Missing Cafe Antonios

Raise a glass of Chianti if you miss Cafe Antonios on Elden Street.  I know I do, especially after a recent dinner out.  My husband and I, armed with a $10 coupon and gift certificate, ventured out to dinner on a Tuesday night.  Mind you, it was a steaming 94 degrees and not exactly the type of night you would say, “I feel like eating Italian” but the coupon was expiring soon.

My favorite Herndon Italian restaurant was Cafe Antonios and I recommend it to fellow co-workers, those who were coming into town and it is where my husband and I celebrated our anniversary last year.  It shuttered earlier this year and I practically cried when I read the e-mail.  I’m looking forward to the e-mail that says they will be opening again soon.

So, in spite of the heat, we were ready to try another Italian restaurant along Elden Street.  I was in a seafood mood and figured there would be something relatively light on the menu.  There it was a special, salmon with seasonal vegetables in a lemon sauce served over linguine.

Our entrees arrived and my salmon looked appetizing, a generous portion seared a soft brown.  I don’t consider broccoli, peppers and onions to be summertime veggies but my plate included a few asparagus and young zucchini.  I took a bite of salmon; it was well cooked but lacked flavor.  Maybe I just needed to incorporate some of the lemon sauce.  I dipped my twines into the linguini, veggies and sauce but found no flavor.  The only “sauce” to be detected was created by the natural liquid of the cooked vegetables and that tasted mostly of peppers and onions.  Where was the promised lemon sauce?

It was after 8 pm and I was so hungry that I didn’t want to send my meal back.  Maybe a little salt would help.  As I picked up the salt shaker I said to my husband, “Have you ever seen me do this?”  He assured me he hadn’t.  Except for the occasional waiter’s hail of cracked black pepper, most restaurant dishes don’t need extra seasoning.

The salt didn’t do much so I grabbed a pat of butter from the bread plate and melted it into the linguine.  Slight upgrade but I was missing the promised lemon sauce.  I asked our waitress for a lemon slice and was delivered a small wedge, which wasn’t enough to rescue the dish.  But the salmon satisfied my hunger and I ate it all but left much of the veggies and pasta on the plate. 

When asked by our waitress, “How was your meal?”  The best I could do was “The salmon was cooked well but I should know better than to order something other than Italian at an Italian restaurant.”  We are still in search of our new Italian restaurant.