Elisa F.
Yelp
My husband grew up in Pedro and remembers this location as Canetti's and had fond memories of the place, so he as well as I were excited to try Trani's Dockside since it opened. I'm not from Pedro but since marrying my husband 30 years ago, I have been accustomed to the good food in the area. And knowing the representation of Trani's in Pedro, we were expecting good food...
My husband and I, along with some other family members, decided to try this place for the first time last night. I made reservations since it was a Saturday evening, and we were seated within our allotted time. The ambience was nice, festive, and bustling with conversation. So, having a quiet dinner is out of the question; we could hardly hear one another across the table.
We ordered quite a bit of food, wanting to try a bit of everything.
Appetizers:
Bay scallops: the coconut foam is all we tasted, if they were to float in a sauce of ginger, garlic, cilantro, it was watered down since there was no specific flavor profile to be found, and out of the 6 scallops, only one had a cashew.
Squash Blossom: if you like breading, then that's what you got. The blossoms were either very small or nonexistent, so we were just eating deep-fried breading, the Grana Padano was very faint and added nothing to the dish.
Calamari: we like the one at J. Trani's so we assumed that is would be the same, but it's not, the amount is very small in comparison to J. Trani 's, and the "Thai" flavor wasn't there or very faint. Although the calamari was well-cooked and deep-fried, there was no sauce.
Garlic Bread: where's the garlic, literally, there was no garlic, just parmesan cheese shredded on top. The bread had no distinguishing flavor. My mother, who wanted garlic bread, asked me at the end of dinner if we got our garlic bread; now that's telling.
Salads/Soup:
Orange/Wild Arugula: the salad was fresh and plentiful the dressing was on the light side but you can taste a hint of the honey orange vinaigrette
Baby Romaine: I believe this was to be equivalent to a Caesar's salad, it is huge, the romaine looked old and wilted, the dressing was overwhelming and drenched the romaine, I assume to hide the lackluster romaine. I even tried to share it with others, but no takers, so 80% of it was uneaten. It was that unappetizing.
Clam Chowder: the consistency was good, and the flavor was surprisingly good but the bacon overpowered the profile of the dish.
Main Entree:
Lobster/Ink Rigatoni: married to an Italian and eating pasta quite a bit over the years, I was truly disappointed in this dish. The pasta was not al dente but a bit undercooked, which made the overall dish underwhelming, so I couldn't finish it.
Fish/Chip: it was just okay, but for the price, it could have been better
Swordfish: the fish was cooked well, and the sauce was tasty but could have used a bit more salt. (Had to order the swordfish since they ran out of the Halibut at 6:45pm; when they open at 5pm. How do you not inform the guests once seated that the restaurant is out of a dish when they are reviewing the menu, then tell them when they are ordering?)
8oz Wagyu Flat Iron Steak: the steak needed more seasoning, for an expensive piece of meat, we expected more in the flavor profile than what was presented.
Dessert:
Typically, we order dessert, but since we were all so underwhelmed with the food, we forewent dessert, which is sad since we all love dessert.
We expected to pay a pretty penny for the dinner but we also expected better food and that is something we didn't receive. Overall, we tried it but won't be back.