Last night Vickie and I went to Eno Vino in Madison. The funny thing is that it's right around the corner from Vickie's house and we've never been. I found it by doing a google search for best restaurants in Madison. Most reviews online were positive, with the negatives complaining about the prices. I really don't pay too much attention to those because some people just don't get paying for good food. Overall, we liked it.

Eno Vino is in the corner of a shopping center. The place is deceptively large because the entry is in the corner of the shopping center. The bar is very large, as is the dining area. The dining room, where we sat, was dark but relaxing. We noticed that several tables in the bar area had arm chairs. Nice. The crowd was kind of odd for Madison - kind of baby-boomer meat market. Cougarville deluxe.

The service was a little slow but it was because our server was busy. When he got to us he was very attentive. The wine list is extensive. I had a wine flight of three cabs for $15. All were nice. The glasses sit on a little card so you can read about the different wines. We started with some rather bland wheat bread and butter that I think was unsalted. Vickie thought it was meant to compliment wine. Maybe so.

The menu is tapas style. The food isn't Spanish, but the plates are meant to be shared. We had feared that the food would be really small, but those fears were unfounded. We ordered three items: a flatbread, the squash gnocchi and the truffled fries. Oh, and we got desert to go, too. It was forgettable.

The flatbread was the Chef's Special. About the size of a medium pizza, the special had prosciutto, arugula, fontina and parm. No red sauce, just some garlic cream sauce (but not much). The ingredients were top quality. It grew on me as we worked through it. It was a simple, but strong start.

Next we had the Roasted Squash Gnocchi. Great presentation. The acorn squash came out on fire. When the flames died down, we removed the top to find a cheesy, gooey interior. It was stuffed with squash gnocchi, a melted cheese sauce, toasted marcona almonds, and roasted red peppers. The flavors were pretty subtle. The cheese was supposed to be manchego, which we both love. It wasn't. That might have been more exciting. Instead, we think they used more fontina. Maybe they ran out of manchego. It was still good, just not as good as it looked or sounded.

Last, we got the truffled fries. They came out well after we were done with the other dishes. I'm not sure they planned it that way. Vickie like truffles more than I do. The fries were steak cut . They were well-cooked, which I always like. A garlic aioli, Thai ketchup and marsala cheese sauce were served on the side. They were all fine - nothing spectacular. Vickie correctly observed that the cheese sauce, supposedly marsala-flavored, had lots of flour in it. I dunno, maybe it was just that I was already full when they showed up. I don't think I'd order them again, but Vickie liked them.

I almost forgot. We also got the red velvet cake to go. It was weak - not even cake. It was about the size of a hockey puck but a little thicker. The whole thing was a serving of cream-cheese based icing with two 1/4" strips of cake inside, along with some berry compote on the side.

Overall, we had a good meal at Eno Vino. It's the kind of place I'll try again hoping I'll like other dishes more. Maybe that will be another blog post.