This past weekend, I flew out from Chicago to see my aunt (who lives in Moorpark). Since we're both fans of Top Chef, we thought we would give Cafe Firenze a try. We had reservations for two at 7:00p on Sunday night (Feb. 16). When we arrived, our table was not ready and we waited 15 minutes before we were seated. When we were seated, we were seated directly beneath a large screen television tuned to the Food Network that cast an odd flashing glow throughout the evening. It felt as if they had placed formal tables in a bar--quite disappointing. After we were seated, it took another 15 minutes before our wait person arrived to even talk to us. We ordered the crab cakes, chicken piccata and gnocchi. A few minutes later, our wait person came back and informed us they were out of crab cakes, so we ordered the roasted yellow bell pepper soup instead. The soup came out and was quite good. The entrees also came out and were tasty (the gnocchi was light and fluffy like marshmallows), although the gnocchi serving size is quite sparse, the smallest I have ever had at any Italian restaurant throughout the country. After dinner we were offered dessert and decided to try the special chocolate red wine cake. The cake was horrible. It was dry and you could not taste red wine or chocolate. I do not know what was wrong, but it was worth sending back. The only positive was that it was served with a Grand Marnier-soaked, chocolate-covered strawberry. Upon telling the wait person our disappointment with the cake, she brought us out another strawberry--an appreciated touch. \r
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I will probably not be going back and if Fabio wins Top Chef, I would recommend he takes the money and makes some serious improvement to the entire restaurant atmosphere. Good food can only get you so far; if I am paying that high of prices to eat in the Conejo Valley, the ambiance needs to be A LOT better.
Pros: Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup, Parking
Cons: Chocolate Red Wine Cake, Ambiance, Service
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