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Cavatore Italian Restaurant
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: The Heights
2120 Ella Blvd
Houston, TX 77008
(713) 869-6622
2120 Ella Blvd
Houston, TX 77008
(713) 869-6622
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
13 reviews for Cavatore Italian Restaurant
Came here for my anniversary with my husband. It's so close to our house we were able to walk. (That's always a good thing after a couple glasses of wine:)) I like the idea of an Italian Restaurant in a barn, I think it's cute. My husband made a reservation, but we didn't need one on a Tuesday night.
We ordered the escargot as a starter and it wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was good. It was the first time for me to see it just put in a crock with the garlic butter sauce. I'm used to seeing it either in the shell or in the crocks where the excargot is individually in it's own crock thingie. :)
Next we had the Caesar salad that is made at your table. This was the best part of the nite!! They make the salad dressing first in the bowl then add the salad ingredients. OMG delish!
The entree dishes were ok, my husband cleaned his plate of course! I had some kind of sausage plate and it was pretty good. Lastly we had the tiramasu which was good for homemade. Not the best, but pretty good.
I also enjoyed the live piano. The service was good as well. It was good food with great atmosphere and a good price. I would go again!
Good food. Live pianist every night. At dinnertime the Cesar salad dressing is made in front of you, with whatever you want. The scallop and shrimp pasta was good. There were over 15 possible deserts!
I know a lot of you guy's think of heavy food when it comes to Italian dining!
Think again!
I had a terrific rosemary chicken salad with yummy dressing and trust me you won't go hungry! It's a biggie!
If you like to share a starter with your friend get the Calamari !
My all time favorite is the beef fillet and add the Caesar Salad prepared for you fresh at the table!
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An Italian restaurant in a barn? Only in Houston.
Once you get past the barn, you realize that you've found a real hidden gem. Cavatore is a great Italian restaurant, tucked away in an unlikely building in an unlikely corner of Houston.
The atmosphere is warm and inviting, cozy without feeling cramped. You'll find couples on dates, groups, and families all enjoying the experience on any given night. Often there's a pianist present, who plays and sings traditional favorites.
Starting your meal with a Caesar salad is a must here. It's a true Caesar, prepared tableside in the classic manner, and is perhaps the best in Houston. (If you know of a better one, drop me a note.) After the entertaining creation of the dressing, the lettuce is tossed in, and the result is superb, and should not be missed.
Entrees are delicious as well. My favorite is the Gmberi della Casa - good sized shrimp and scallops sauteed in butter, lemon, and garlic, served over pasta. The seafood was plentiful and came out perfectly cooked.
Desserts look good, but I've never had room to try one. Maybe next time.
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Good classic italian comfort food. Went there for lunch with coworkers - the lasagna (which i am always a sucker for) was very good, their sauce is really tasty.
Decor - an old barn, as others have noted, it is a bit unexpected, but why not!
There was a piano and I guess at nights live music.... I appreciated the cooking and the quirky factor, and would go again!
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I went to Cavatore today for lunch with a somewhat large group of co-workers. Of course, I had read the yelp reviews before I went, and I noticed that people mentioned the caesar salad as particularly yummy.
I didn't think the caesar was anything special, to be honest. The croutons were small and had a "from-the-box" quality (although I think they were homemade). It wasn't the best caeser I've had. I don't understand the fuss.
The party also ordered appetizer trays with spicy fried ravioli, fried mozzerella, calamari and stuffed mushrooms. I only tried the ravioli, and it was pleasently spicy. I don't do seafood or mushrooms, but the calamari was eaten up.
I ordered chicken parmesan. I thought the marinara sauce was too sweet. The chicken was also very thin. I didn't hate it as a meal. But I do hate sauce that is too sweet. I like a little bit of spice instead. A friend at the table had fettucine alfredo with grilled chicken, and it looked yummy.
Said friend and I split the chocolate mousse cup for dessert. It was creamy, but a litte grainy too. It came in a cup of dark chocolate, which I appreciated.
