurant.com/Home/tabid/9247/Default.aspx for a delicious lunch. The restaurant is on the corner of Lakeshore Road East and Navy Street. As you enter the front door, there are rooms to either side. From our table in the window I could see the architecture of the buildings across the road from the late 1800s set against the clear blue sky. It was the first sun I’d seen for a few days.
We had a leisurely lunch starting with some lovely bread and olive oil and herbs. I had a glass of the house red (2015 Merlot) and my friend had a glass of the house white (2015 Chardonnay), both Donino from Italy, to go with our meals. My friend ordered the chicken Parmesan ($20 for breaded chicken cutlet topped with house made tomato sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese served with spaghetinni pasta and sautéed vegetables) and I ordered the seafood stew ($21 garlic seared salmon, white fish, shrimp, and calamari with white wine steamed mussels in a roasted garlic-fennel tomato broth over roasted mini red potatoes, finished with grilled house made loaf bread). We both devoured them as they were very good. My stew had an abundance of pepper which had me coughing a lot at first – my typical response as soon as it hits the back of my throat. Unfortunately it looks as if I’m going to die, but I know that as soon as my throat gets used to it I’m fine. My friend has been a few times to this restaurant for dinner before taking in a show across the street at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. I can see why. I’ll definitely be back!
