Daphne and I went on another food adventure, using another Restaurant.com certificate. Cafe Paradiso was fairly close to her place, but was a bit hard to park around that area. We managed to find metered street parking, which I am always paranoid about. Ah, well, we found it okay.
We walked into an empty restaurant...which was a little worrisome, this was during major lunch rush hours. Our server was very friendly though, and was quite attentive. Daphne was STARVING that day, so she was ready to chow down.
I got an arnold palmer, my usual drink order. It was presented in a vibrant pink grapefruit cup, which is kind of misleading, but almost made my drink taste better - I love the design on it, makes me want to drink pink grapefruit juice!
A bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar was placed on the table, this was some decent balsamic, very flavorful. This would be great on a salad.
Fresh bread, placed at the table. The bread was pretty fresh, chopped focaccia, the same kind that would later be on my sandwich.
Daphne ordered a minestrone soup to start, I had a small taste and thought it was decently tasty, veggies were well cooked, and good deep veggie flavor. The serving size was just right, I think - not too much where it's an overload and not too little to make you feel like you only got a taste.
Daph got the catch of the day - I think it was red snapper - which came with some simple pasta with butter sauce, topped with red pepper flakes. The fish was really good - cooked just right, moist, topped with fresh veggies. She cleaned off this whole plate.
I got a steak panini, and honestly, I wasn't digging on this sandwich. The steak was overloaded with balsamic flavor, and I think the problem was that it WAS just steak, pretty much. I think a slice of tomato was in there. I just wouldn't order this again, I only ate half and I wasn't looking forward to eating the other half. The caesar salad was good, standard caesar salad, heavy on the parmesan cheese which I liked.
Close up of the half of panini sandwich I ate...see...just meat stuff and tomato. I need a little more variety, maybe some greenery?
For dessert, Daph and I shared a lemony tart thing. The texture was nice, it was drier than I thought it should taste, but sufficient as a dessert. I like the raspberry sauce, which tasted fresh.
Overall, it was an ok lunch but I think they overcharged us (as in, they didn't apply the restaurant.com coupon properly or something). I don't think I'll go out of my way to come here, but it might be better for dinner, and Daph's meal looked good, so maybe I'd give it another chance.
Cafe Paradiso
2408 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 828-0218
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