Aldente Pasta Cafe

A hidden gem, though I’m not sure why it’s hidden. Al Dente has very good homemade pasta at affordable prices. The pasta, by the way, is al dente – which is important to me as a person having grown up on my grandmother’s Italian food. Highly recommended.

Excellent food. The carpaccio appetizer is amazing, and the gnocchi arugula and mushroom crepes are divine. Also, the wine list is very nice. Perfect, quiet date night spot.

Food was good, a few minor let downs, the wine selection was amazing, but the service was miserable. Our waiting was so terrible that another waiter from a different section had to come over multiple times to clear our plates and get us more beverages. He provided excellent service, just wish I sat in his section.
Debatable if I’ll be going back.

I had high hopes from this place after reading rave reviews about it. We were greeted in by the host. The place looked good in terms of the ambience and décor. My expectations rocketed high further. According to the host, since this is «off-​season», the restaurant was pretty much empty. I skipped the appetizer as I was not that hungry.
At our host’s recommendation, I tried a vegetarian dish which had «crepes» in it. The sauce had a smoky flavor to it. Though I liked the dish initially, I didn’t quite enjoy every incremental intake of it. It wasn’t delectable enough. Felt too much of undercooked dough in my food. My buddies who ordered a pollo dish were pretty bummed with the undercooked pollo (chicken). The food quality doesn’t really cut it.
As far as the dessert is concerned, we ordered tiramisu. A very small portion (two fingers) costs 8 $. I’ve had tastier tiramisu than this at cheaper prices.
The restaurant tries hard to be upscale. I mean the location looks nice for summer outdoor seating. The prices are moderately high, but the food isn’t good enough to justify that premium. I’ll skip Al Dente, and take Sedona Taphouse’s pasta over this anyday. Peace!

I hardly ever write reviews but dining at Ristorante al Dente tonight was an amazing experience, perhaps my best dining experience in Charlottesville in the 6 years that I’ve lived here. From décor to ambiance, and of course food, was out of this world! The presentation of food and waiting service were excellent! I can’t wait to come back here and bring friends and family.
I also recently travelled to Europe, and the food here was as delicious, if not more delicious than the restaurants we ate at there.

Dinner during Restaurant Week 2013 brought us here, and wow what a surprise! The four course selections were amazing and did not disappoint. That asparagus soup some complained about — it sure was outstanding for us! Real cream & butter, full-​bodied asparagus flavor. And the home made bread was good enough to ask for seconds, gladly provided. The mozzarella in the Caprese salad was fresh with generous amounts of basil & olive oil. Wonderful entrees — pasta with eggplant in thick tomato purée, good sized lobster half with herb butter and an amazing baked polenta with seaweed. But I have to rave about the lamb — generous portion in a succulent, rich brown sauce, melts in your mouth (can’t get decent lamb anywhere else in this town)! Long waits between courses — but we agreed that European service vs. American fast food culture is a no-​brainer. Excellent wait help and charming atmosphere (could use a little background music). Will certainly go back to this local gem.

I really enjoyed my experience here and I am surprised that there aren’t more reviews for this place. It is probably my favorite Italian restaurant in Charlottesville and I am glad to have found this hidden gem!
I believe that knowledge about this place is limited because its location sucks! It is tucked away behind all these warehouses and you might even drive right by it. Even though the location itself is quite cold, the restaurant itself is quite charming and inviting. There is a lot of greenery and large windows which really opens up the place. There is also a small patio out in the front. Pic:
I first tried them during restaurant week where 3 courses were $ 25. The courses included an appetizer followed by a first lighter entrée and then a second heavier entrée.
Pic:
We started our meal with complementary bruschetta [Pic:
]. The bread was nice and hearty and was able to support the watery tomatoes well. My table also shared a bottle of red wine [
]
–Appetizer–
I had the carciofi gratinati: fresh artichoke au gratin with vegetables, crispy speck, and blue cheese. I thought there was a lot going on and the light flavor of the artichoke was lost with the more powerful flavors of the toppings. I wasn’t really a fan of this particular dish. I tried my friend’s appetizers and they really enjoyed them. I think I just chose the wrong dish. The presentation was very pretty though and I could tell that the chefs take a lot of pride in making their food look beautiful.
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–1^st entrée–
I started off with ravioli di astici: lobster ravioli with crawfish in fresh tomato cream pink sauce. It was beautifully garnished with some flower petals and herbs. The sauce was nice and creamy but I feel like the stuffing in the ravioli lacked that seafood smell and taste. I still enjoyed the dish overall though.
Pic:
–2^nd entrée–
I ended my meal with the ossobucco di vitello: ossobucco di vitello: braised veal shanks with vegetables. I thought it was delicious and hearty.
Pic:
–Service–
The servers were surprisingly young here but were very professional and attentive. Our server was very friendly and our table ended up carrying on a conversation with him.
Food: 3.5
Value: 3.5
Service: 5
Overall: 4