I thought this restaurant was cute. I wasn't wowed by the food, but it certainly was edible. Our waitress was also very nice and speedy. I wouldn't mind coming back here instead of some place like Olive Garden when I'm in the mood for plain ole Italian.
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This is certainly an interesting place. I did have some trouble feeling out the atmosphere that they were trying to create. Several of the elements send mixed signals as to exactly what they aspire to:
- It's in a barn that is heavily decorated with a western theme.
- A live pianist who hits more notes than he misses.
- A menu where all of the dishes are shown by their Italian names.
- Prices that are noticeably more expensive than typical Italian.
- Friendly but slow service for things like refills.
I get the feeling that these guys would like to consider themselves somewhat upscale, but people continue to show up in jeans and tanks.
Enough about the ambiance weirdness. The food was pretty good. I like my garlic bread buttery, but this stuff is quite soaked. I got a tasty veal dinner special that included mushrooms, shrimp, scallops, mussels, and marinara sauce with a side of fettucine alfredo. The only disappointment there was a distinctly fishy taste to the mussels.
I won't rush back out next week to try these guys again, but I'll probably end up visiting again in the future.
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I have lived in Houston all my life and can easily say this is my FAVORITE restaurant..... which is a big deal. The food is great, especially the appetizers (calamari and mushrooms).
The barn is charming. A piano player is in every night of the week.
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From the outside, it looks like an old barn...because it is. It looks more like a BBQ hut than a nice Italian restaurant, but it's allll Italian inside...even down to the Italian waiter and every square inch of wall space covered with some kind of artwork printed in Italian.
The warm garlic bread slices, served in lieu of traditional bread and butter, is worth coming out to this place all by themselves! Not too many places serve up escargot, and the reason is that it's hard to get snails right...and unfortunately Cavatore doesn't deliver here. In every other way they do - a broad assortment of pasta, chicken and beef dishes served with a smile.
Big points for a live piano player, and extra big points for playing an assortment of traditional Italian music to Hey Delilah!
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There are too many good places to eat Italian to go there. My food tasted good, but my boyfriend found 3 different HAIRS in his food. Then we got coffee to finish it off and both cups were half full of coffee grounds! The staff was nice and piano was fun, but there are much better options.
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I went here for lunch today after almost a year and a half. Forgot that this place even existed near my workplace in the heights until boss suggested to take our group out :P.
Today I had the Tournedos de Manzo al Brandy which is a "filet of beef sauteed with brown sauce and flamed in Brandy with a touch of cream"... more importantly it is "damn good." It hit the proverbial spot and more... the 'spot' being hunger and 'more' being flavor, feel, atmosphere, etc. Garlic bread looked like it was horrible health-wise, but it tasted good enough for me to ignore and keep eating... little spicy kick to it.
The only real issue we had was the time it took to get all the dishes everyone ordered out in timely manner - took around 40 minutes after ordering and we had 10 people to accommodate for lunch. The refills of ice-tea were fairly often but water was kind of slacking.
Last time here I had Snapper della Casa which was similarly good. Would definitely go back again if work was paying, but not otherwise for normal lunch due to $ and timing. For dinner, would definitely go back if I lived closer by.
Italiano Texacano.
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It's not the best Italian food I've had, but it's good. The restaurant is very cozy and personal. They have very interesting decorations on the walls. I really like the live music. The person playing the piano is great and the music is usally very relaxing or upbeat depending on requests. Sometimes they ask guests to help with the music and that usually turns out very funny. (I did it once!). I wouldnt recommend it for the food alone, but the environment is very nice.
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This restaurant tries to mix Texas and Italy, with limited to success. Personally, I felt like this was a place were I would go to get barbecue, not Italian food. However, the live piano music was very nice and the table side Cesar salad was very good (it was perfect to me, but my girlfriend found it too peppery). The garlic bread was soaked in butter, which turned me off and I food the pasta to be on the same playing field as the olive garden. Overall I will probably not return, but might be worth a try for others.
