Cantoro is a name I had heard often. Everyone who goes to their location in Plymouth swears that their Italian food is some of the best. Jen and I went to the new Troy location last night. We were able to secure a reservation and sat outside. Now this is the old Tremonti restaurant behind the San Marino club. The ambiance and atmosphere is very nice here. It is upscale and fancy but honestly not too pricey.
Their menu is limited, which for me is fine because this is the type of Italian food I like, You know, not Olive Garden. However, for my beautiful wife, a menu where lots of the items have octopus, calamari, mushrooms and veal is not gonna work for her. I however, love all those things. So lets go over our experience step by step.
I ordered a martini with 3 anchovy stuffed olives. I got a martini with 5. Not gonna complain about that. Jen however, asked the waiter if they could make a raspberry Mojito, he said yes. He brought her nothing of the kind. First there was no raspberry in it at all. Heck, not even red or pink but appeared to be a regular Mojito. Jen said that it tasted like Rum with a splash of Sprite and a mint leaf tossed in. This is not a Mojito! The mint leaves should be muddled with either simple syrup or real cane sugar. One would think that the waiter would have said we cant do raspberry but will a regular Mojito do?
We heard the portions were large so we ordered a few apps while we waited for Jens pasta dish. I ordered the carpaccio which I loved but alas Jen would not try. I also ordered the spicy octopus in tomato sauce appetizer which I also really liked. Jen and I split the calamari salad. I asked for the calamari to be grilled instead of fried. Jen said she would just eat around the squid. I never had grilled calamari before, I had always either had fried or sauteed. Although it was a bit salty, I loved it. the actually salad itself was a let down. The greens on it were very wilted as if it had been dressed hours before and the dressing lacked a certain punch. Jen makes grilled salmon atop her homemade dressed salad often and not only doesn’t it wilt, it tastes infinitely better.
Jens pasta dish was Strozzapretti alla Barese which is basically a rotini like pasta with ground Italian sausage and rapini. Not really too exciting, but the waiter in all fairness told her that it really wouldn’t be. I should also mention, that the bread served was very good but Jen would have preferred it served warm. The pasta entree was large and we took half of it home and ate it for breakfast this morning.
Overall, I would like to go back and sit outside again and have some calamari and a couple drinks. It will be a hard sell to get my wife to join me though, because she had such high hopes that came crashing down rather quickly.