Being relatively new to town, we visited Ristorante Al Dente in our search for a good Italian go to. As other reviews mention, the location is very obscure but the plus side of this is that parking is easy and you won’t wait for a table as it’s not «downtown.» Once you’re in the courtyard or restaurant you wouldn’t know you’re in a warehouse district as the ambiance is very quaint and warm. The service was great but it seemed like two girls were running themselves crazy running the restaurant solo without a bartender or bus boy. They hustled all night and did the best they could with great attitudes but could have used more help. The menu had a great variety of offerings and the price points were reasonable. Our only disappointment was in the portions. When you’re paying $ 20ish per entrée for pasta you expect to be full and/​or have leftovers. Sadly we shared an appetizer and each had a pasta entrée and left needing something else. The flavors and presentation were great though so we will return — just hope they’ll increase the value in portion size so it’s comparable to other Italian restaurants in town.

Flying under the radar as one of Charlottesville’s great restaurants. Servers are so much fun. Great outdoor patio. And the food is delicious. Past two times, I have ordered off menu and requested the chef’s choice (were slow nights) and was blown away by the dishes (both vegetarian). They aim to please and hit the mark. Wander away from the mall and find time to enjoy this great spot.

I went to visit friends in Charlottesville for the weekend. We spent the evening walking around downtown and decided to hike over to The Local and Tavola for dinner. The Local was booked until 10pm (it was 6ish) and Tavola had a 2-​hour wait. Screw that. So, my friend mentioned Ristorante Al Dente as they had been before, just that we’d have to drive there. Which was fine since we were sober unlike tons of other people milling about downtown following a wine festival. Although I did manage to get tipsy earlier in the day visiting a winery.
Anywho, the worst thing about Ristorante Al Dente is the location. It’s basically in a warehouse area completely off the beaten path. I was skeptical to say the least, especially since there were only two tables seated when we got there. But I did notice right away that the interior was lovely. High ceilings, old-​fashioned Italian décor and live vines growing up columns. The tables are set up very formally with and the silverware is several generations old.
Despite all of this, this place isn’t stuffy. The host and servers were young, friendly and down to earth and very knowledgeable when it came to the food. And the prices were more than reasonable, with several entrees under $ 20.
Now the food. Started off with a glass of pinot grigio and had the cream of asparagas soup. The soup was fantastic and didn’t need any extra salt or pepper. My entrée was the sweet potato gnocchi with pancetta and tomato sauce. Freaking delicious! The sweet potato flavor was completely subtle; the tomato sauce has this nice and unexpected smoky flavor and there was plenty of pancetta. I devoured the whole damn thing.
As we left, we noticed the outdoor seating area, which was tucked away and surrounded by lots of lovely greenery and lights (not overly festive). I would have been upset by not noticing this before, but it was raining, so wasn’t an option anyways.
I hope more people find out about and start going to this restaurant. There were a total of 4 tables occupied, including ours. Ridiculous that Tavola had a 2-​hour wait and this place was so empty. Granted it’s not trendy and the location isn’t great, but it’s so worth going to. Hopefully, this place is still around next time I’m in Charlottesville.

