All Talk Al Dente

   Belmonte's in Asbury Park, is a restaurant that I've heard a lot about and I've wanted to try for awhile. So this past weekend Tom and I attended Pride, and chose Belmonte's for dinner. What a surprise we were in for when we sat down to our table.
   Before I begin let me say that it was Pride weekend so Asbury Park was quite chaotic. For those of you who don't know Pride is a festival the city has every year to celebrate gay,bisexual and transgendered individuals. It's a lot of fun, and something that you shouldn't miss if you happen to be in town that weekend.
   We sat down to eat at about 8:40 and didn't receive our drinks until about 9. That is entirely too long to wait for anything, at least give me some bread! The waiter came over to take our order and we promptly put our food in, assuming this was going to take awhile. For an appetizer we split the roasted pear salad. The salad was delicious. The pears were perfectly caramelized and the goat cheese complimented the pear very well. Any salad that has walnuts in it is a salad that I like.
    For my entree I got the rigatoni max, a pasta dish with pancetta, shitake mushrooms,peas and vodka sauce. Sounds great doesn't it? It would've been had my pasta been cooked! I am all for al dente, after all I am an Italian but this was far past al dente, it was barely cooked. Tom order the pappardelle with shrimp, mushrooms and asparagus in a light red sauce. I tasted his and it was pretty good, the pasta was cooked appropriately which was plus.
   I wouldn't have minded all the things that had gone wrong in this meal, however it took over an hour and forty five minutes for us to get our food. At the end of the meal the owner who could clearly tell we were not pleased came over and offered us a complimentary dessert. Tom accepted his offer.However when we got in the car with the cannolis we opened the tin to find they were melted! I have always said that service is a large part of the meal, so in his defense he tried to reconcile the situation but failed miserably.
   Pride was a major success this year, even though our dinner was not. Foodies beware, this restaurant talks a big game but didn't seem to deliver. I give it 2 forks, not going to return any time soon.


Cheers!
Abby