Donato Enoteca is a visually beautiful restaurant with an impressive layout, multiple dining areas, an upscale atmosphere, and gorgeous wine displays throughout the space. Unfortunately, for how elevated the restaurant presents itself, the food experience was extremely disappointing.

The standout dish of the night was easily the mussels in red sauce. The flavor was absolutely incredible and the toasted bread served with it was perfect for dipping into the sauce. Honestly, that appetizer was the highlight of the entire meal.

From there, things slowly went downhill. We ordered the branzino, which was deconstructed tableside, but the fish itself was very thin and still had multiple bones throughout despite the presentation. We also asked for more of the bread from the mussel dish and instead received this massive inflated pita-style bread that completely confused us because it was nothing like the original.

The salad also missed the mark. It barely had any arugula and felt more like scattered toppings than an actual composed salad. Then dessert unfortunately sealed the experience in the wrong direction. We ordered an apple streusel-style dessert that came out cold, stale, and with a bug in the sauce.

The wine was good, and the double waiter service was actually kind of entertaining and unique, but overall it felt like one disappointing surprise after another. Maybe sticking strictly to classic Italian dishes would make for a better experience, but based on this visit I’m not sure I’d return.

Beautiful design. Great service. Terrible gnocchi heavy and dense. The other pasta is good. The egg dish was wonderful. A single old fashioned with well bourbon was $17.00. The meat tray was good.