The setting
Trentino’s is like Jo’burg’s version of Cheers – ‘Where everybody knows your name’. Not ideally placed (in the same complex as Sextopia and Adult World) especially if you were like me and on a first date. Once you walk through the door though, you feel like you are home. It’s cozy, it’s warm, and it’s adorable. Dimly lit so anyone looks good, the tables are small and intimate. If you’ve been there once, the owner and manager will know you by name. And feel free to bring those little ankle biters, this place is child friendly and unlike most establishments, almost encouraged!
The food
I was more than pleasantly surprised. While the décor is cheap and cheerful, they are not shy to invest in their dishes. Forget small portions – think rich, powered by taste and dishes that you know you will never be able to match in your kitchen, no matter how talented with a wooden spoon you think you are.
The starters could be mains and the mains could feed a small Italian family. My pizza was heaving under the generous portion of toppings and had I not been trying to impress my date, I would have inhaled it in 0.2 seconds.
I tried to do the whole ‘Lady and the tramp’ scenario with my partner’s spaghetti and only managed to get the sauce in my hair and nowhere near my mouth. He politely offered me a fork and a serviette and my hair and I can safely say that their pasta is divine and the sauce equally so.
Price range
My wallet smiled for the first time in a long time. (Factor in that perhaps their rent isn’t as high as restaurants that aren’t in the vicinity of Sextopia). Starters are between R35 and R50 and the highest price you will be paying is R105. Woohoo! My unbelievably delicious pizza (that managed to make it as my breakfast the next morning) was R65.
Perfect for
A first date, a night when you don’t feel like cooking, or if you have guests, grab some take-aways and pass it off as your own cooking. It will work like a charm.