Alberto's Ristorante, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Alberto's Ristorante is a restaurant in Hyannis serving mainly Italian Fare.

It's cold in New England right now, so we try to get away this time each year. We love going to warm places, but because of our current budget (saving for new kitchen), we decided to go local. The prices for hotels down the cape this time of year are terrific! We had a great time & have gone the past two weekends, one weekend with kids, one without! We had a great time despite the chilly weather! I highly recommend...

AMBIANCE/DECOR:
The decor of this restaurant was very nice. It was very warm and there were several room which you could see into each because the room dividers were glass. We had a seat near the window, but 2 tables away from the fireplace. We called ahead, and it wasn't extremely busy, so were disapointed they didn't save us a seat next to the fireplace. We could look out the window to the street outside, which kind of nice. Our table was next to a doorway, which kind of bothered me since I felt like people were going to bump into me when they passes. However, if you have better seating, the atmosphere could be spectacular! There was a very small wedding going on in the room near us (we could see through the window). That was beautiful to watch. The people next to us were also celebrating their anniversary. We knew this because the waitor brought out a dessert plate and said it was compliments of the chef for their anniversary celebration.

The walls were subtle and a peach color slightly swirled. There was a simple glass candle holder on the table which was romantic and elegant. Each room had a gas fireplace to add to the atmosphere. It was very warm, inviting, elegant and a bit too quiet!

PRICE:
The items on the menu were a la carte. I thought they had a pretty good selection.

SERVICE:
The waitress was fairly nice, but not overly friendly or accommodating. Service was passable, but not too quick, not too slow either, just somewhere in between. In other words, we weren't impressed by the service, but they did nothing wrong either.

APPETIZERS:
We didn't order appetizers. They offered items such as antipasti, mussels, seafood cakes, shrimp cocktail and escargot. These items ranges from $9.00 - $18.00.

The wine list was extensive, expensive, and I thought almost too much to choose from. You could order a half bottle, or bottle also. I ordered a glass of cabernet which was $7.95. If my husband wanted to have some with me, a bottle may have been a wiser option price-wise. They had some very expensive bottles of wine here! They were priced from about $18.00 - up!

They served us a basket of bread with dipping oil. The dipping oil was good, but the bread was way too crusty. We could hardly eat it, and only ate 1/2 because it was actually hurting our teeth to bite into. It was also quiet in the restaurant, so the loud crunching noise was embarassing. They definately need to serve less crunch style bread.

SALAD:
I thought they had a great salad offering. They had a variety of salads such as:
House, caesar, Tuscan (with onions, beans, capers & olives), Amalfi (with artichoke hearts, portobello mushroom, roasted red pepper), tomato & mozzarella. These salads ranged from $5.00 - $13.00. They also had a soup offering such as clam chowder, seafood bisque, and soup of the day. A cup was $5.00 and a bowl was $8.00. We weren't extremely hungry this night so we skipped, but if we were they sounded terrific, and I'll go there super hungry next time.

They also offered a variety of side dishes which sounded great, and fresh. They had items such as broccoli, asparagus, risotto, linguine ragu. These items ranged from $2.95 - $4.95. I ordered a side or asparagus and it was a fairly good portion and the asparagus was thin, slightly crunchy and very green. It tasted like it was lightly flavored with garlic. It was a good thing.

MAIN COURSE:
The main courses were in categories such as pasta, lamb, pork, prime aged beef, veal, and seafood. They had many items in each category, and I thought the food sounded upscale with upscale ingredients. My husband got chicken parmesan with pasta, and a side of tortellini. He LOVED the tortellini, but said the chicken parm was nothing to write home about. I agreed as I ordered the eggplant parmesan with a side of pasta. I thought the pasta was delicate & cooked to perfection. The eggplant was ok, but I wasn't crazy about the sauce. It was a little too nutty, and meaty tasting for me & my husband didn't like it either. I would recommend an entree without the red sauce. The food overall looked and sounded spectacular, but we weren't thrilled with the taste of the red sauce, and it kind of ruined the meal for us.

DESSERT:
I thought the dessert menu looked great. I remember there were a lot of different things offered, but we didn't get anything this night.
They also had a variety of those spiked coffee drinks. Gotta love those!


Recommended: Yes

Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Don''t get the red sauce, bread too crunchy, great selection of fresh ingredients
Best Suited For: Romantic Evening