I'm not going to lie, I am reluctant to make my first post (and the first for the blog) a restaurant review, but hell it is something. Recently Tonja and I went to an upstart Italian restaurant in a location that has been a little disappointing. The place is Amante's on 35th and Greenway on the Southeast corner. It is pretty unremarkable from the outside, in fact it looks quite a bit like the sports bar occupying the lot next to it. The inside looks both elegant and superficial with a tiered wood paneled entrance and faux-Roman pillars. They make good use of dining space with veranda-like patio seating that leads into an intimate and spacious dining room. Unfortunately (though not for us) Tonja and I composed half of the crowd while we were there.
Now on to the more important stuff. They sent out flyer style menus that would compare evenly with most Italian restaurants, but the pictures looked promising. Tonja insisted on a favorite of hers Insalata Caprese, a simple recipe she often makes at home consisting of thickly sliced fresh mozzarella on top of thickly sliced tomato with balsamic vinegar drizzled over. Amante's offered a slight deviation from what we were used to, but just a simple, and it made all the difference. They placed fresh (and when I say fresh I mean very likely just pulled off of the stem) basil between the slices. I found the flavor to be overpowering with the leaf on, but when i pulled it off it left just enough make it an impressionable dish.
For the main course I ordered the Putanesca. Their Putanesca is a cheese tortellini dish tossed with capers, artichoke, olives, feta, mushrooms and olive oil served in a bowl over marinara. The part of this dish that stood out the most was the feta which was simultaneously dry and creamy. The rest of the dish sort of fell into the typical Italian cuisine fare. It was however very well proportioned in that no one was trying to trick me into thinking I got a better deal because of the truck load of food. Overall I would rank it a solid eight.
There were some other points of interest I feel I should mention. Tonja ordered a chicken parmesean that maybe she might feel like posting about ( it certainly looked good.) The restaurant advertised pizza in the flyer and for good reason. The other couple had ordered one that I didn't get a look at, but I will say that smell i got piqued both my interest and my appetite. Perhaps because of how slow it was, the owner could be found attentively meandering throughout the dining room, occasionally filling my water glass but in general not really intruding or trying to make his presence known. It was familiar to Tonja's impressions from Rosario's for those who I told that story.