Danielle's not as good as Tauraso's
I found a coupon in a local magazine to dine at Danielle's Italian Restaurant located in downtown Frederick, MD. I had not been there since it came under new ownership, the restaurant used to be called Tauraso's. My boyfriend and I had enjoyed our previous visit and were looking forward to a enjoyable dining experience, but were greatly disappointed. The service was remarkably slow considering it was late on a Sunday evening, and to be blunt, the food was not good.
It started with the stale focaccia bread, I asked one of the servers about it and he said that they should probably not be serving it as he knew it was stale. He said he would get us some fresh bread and took it back to the kitchen, we did not see him again. Much later we inquired after some more bread and our server brought out another basket of the same bread, even more stale than the previous.
The first entree Chicken Marsala ($18) lacked any sort of depth of flavor in addition to being extremely oily. They had run out of the whipped potatoes which normally accompanied the dish, and which were substituted by green beans by request. When the waiter was asked why they were out of potatoes he said that they were closed on Mondays and did not want to have extra items left on Sunday...but in the next breath readily admitted that they run out of the potatoes on Sunday.
The second entree was their signature broiled seafood platter ($28) a little pricey considering it consisted of one crab cake, 3 shrimp, 3 scallops and a small pile of garlic linguine noodles. The only complaint about the platter was that the crab cake was very mushy inside and did not seem to be completely cooked otherwise the shrimp and scallops were good.
Even if I received another coupon to dine at this restaurant, I would pass. The food and service were lacking in the quality that we had received in previous visits to Tauraso's.
hatsoff66
Aug 26, 2007 07:28PM
I have to agree with you. I will say that I always thought that Tauraso's was overrated -- the main reason we went was to enjoy the outdoor patio -- there are very few restaurants in Frederick where you can dine outside. A few weeks ago we decided to give Danielle's a try. Unfortunately, we didn't have a coupon so we had to pay way too much for a totally forgettable meal and not especially pleasant dining experience. And what's with the potatoes? I ordered a dish that was supposed to be accompanied by whipped potatoes, but it arrived with linguine instead. And it was not a Sunday night. Even the outdoor patio is not sufficiently enticing to overcome the deficiencies of this restaurant.
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I would recommend that you try Il Porto, a new Italian place that opened where Zest (good riddance) used to be at the corner of South Street and South Market. Better, cheaper, fresher food.
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Wow! What distressing news...I am having my rehearsal dinner here in October. When we "signed on" they were still Tauraso's and informed us they were just doing a "name and decor change" that the menu wouldn't change. We were keeping it simple (potato free, thank goodness!!) with pizzas, mussels, clams, calamari and salads... hopefully this will still be good... but yikes! one more thing for a stressed bride to worry about!! :)
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I wouldn't recommend Tauraos's and I will never recommend Danielle's. The food sucks, the service sucks, and it is way overpriced for what you get.
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