Address: 206 W Lexington Ave, Independence, MO 64050
Phone:(816) 833-0044
Prices: $$
KC ORIGINALS
Website: http://www.cafeveronarestaurant.com/
Located on the historic Independence Square, Café Verona offers up Italian cuisine in a quaint surrounding. Wednesdays are 1/2 price wine night (and tend to be the night we end up going - completely by coincidence). Tim has previously been to Café Verona years ago and was not impressed - food felt dated and prepared from frozen with bland flavors. He vowed not to return for quite some time, and didn't. On a whim about 2 months ago, we decided to try it again when looking for something close to home. Going in with low expectations, we were certainly impressed by the updated menu and flavor of the food! Service was efficient, food was unique and delicious, and we found a new favorite local restaurant.
What tends to be a forgotten area of Independence, which is sad, because there are some very unique and special places, Café Verona strives to bring an upper class vibe to the streets of the square. An outdoor dining area welcomes you to this establishment, mimicking an outdoor café in Italy - we can't wait to try it out later on this summer.
Some of our consistent talking points about Café Verona are this: service is good, but sometimes too fast. Appetizers are quickly followed by salads which are also quickly followed by entrées. While at the same time, waiting for drinks can sometimes take a long time (but we think that's because Tim orders specialty items), but when watching the bar upon arrival, bartenders tend to work at their own obviously slow and meticulous pace, so that is part of it too. But, the drinks, once delivered, have always been flavorful and spot on.
For this visit, we got our staple entrée - pesto gnocchi with ribeye steak for Paul (okay, Tim usually orders this with the gorgonzola etc. toppings of the ribeye steak entrée and it's delicious - he absolutely loves it), and Tim tried the chicken carciofi for the first time. Considering we order the pesto gnocchi literally EVERY time we dine here, we will say this is the absolute best thing on the menu. The chicken carciofi was also very yummy too. The only negative was the pasta rosa which tasted blah (for lack of a better description). Paul is the more adventurous when ordering from the menu, and has tried numerous things such as the mac'n'cheese and the chicken orecchiette and has enjoyed them all while Tim usually is the one who lucks out with the pesto gnocchi. To top it all off, the entire menu is quite reasonably priced with entrees usually coming in under $20 including bread and a side salad. Side note on the salads ... they've recently started "making their own ranch and blue cheese dressing" according to our server. They weren't that good and should probably revisit the recipe on those. Tasted very watered down and didn't have the traditional flavors included in those dressings. We were severely under impressed with the homemade dressings. So, our suggestion would be to go with another dressing offering.
If looking for something out of the KC downtown food scene for a unique dining experience, try the Independence Square and Café Verona (and especially the gnocchi with ribeye ... seriously, it's absolutely delicious).
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| Pesto Gnocchi with Grilled Ribeye |
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| Chicken Carciofi |
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