Casanova Italian Restaurant Serves the Tastes of Venice

Like many of the best restaurants in our area, Casanova Italian Restaurant, in Dana Point, has a rather modest exterior and location that belies the wonderful dining experience that waits inside.

It is located at the corner of Stonehill and Del Obispo near the Albertson’s grocery store. As we entered, we were warmly greeted, and asked if we would like to sit in the lounge or the dining room. The lounge looked great with several comfortable leather booths and a large, gleaming wood bar. We opted for the cozy dining room, which has golden plaster walls displaying a variety of pictures of Venice, Italy. There are also wine racks that go to the ceiling and diners are able to glimpse into the kitchen from their tables. There is definitely a retro feel to the room, and the background music adds to the mood.

The wine list includes a nice variety, and they offer an extensive list of martinis that looked intriguing, such as the Forbidden Casanova Martini, the Sexy Captain, and the Caribbean Tease. We kept it simple though, and chose a glass of Pinot Grigio and Chianti Classico.

We looked over the starters and chose the Shrimp Fra Diavola, and a bowl of minestrone. Choosing an entrée, proved more challenging, because of the many choices. Of course, there are wonderful-sounding pasta options, as well as veal, a pork chop, individual pizzas and calzone, risotto, and a variety of seafood. My husband eventually selected the lasagne al forno and I picked the salmon livornese.

Our starters arrived quickly. The Shrimp Fra Diavola is sautéed shrimp served with a spicy marinara sauce. The shrimp were large and nicely presented. The minestrone came in a much larger bowl than I expected. It was truly excellent with lots of fresh vegetables. 

The entrées were served on bright yellow plates and looked delicious. I counted nine layers in the lasagne al forno. It was very dense, had lots of ricotta and was fantastic. My salmon livornese was a large piece of baked salmon covered with chopped tomatoes, whole olives, capers, onions and fresh basil. I loved this dish. The salty olives and capers were the perfect topping for the mild-tasting fish. It was served with fresh, cooked spinach, a new potato and lightly cooked carrots. I really enjoyed the vegetables. They made the whole meal seem like a home-cooked Italian meal.

We barely made a dent in our entrées. The portion sizes are large, and we each took home at least a meal of leftovers. This, of course, prevented us from ordering from their tempting dessert menu. Tiramisu, spumoni, chocolate cake, canoli, tartuffo and crème Brule are all offered, as well as espresso and specialty coffee drinks from the bar.

We were both impressed by Casanova Restaurant. The environment is comfortable, the service was friendly and professional and the food is excellent. It is open daily from 3:30 p.m. and offer Happy Hour daily from 3:30 to 6 p.m.

I give it 4 Patches out of 5.