The Standards at Dontino's

I was talking to my friend Tom one day and told him I was craving Dontino's and would he like to go with me sometime.  Turns out, he'd never been.  How could this be?   It's classic Akron.  So we made a plan and off we went.

Dontino's is located at 555 E. Cuyahoga Falls Ave. in Akron.  It's been in operation since 1930, just like the sign says.

You're not going to a sophisticated meal when you go to Dontino's.  You're going for some hearty classic Italian food.  And that's exactly what I got, starting with the salad.

 

I always loved that beet that they put on top the salad.  It's a nice little extra in an otherwise standard salad.  And being as the Italian dressing is the only one made in house, I went for that.  Could have used some cheese, and once we sprinkled on some of the Parmesan from the table on it, it definitely improved.

Next up for me was Chicken Parmesan with a side of pasta.  Homemade pasta is a little extra but I was willing to shell it out.  

Tom took this picture, and you can clearly see the difference between my little Nikon Coolpix and his fancy schmancy camera.  It almost looks 3D!  I think I need an upgrade.  Anyway, good sauce, good pasta, good chicken.  And quite a hearty portion.   I actually took half of my chicken cutlet home.  I do love homemade pasta.  I should really start making it more.  But fine, you know why I don't?  Because I have this damn bump on my counter.  The whole counter, all the way around it,  has the bump.  I don't know what the purpose of it is, all I know is I hate that damn bump.  The bump hinders everything from chopping to yes, making pasta.  Because I cannot attach the pasta maker to the counter because of the freakin bump!

You asked.

Thinking about dessert, we found that none of the desserts were made in house.  That was a little disappointing but we opted to split a piece of chocolate peanut butter pie anyway (another Tom picture).

It was good, kind of rich and a bit dense but quite frankly you can get this pie anywhere.  We might as well have been at Applebee's given the creativity here.  Give me a homemade Tiramisu any day!

So dinner was good, classic, nothing special but still tasty.  I certainly will go back to Dontino's.  The prices are good, the place is nice and doggone it, they put a beet on the salad!

Buon Cibo mia Amici.