Mariluna Mahoney
Google
The drinks, appetizers, entrees, and pasta dishes we ordered were for the most part delicious. We began with their sweet and spicy shrimp, beef tartare, an old fashioned and a lychee martini. The sweet and spicy shrimp was reminiscent of Chinese food which caught us off guard, but it was tasty nonetheless.
The beef tartare was good but we have had better, it was larger pieces than we were expecting but still very tender, and while it was slightly fatty with a flavor of olive oil it was faint compared to others we’ve had. The flavor of the beef shown through the most, we prefer for our tartare to have more obvious flavors other than the beef itself. The bread that came with it was delicious and brought more flavor to the dish, it was crispy and crunchy and thin with a flavor of cheese.
Each of us loved our prospective drinks, my partner his old fashioned and me my lychee martini. It was not too sweet and had two plump lychees in it. He also commented his old fashioned wasn’t too sweet.
The gnocchini pasta was absolutely knock your socks off fantastic. The truffle is strong, the pasta was al dente, and the meat was very tender. No complaints or comments to add on that one, we both took a bite and looked at each other with joy.
The short rib was just as good, with a very tender short rib bed atop a mound of buttery silky potatoes, spinach, and a flavorful sauce. We practically licked the plate clean.
Now for the disappointing molten chocolate lava cake. We were both so excited for this one as we had already been impressed by the rest of the meal and thought certainly they’d blow this one out of the water too. Sadly, the chocolate molten lava cake was flavorless and rubbery. It broke open beautifully and checked every visual box before biting into it, but as soon as we took a bite we felt the sting of disappointment set in. The chocolate lava was gooey but not in a pleasant way, it was lacking in salt and sweetness and reminded me of a mixture of cocoa powder and eggs. The cake itself was rubbery and also flavorless. There was no rich chocolate and I hate to say it but, dominos has far superior chocolate lava cakes. We immediately stopped eating it and let our kind waitress know we wanted to send it back. She very kindly replaced it with the mini cannolis.
For context, the night before we had just ordered cannolis from a local pizza joint and they were delicious. So with this fact fresh in our minds, we took a bite of the mini cannolis served to us by sardellis and once again disappointment set in. They were good, but quadruple the price of our local pizza joint with half of the flavor. They were yummy enough to eat in the moment but not enough to order again nor to recommend.
All in all, delicious entrees and drinks but so-so appetizers and downright disappointing desserts.
Parking -
Sardelli’s is located in a townhouse near the beach, we decided to park in the parking garage down the road because there was very little street parking. The other option was valet but there was no attendant when we arrived.
Ambience -
The first floor where we dined was beautifully lit, there was a large chandelier in the center of the dining space and several small-medium tables. There are large windows that gently let the sunlight in, and to our left was the view of the kitchen and bar. We absolutely loved the space it was beautiful.
We will definitely be returning and ultimately loved our experience here.