Restaurant Review: Campanello’s

Our Tuesday dinner group, always on the look-out to try something different, decided upon Campanello’s. Located at 414 Central Avenue and "3 blocks from the beach", Campanello’s is a small, family owned restaurant serving classic Italian meals. A few from the gang had never been there before or it had been a while for others.

The décor of the place is pretty basic. But you get the feeling it has been that way forever. There is actually a nice history of the place on their website. Joseph Campanello come over from Italy in 1902. He lived in and opened a food store this same building we are in. Over the years, and through a son and grandson, it grew into the restaurant of today.

Prices on all the pasta dishes were very reasonable and I had the homemade Napolentana Lasagna for $11.95 which included bread and a garden salad. Most of the pasta noodles I believe are imported, but the lasagna is homemade. (We noticed that they have a very affordable lunch menu and some additional lunch specials. On Monday evenings select bottles of wine are half-price.) We spoke to the owner and she indicated that most of the desserts were also homemade so I couldn’t pass up a Cannoli made from scratch to finish off dinner. Overall, the entire meal was very good with great flavor. And what is not to love about a rich cream encased in deep-fried dough? While cheap, I’ll pay for the pasta and dessert at the gym today.

So while it is not as fancy as Via Vite or Nicola’s, I’d certainly go back. We enjoyed it as it was a night of just good food and good company in a no frills kind of place. Oh, and one last thing. The owner mentioned that they have coupons on their website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link that says "coupons". And Even though we didn’t have one, the owner hooked us up!