Lento Restaurant

Lento has been one of my go-tos for special celebrations for many years. It's the only restaurant in Rochester I've found that pushes high-quality food, local ingredients and an always changing menu. Making reservations at 5pm, we were quickly seated at our requested location in the dining room. Due to being happy hour (5pm - 6pm), their oysters are $2 each. Choosing several, I found them enjoyable. Without any sauces, you can truly taste the pure oyster and all its flavours. A salad caught my eye; the Charred Spanish Octopus Salad was phenomenal. All the components worked beautifully together, and the octopus is one of the most tender octopus I've had anywhere. The Smoked Bluefish Salad was also phenomenal. Smokey bluefish served with a baguette and pickled red onions; this was a great starter. Only thing I wish they've done is toasted the slices of baguette. For mains, I opted in for their Pan Seared Wild Wolf Fish. This was cooked beautifully. The fish was tender, dense and moist. The side of blue crab, shiitake mushrooms & leek risotto with a lemon dill beurre blanc sauce was amazing. The sauce didn't overpower the natural taste of the fish and in fact elevated the entire dish. As for her, she opted in for the Potato Gnocchi. This was served with house-made pork sausage, chestnut mushrooms, tomato & Italian cheeses. A wonderful and rustic dish that's pure and taste like home. For dessert, we both ordered the Profiteroles. One with their house-made honey and pistachio ice cream and the other with their house-made strawberry sorbet. An excellent way to end and excellent meal. It's worth noting the service from Georgina and her helper Ally was impeccable. Georgina checked on us regularly, gave us great insight and was an overall pleasure. The quality of food, quality of service and overall atmosphere makes this one of my favourite restaurants.

The food was excellent. All four of us enjoyed our meals. It was a short menu but that is not necessarily a bad thing when you can do a few dishes very very well. We were able to have a normal volume dinner conversation. Our waitress was delightful. This was our first stop on an evening out on a Friday night and everyone had a good time. And they had a dedicated Oyster Bar if that is your thing.

I visited Lento for the first time on Saturday night and I will absolutely be back. I saw their post on Instagram about how they were adjusting their prices and portions which got me curious. I went with my partner and friend and we had a great time. Our server was the sweetest and had great dessert recommendations. The whole dining room was cozy, too. We also ate very well. I had the chicken parmesan and linguine with the Pinot noir, and my partner had the pork chop with the WCIPA from Strangebird. Everything was prepared perfectly and we cleaned our plates. For dessert, the three of us split the profiteroles filled with the chocolate sorbet ... But I did not share the chocolate pot de creme 😏 All in all, our dinner at Lento was phenomenal and I'll gladly be back.