Trattoria has retro feel
Revorno
149 South Road, Kensington, N.H.
603-778-0200
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday; noon to 10 p.m. Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. Sunday
Major credit cards accepted
Accessible to the handicapped
No liquor is served; bring your own bottle
Revorno opened this summer, but has the look and feel of a family Italian restaurant that's been around forever. The kind of trattoria that the Lady and the Tramp chose to dine behind while slurping their spaghetti in one of Disney's most romantic moments. The only thing that's missing is the checkered tablecloths, which, by the way, we think would be a nice addition.
But it's got everything else -- from a fieldstone exterior, Old World street lamps, a large see-through hearth, and walls painted in the colors of the Italian flag. Inside, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, and Ol' Blue Eyes croon their way on the sound system. And then there's the food.
We suggest that when you eat at Revorno, you arrive the way we did -- absolutely ravenous. The portions are so large that we ate until we thought we'd burst and still had enough leftovers for two more meals.
For so many years we've dined at so many gourmet Italian restaurants, we'd forgotten how nostalgic we were for a trattoria rather than a ristorante, the kind of place where the food is simple, delicious, plentiful, and inexpensive, and the atmosphere is cozy and casual.
Before we forget, the casualness also extends to the wine menu. Revorno does not have a liquor license, so you get to decide which bottle of wine you'd like to bring and won't have to pay double the price. We like that.
It was also a delightful surprise that, when we were seated, a basket of hot, buttery garlic bread was set at our table, an extra-charge item in some Italian restaurants.
We started gobbling the thick, crisp slices as soon as we opened our menu and it inspired us to order big. You'd think the garlic bread would have steered us away from bruschetta ($4), but we were intrigued by the addition of pesto sauce to the usual tomatoes, spices, and herbs. We loved it. The pesto added a nuttiness to this traditional starter.
But we were really blown away by the eggplant rollatini ($7), an appetizer that really could stand on its own as an entrée. Lightly breaded eggplant is rolled and stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, topped with rich, homemade marinara sauce and baked. The outside was crispy, the inside was gooey, and the whole thing was worth a trip to Kensington no matter where you live.
Calamari marinara ($15) could have been ordered aglie olie or fra diavlo. We chose the latter and were presented with a basin-sized bowl, brimming with what seemed to be at least a pound of cooked-to-perfection linguini and fresh calamari in the spicy red sauce truly worth its devilish name. We ate and ate, and it appeared as if the bowl of fish and pasta was refilling itself like quicksand. We never made a dent.
We added a side order of meatballs ($2) to cheese ravioli with marinara sauce ($11). It's pretty hard to believe the two juicy, softball-sized meatballs cost two bucks. They were perfectly spiced with garlic and herbs and covered with an extra ladle of marinara.
In addition to the garlic bread, all the meals at Revorno are accompanied by a salad. Two tall cruets of Italian dressing -- one creamy, one a vinegar, and oil base -- always are on the table.
We have to say this was the single aspect of the meal that let us down. The salad was bagged and tasted it. We think a lot of restaurants treat salads as a throwaway item, but Revorno takes such care to make homemade, carefully prepared food, the kitchen should pay more attention to the freshness of the salad.
The ravioli, however, were plump, plentiful, and homemade, and we swear the bowl weighed at least 3 pounds.
When dessert time came around, we were happy to see Revorno also keeps it simple, delicious, and economical.
We loved the look of the chocolate-chip studded cannoli but settled on the symmetrical square of tiramisu ($4.25). We like to taste the coffee in our tiramisu, and we certainly did with this confection, which also had a particularly creamy filling. But, as much as we loved the cake, we found the bill for our meal -- less than $50 for two -- equally sweet.
Tom Long
