Dante: Cleveland American Restaurant Guide

We dined at Dante’s for my wife’s birthday. This was my first time at the restaurant. My wife had been here previously prior to a major change and spoke highly of Dante’s. Atmosphere is excellent. It’s a great dinner date or professional dinner place and has that supper club and fancy atmosphere. Highly recommend reservations ahead of time. Service was alright. They do ask if you have questions and try making suggestions, but it unfortunately wasn’t timely. Perhaps that’s the style of restaurant, but we felt we had a lot of waiting. They had a solid drink menu. I found a drink I liked and stuck to it. I’m a cocktail drinker, but only 1-2 stuck out to me. So I wasn’t very adventurous. Food had a lot of flavoring and portions were appropriate. The bread and hummus combination was a little odd to me. We had a butternut squash dish, mussels, and a duck liver dish for our appetizers. The butternut squash was fantastic and really surprised me how much flavor they incorporated in that dish. Mussels aren’t my typical cup of tea but were really good with the broth they were served with. The duck liver was served with sweet potato, chocolate, and marshmallow, like a smore. Very interesting dish. I ordered steak which was excellent! My wife got grouper that she enjoyed, and my brother in law ordered pasta. He wasn’t wowed by the pasta. We tried each others dishes and agreed the steak was the best. Menu wise, I felt it had variety but also felt very limited if you’re not someone that prefers fish. It’s a unique menu with not many traditional dishes. They have unique spins to them. For someone like my brother in law who isn’t adventurous, he had a hard time choosing dishes. Dessert was mixed. We tried a coconut crème that was really good. Then we tried an earl gray ice cream dish that was rather disappointing. Overall, if you’re adventurous with food tasting, you may really enjoy Dante’s. If you’re very traditional, you may struggle finding dishes you’ll enjoy. Would I go back? Maybe. I didn’t see any items that I felt I need to come back and try. They rotate menu items, so maybe next time they’ll have different menu items.

first time coming and i had looked up the menu prior to coming so i already knew what i wanted. i made an reservation and i highly recommend. i came for my birthday and i ordered the tasting menu and the paired wines. i enjoyed all the courses, but i loved the first course. it was spicy and just right!! i can’t forget about the hummus that comes with the beard, i am not the biggest sourdough fan but i liked the hummus so i ate it lol. i will definitely come back to try something off the regular menu, i recommend everyone to check them out.

One of my favorite dining experiences in Cleveland! The food and wine pairing were outstanding. I can’t wait to come back to do a new chef’s tasting soon.

We had a wonderful experience at Dante. The food was delicious — the hummus dip with bread was incredibly flavorful, and the cauliflower steak was very well done. What truly made the evening special, though, was our server, David. He went above and beyond to accommodate our preferences with such care and attentiveness. I mentioned that I have a bit of a sweet tooth while my wife prefers more sour flavors, and he thoughtfully customized our drinks — hers with extra grapefruit juice and mine slightly sweeter. That level of detail made us feel genuinely seen and cared for. It’s a blessing to have someone like David at your restaurant — someone who clearly aspires to serve others in a meaningful way. He made our dinner memorable, and we’re grateful for the experience.

We were a bit disappointed in our experience here. It is unquestionably a high end restaurant, with some real high points like the green spaghetti, and my entree, the lamb shank was very good. The service was top notch. The soup was salty though and they have a salad with a soft lettuce that I think is called butter lettuce. The leaves of the lettuce are uncut. They are about 5 inches around and are very floppy. You kind of have to eat them whole because there isn't a good way to cut them. So you look like you are stuffing your face with a giant leaf almost the size of your own face. I returned one of my drinks (a hibiscus tea concoction). The first one was perfection, I ordered another which came out very different and overly sweet. I believe this is the first drink I've returned in my lifetime. So three strikes, at what should be one of the best restaurants in town.