After a great lunch experience at the new Italian restaurant in the Harbor District last week, I dragged Tom down there on Saturday, and he was glad I did. He tends to be somewhat critical when it comes to restaurants; as he himself said, "If there’s only one bad thing on the menu, I’ll end up with it."  No fear of that here.

The weather was beautiful, in the high 60s with a very gentle breeze blowing off the lake.

When we walked in, the place was almost empty; that’s because everyone was in the outside dining area under the covered patio.

We opted to sit outside, too. The view from the patio was very nice:

The staff was very attentive, and those wonderful golden breadsticks with butter and garlic were on the table almost immediately.

We decided to start out with the calamari, which was fantastic. Big rings of squid in a very light breading that was almost like tempura in its lack of greasiness, and plenty of it for both of us.

For my entree, I ordered the Pasta Primavera: penne pasta smothered in cheese and spinach with mushrooms. It was great, and there was so much of it that I didn’t even finish half.

Tom got the Tortellini, which he pronounced very good.

If you didn’t like one of those choices, there were plenty more. The menu was quite extensive – and inexpensive! Tom actually told the waiter that they should be charging more (and that’s not something he usually says).

Neither of us had room for dessert, but they boxed up what we had left over so we could take it home. Then we strolled around the Harbor a bit to try to work off a little of the fantastic dinner we’d had.

We both give Volare two big thumbs up (and I would rate it at 4.5 out of 5), and I expect we’ll be going back again soon.

                                 
                                               deb@shinder.net