In a nutshell, it isn’t that great. They definitely try to make themselves more «upscale» or «fancy» than they actually are.
I came here for restaurant week wanting to try some Italian food. I’ve only been to Tavola, and that was overall a good experience so I figured Charlottesville had some good Italian to offer. My first impressions upon entering the restaurant was pretty good, and I was quite impressed with the initial look and feel of the restaurant when I entered (although it did eventually end up feeling a little cramped). Our waiter was also kinda nosy, but such is life. At least he was trying.
The biggest problem I had with this place was the food. The asparagus soup is pretty salty, the gnocchi is way too doughy and not very well seasoned, the lamb felt more like a meatloaf, and the lobster (which my friend got) was overcooked and, well, odd. The food isn’t necessarily terrible, but it’s not really great either. The only thing I moderately enjoyed was the mushroom polenta, but even that wasn’t the best polenta I’ve had.
What probably bugged me the most was the way dishes were plated. The soup has one sprig of asparagus in it, sticking out like a dead tree drowning in a pool of soup. The gnocchi was drenched in sauce on the plate, and even that couldn’t help the bland taste of the gnocchi. The strangest, by far, however was the lobster dish. It was cut down the length of the lobster, which I could potentially see the aesthetic application but that means you trade half of the best part of the lobster (the tail and the claw) for the guts of the upper abdomen. Quite a shame.

Ristorante Al Dente is the grown-​up sister of Escafe that sits beneath Al Dente on the downtown mall. It’s one of those white table cloth establishments where the food is served from rolling carts and care must be taken when ordering the right chianti. As with any respectable fine Italian restaurant, be sure to order an antipasti along with a prima or secondi entrée. The rosemary leg of lamb was very delicious and well-​prepared. The service is very good and while the ambiance can stuff a little stuffy and snooty, wash down enough fine chianti and you won’t notice.

Best Italian food in the city, hands down! Owner Karim is extremely knowledgeable of, and passionate about, world cuisines and also owns the Moroccan restaurant next door, Al Hamraa. You definitely want someone who knows his spices as well as him cooking for you! Just be prepared to relax and really linger over your food here… not recommended if you’re in a rush as you won’t be able to savor the experience nearly as well!

We lived just up the hill from the Ix Project, and we regretted only getting down here twice for dinner. The food was a little pricy but very good, and the service was excellent.

Went for a business dinner at the new location near the Ix building. This was my second time eating here, the first at the new location. The new location is beautiful — with tall windows, pretty décor, and nice patio and landscaping. Parking is easy and plentiful.
I didn’t have a drink, but my co-​workers said the wine (they had glasses, not bottles), was alright, not stellar.
My biggest problem is with the food (and my opinion after the second visit is the same as the first). It’s really expensive and not very good. I had cream of asparagus soup — barely had any asparagus in it. I had a seafood risotto main dish, and was expecting a dense, creamy risotto dish. I got a pile of really overcooked rice (like the grains had exploded) sitting in a juicy, wan red broth. The seafood was overcooked and rubbery, especially the poor shrimp.
I’m just glad I didn’t pay for this out of my own pocket — company picked it up.

Pretty solid restaurant! Love the food and wine list is pretty decent. All their wines came Italy and has great details on different regions. Great for ppl like me who just started my life-​long wine journey.
The lamb leg tastes really good and highly recommended. I had the scallops for appetizer, very unique way of cooking, they come with the shells, but the taste is average. I got the tiramisu for dessert, pretty good too.
An overall satisfying meal.

My boyfriend and I went to Al Dente for a Valentine’s Day dinner. I loved how it was tucked away upstairs above Escafe, and we settled in for the evening with the full-​course menu. We had wine, appetizers, main dish, and dessert. It all struck us as a bit pretentious, and not really our style. The food was good enough, but I’m not sure that it was worth the price or all the hoopla that surrounded it. The waiters were professional and friendly, but it almost seemed like they were trying too hard to make something of a place that wasn’t all it was hyped up to be.
It was a nice experience, a pleasant evening, with good quality food and wine, but it would be way too much for a typical night out. I personally felt a bit uncomfortable.