#CLEfood: lunch at Restaurant Trentina (plus a GIVEAWAY)
Disclosure: As a part of the Trentina friends and family preview, I was invited to attend this lunch tasting menu opportunity with a guest, and to giveaway a gift card to a lucky reader. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
Honored to find ourselves back at the Cleveland food scene’s most talked-about dining spot, our long holiday weekend kicked off with a Friday afternoon lunch Restaurant Trentina, located in the University Circle.
Since we highly enjoyed our experience at the friends and family dinner preview in June, Chef Jonathon Sawyer, Executive Chef Matt Danko and the Trentina team developed a lunch menu that provides Northeastern Ohioans the same unique dining experience between the hours of 11AM and 2PM.
On our half-day-Fridays, while soaking in the sun pouring in Trentina’s large front window, Hans and I dined through these dishes from the new lunch menu:
- Wood-Fired Broccoli with eggplant sauce, anchovies, crab apples, and parsley
- Red Basket Market Salad with Parmesan, bagna cauda, wood-fired almonds & bread crumbs
- Scallop with carrot vinegar, marigold, golden rod, spumante, shallot & scallop tripe, roe, foot
- Beef Carne with herbed and moustarda
- Gluten-free Garlic Pasta with rice penne, garlic, dehydrated polenta, parmesan & olive oil
- Swordfish
- Lemon sorbet with chocolate dust
- Olive oil gelato with orange zest
Who knew what a culinary treat that lunch could be. I could have easily ordered a few rounds of our first course (I loved the play of the charred broccoli with the anchovies and eggplant — and that was easily the best non-Caesar “Caesar” salad I’ve had in awhile), but would be thankful as more delicious selections were presented to us. As Hans savored each bite of his swordfish, I did my best to not devour my gluten free pasta offering in less than one minute. Chef Sawyer checked in on me, sharing the ways he hoped to improve on the rice penne dish in the future — but I was completely content, sharing the flavors were on and the consistency of the pasta was unlike anything else I’ve had dining out. To then receive gelato and sorbet… we were in heaven.
Prepare your tastebuds, CLE: Restaurant Trentina starts its lunch service on Tuesday, September 9th. (Open for lunch Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reservations are encouraged but not required.) Have some free time on September 5th? The public is welcome to join Chef Sawyer at Trentina’s lunch soft opening that afternoon. Attendees that day will receive complimentary beverage service (includes tea, custom Trentina blend coffee, and/or alcohol), and Dolce and Grazi courses on the house as a thank you.
Want to check out Restaurant Trentina for yourself? Enter to win a $25 gift card from the restaurant — via the Rafflecopter — this week:
You have until Saturday, September 6th at 12:00PM EST to enter. The winner will be announced later that morning over at the PIP Facebook page. Since this is for a specific restaurant in Cleveland, I suggest that only those that can use the gift card enter to win!
Stay in up-to-date by following Restaurant Trentina on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Disclosure: As a part of the Trentina friends and family preview, I was invited to attend this lunch tasting menu opportunity with a guest, and to giveaway a gift card to a lucky reader. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
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