Domani — Restaurant in Hillsdale

How have I not written a review of this restaurant yet???

I've frequented this restaurant, at first through DoorDash (pandemic) and then in person (it's like 3 min from home). I will speak to my in person experience.

The host/ess is typically always polite, and depending on the wait time is very up front about seating. They have booths down the sides of the area, and tables in the middle. If you get there when it's busy, they will let you know, the booths are all taken but the tables are open if you'd like.

If it's not that busy, you'll get a booth. Also, they don't have reservations here, BUT if you call ahead, you'll get preferential treatment. Please understand that. In my case, I never call ahead and I don't mind table seating (I'm not going to take up a 6-top booth just because I want to avoid a 4-top table).

The service, overall, is good. Sometimes, it's great. Sometimes, it's not quite so great, but not bad. So it averages out to good. This happens anwhere you go out to dine though. Sometimes you get someone attentive, sometimes you don't.

Food-wise, I love, lovelovelove their food. In no particular order, here's what I've had:

Bruschetta Garlic bread Fried calimari Stuffed mushrooms Skirt steak pizzaiola Lasagna Gnocchi chicken cacchiatore Tiramisu, and tiramisu, and tiramisu (basically, every order ends with tiramisu)

I would kick none of those dishes out of bed for eating crackers. I could wish the Lasagna had sausage instead of beef, but that is because of me, not because of them. Every single dish I've had, none of it was ever not eaten. I will try to see if they'll accommodate me and make Gnocchi with marinara and sausage, but if they don't, again, that's on me, not on them.

Again, service can be variable. I've had servers that were a bit clingy (don't worry dude, you're getting a tip), servers that were the opposite of clingy (I would have liked another iced tea, but don't worry dude, you're getting a tip), and servers that were just right (That time a server decided what I was taking home needed one of their bags with handles).

I've never had a bad time there, even when I was sitting next to a table of older ladies that wanted to move to the bar, then wanted to move back to their table because there were loud children at the bar (I'm just going by what they said, I wasn't there to witness it), because at that point the staff's reaction ("Ohhhhh, welcome back!") made the whole thing feel like entertainment and not a disruption.

Definitely a go-to restaurant experience, any day of the...

This is a great little local spot in the King's plaza across from Wendy's in Hillsdale. There is a nice sized bar area as soon as you walk in, alas this is not a BYOB which is automatic points off for me. However it regains points due to the fact they have lunch and dinner portions available at any time of day (so if you're not too hungry at dinner, go for the nearly-half-priced lunch portion). On to the food --- let's start with the Eggplant Rollatine. Phenomenal! This was probably my favorite part of the meal. Crispy yet not hard eggplant, very fresh mozzarella, with a marinara sauce that reminds me of the dear old deceased Banchetto's Feast that closed down in Westwood. The bread was delicious, and came with a nice little dipping sauce of something I believe was oil, garlic, parsley, and some kind of tomato/red pepper mixture. The sangria was out of this world, but maybe could have used just a littttle bit more alcohol. The Broiled Shrimp Scampi was not the best, but not awful; not sure I'd give that one another go. The Chicken Portofino was delectable (as you can see from the photo). They were also so gracious as to add some prosciutto and mozzarella on top for me because the original dish did not have it (always a plus for me when a restaurant will customize their dishes for you). Our waiter Joe was a fun personable guy who I'd recommend if you happen to come here, and the manager came over to check on us as well. I'd rate it overall as a positive experience and will be returning again in the future to try some of their...

My wife and I were actually disappointed with the food at Domani. It has been probably about 3 years since we have been at the restaurant last. Our visit this time was on a Friday evening arriving at 8:30 p.m.

Before I go into talking about the food, I have to say that the service was excellent!

Overall, our food was bland and lacked seasoning. I had Pappardelle Alfredo with salmon where the sauce was very thin and bland and the salmon itself had no seasoning at all as if it was poached in water. On the bright side, the Pappardelle was cooked perfectly although it couldn't make up for the rest of the dish. My wife's meal was also very bland in flavor.

The beef barley soup also was very bland and lacked any depth of flavor. The base stock was more like a bland Manhattan clam chowder broth and had no virtually no beef flavor at all. On a positive note, the individual ingredients were fresh and you could tell it was homemade, not out of a can.

We had a takeout order for my daughter at home which was Penne alla Vodka with grilled chicken. While the penne was cooked satisfactorily, the vodka sauce was awful and at the same time had no flavor. The grilled chicken was also under seasoned. My daughter disliked it so much that we actually threw the entire meal away.

Unfortunately, it'll be a long time before we return to Domani's...