What an awesome addition to Hamden restaurants. My wife and I were out for a very rare date night / early celebration of our upcoming anniversary. We rarely get out together, especially without our kids, so this was a sepcial occasion for us. I manage a nice restaurant in the New Haven area and Salvatore's has been reccomended to me by both guests and my own staff. We were really excited to check it out, and needless to say, It lived up to the reccomendations and then some.
As we walked up, there is a beautiful outdoor bar that catches your eye as soon as you see the restaurant. I definitely plan on getting a cocktail there while the weather still permits. Once inside, we were greeted by a very friendly hostess and welcomed to the restaurant. Though we had a reservation for a table, we decided to start at the bar for a glass of wine and appetizer. The restuarant has beautiful decor and really caters to the romantic evening my wife and I were looking for. Our bartender, David, was very friendly and gave us great reccomendations After a glass of wine (Caymus) and some really good Arancini, my wife and I headed to a table. They generously gave us a large booth and our dinner began.
Our server Mike came up immediately and introduced himself. My wife and I had already studied the menu thoroughly at the bar and dove right into our dinner order. All the food looked great, and I wish we could have ordered it all, but we ended up getting the roasted bone marrow, Veal T-Bone, and the Delmonico steak. All the entrees include 2 sides, which is a rare thing for steakhouses these days. We went with the carrots, potatoes, olive tapenade, and mushrooms--each one was amazing. Both proteins were generously portioned, cooked, and seasoned perfectly. They also have a great wine list, and I can say as a restaurant person that the prices are exceptionally reasonable both for wine and food. We had a bottle of Groth Cabernet, which would cost double at most other establishments. For dessert, we had their white chocolate Oreo mousses, which was the perfect finish to our indulgent and outstanding meal. I wish I had taken pictures, but the food was just too good to wait.
As far as service, Mike was awesome, and the manager, Manny, made sure to come by and make sure we were having a great evening--which we were. Shout out to our server Mike. He is the nicest guy on the planet and took great care of us. Manny and David were both excellent as well.
All in all, service 10/10, wine 10/10, food 11/10 . You'd be hard-pressed to find such great food at such reasonable prices anywhere else in the greater New Haven area. Highly recommend to anyone.
Thank you to the team at Salvatore's for a wonderful evening. We will certainly be back.
P.S.
All the other reviews that mention the lack of parking are misleading. Anyone who's dined in a big city is used to restaurants without parking lots. There's tons of street parking in the immediate area, and my wife and I had no trouble parking right in front. I would gladly walk a mile to eat here again. With a wine list like that, you probably want to uber anyways. read more