 Revorno 149 South Rd. (Route 107), Kensington 778-0200
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The portions are huge and the dishes cover the basics in Italian fare with lots of red sauce and pasta, mussels, veal and chicken. There’s also a mesquite wood-burning oven for making pizza, so add that all up and you’ve got crowds of families and couples coming in to chow down and then take some home for later.
The atmosphere is pleasant and casual, and you need to bring your own beer or wine thus bringing down the cost considerably, so continue to add those factors and it’s a laid back, cheap night out. Sadly, I didn’t find the entrees to be all that good, but the pizza? It’s much better.
The restaurant is way out on a country road and it’s a nice little surprise to come across it since it’s a lovely looking stone building in a bucolic setting. The dining rooms are casual with no tablecloths or fussiness, just some house dressings in wine bottles on the tables. We plopped down our beer and wine and our waitress Lynn came over to open them for us and bring glasses.
We decided to start with a pizza since they were described so nicely and we figured we could take some home. Lynn told us it would take about 20 minutes but that we’d be getting salad if we ordered an entrée to tide us over. The salad is the standard iceberg and leaf lettuce with some sliced cucumber and green pepper, but the dressings on the table, one a simple vinaigrette the other a more creamy Italian were both very good and jazzed things up a bit.
We ordered a pizza of our own making, one with sausage, black olive and artichokes ($11.95). The crust is very good, thin and crispy with a good crunch and there was plenty of artichoke quarters. I would have liked more sausage and a little more sauce, but not at the expense of the crispness of the crust which can sometimes happen if there’s too much sauce. There was a good cheese-to-topping ratio however which added to the overall success of the pizza.
Appetizers include the usual calamari and bruschetta as well as a variety of salads and an antipasto platter with olives, cheese, meats and marinated vegetables.
Entrees run the gamut from scampi to eggplant Parmesan to a variety of pastas with pesto, Alfredo and red sauces, either marinara or with meat. My companion tried the meat lasagna which came in a very large piping hot baking dish ($11.95). There wasn’t much shape to the lasagna, it just sort of seeped into the dish it was in and there was far too much sauce on it, so the result was a gooey mish-mash of pasta, cheese, and sauce. The pasta was also too soft and overcooked. I think lasagna should be more firm and retain its shape. As the meal went on and the dish cooled off it actually got congealed a bit and pasty. The sauce had a good flavor but needed a little more vibrancy.
 The atmosphere at Revorno is pleasant and casual, and you can bring your own beer or wine. |
A dessert tray was brought around for us to look at, and I have to say, I’m not a big fan of that method of presentation. I’d much rather just see a menu because it’s rare that the desserts look at all good when they’ve been sitting around as a display or taken in and out of a fridge and these did not look good. We settled for a tiramisu which looked far better when we got our fresh one and it was quite creamy and tasty, the espresso-soaked cake still nice and firm ($4.25). A slice of cheese cake was also good, creamy and tangy.
Service is good here, servers are friendly and personable and the food comes out very quickly. It’s also nice to be able to bring your own wine so you can have what you like and to keep costs down. It would be better if they could step up the flavors and execution with the entrees here, but in the meantime, I’d go back for the great pizza. I love a thin crust.
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