Trattoria Locale — Restaurant in Town of Middletown

Visited (ate lunch on front porch) and had lunch with family who came to meet me while I was back in NY and had the Grilled Octopus and Orecciete with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe. Both were very tasty and well made.

The grilled octopus tentacle was in the perfect state of not cooked too long or too little. I don't like fennel but the fennel slaw with the octopus was wonderful and perfectly crunchy. And as fate would have it an employee walked by with a fresh fennel bulb fronds still attached.

Unfortunately they were out of the lamb tenderloin skewers (skewers of rosemary) but said they would be back in stock by Wednesday. The Orecciete and sausage with Broc. Rabe was soft and sausage was well seasoned no need for extra salt or spices to fake flavour.

Fast forward to Friday and I went back for lunch with a friend. This time I had the Lamb Tenderloins Skewers (sans skewers) and Rissoto (both now sold out). There were no rosemary skewers for the lamb tenderloin skewers but there was lamb. The Mint Pesto that accompanied the lamb was a wonderful contrast the the overly salted lamb. The lamb was cooked perfectly. It was juicy and charred slightly on the outside while tender and pink inside. The rosemary skewers would undoubtedly have added aromatics to the dish but uncertain if it would have added any flavour. Mentioned the salty issue to waitress and she relayed it to the kitchen so likely it won't be an issue going forward.

We also shared Bruschetta - comes as 4 different ones, 2 with meats for me and 2 without for my friend who is a vegetarian.

The Rissoto with mushrooms was tastey and creamy. I was so full that I had to take most of it home and it was wonderful reheated for supper.

I wish this restaurant was closer to me but I have a feeling it's charm would be lost in a bigger city. The restaurant is in an old house with vintage and antique touches. It's just darling and will return every time I get up this way.

If you have opportunity and they are open stop and grab a sandwich or settle in and enjoy a full meal. It's worth the drive.

Which brings me to the waitress - she was kind and knowledgeable about every question or concern we had.

(Not local so this will likely be my only...

First and foremost, if you plan on coming here for a normal, dine-in experience, I would definitely recommend it. The food we had was delicious. However, if you plan on having Trattoria cater an event, I can't recommend it. My wife and I contracted with Trattoria in May to cater our rehearsal dinner in August. From that point on, it became nearly impossible to get in touch with them. Since we don't live in the area, we couldn't just stop by the restaurant to speak to them; we had to rely on phone and email Between myself, my parents, and even our point of contact at our wedding venue, we attempted to reach out dozens of times between May and August to plan basic things about the dinner - whether it'd be catered or at the restaurant, specific dietary restrictions for guests, what would be on the menu, the actual time of the dinner, etc. Their phone goes straight to voicemail, and they would only occasionally respond via email, but only ever to say that they would call us back later (and never would). We didn't get a phone call back from them until a week before the actual rehearsal dinner, at which point we were scrambling to find a second option if Trattoria fell through. Though their food was excellent and the people there are friendly, it wasn't worth the stress already attached to a pretty...

We just left the restaurant. I am surprised that it has such good reviews. The atmosphere is one of a stark cafeteria. Although the waitress was very sweet and accommodating and very responsive, the food took over an hour to arrive and when it did it was underdone (super Al Dante). The sauce wasn’t very good. I had a salad with mozzarella (which was from a block not fresh). We all have stomach aches and I think the oil must have been rancid since I only had salad. Very disappointing and I hate leaving a bad review since we are local and was hoping it would be a nice find in the area. We ended up asking for bread three times and the bread was an airy roll cut up into slices rather than a crusty Italian type bread which Should have given us a hint. The chef is working alone and is not able to handle the number of guests. A couple next to us literally walked out and he ran after them to let them know the food was about to be plated. Another couple ended up going out to buy wine and they waited about an hour and twenty minutes for their food. If the food was amazing I wouldn’t have written this review but it wasn’t. Sorry. Hopefully they...