This past weekend my friends chose to celebrate my birthday taking me to a different type of “just taking me to dinner”. We went to Cucina D’Angelo Restaurant in Boca Raton where they had a special prix fix dinner with a soprano opera singer entertaining. It was quite different!

Our host, Angelo, was warm, friendly and very welcoming to our foursome. We were first served bruchetta (toasted Italian bread) topped with chopped tomatoes. We devoured those. Our next course was an antipasto, individually served (which I thought was unusual, but very nice) with a great presentation of different types of greens, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, mozzarella cheese and tomato, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Yummy!

It really was like we were in Italy, as our next course was penne pasta served with a most delicious creamy pesto sauce. The pasta was al dente (perfectly cooked) and quite excellent. My friends, Robert, Russ, Ann and myself were full already. But there was more to come.

Next, our choices were Veal Shank Milanese, Red Snapper Francaise or Chicken Marinara. We decided to have some of each to pass around and try all the entrees. The Veal was very tender, pounded quite thin and very good. The Red Snapper was dipped in an egg batter and was quite light and served with a side of vegetables, cooked perfectly. The Chicken was also delicious. They served “family style” sides of different vegetables to go with our entrees, including mashed potatoes.

Then the opera singer started. She was excellent! What a different type of entertainment and made me really think I was in a foreign country. She sang about 5-6 arias accompanied by a piano player.

Dessert was a delicious chocolate mousse and coffee (or cappuccino) which was very light and quite tasty. All in all, I thought that Cucina D’Angelo was a fine Italian restaurant and one that deserves to be revisited often. Enjoy!