Soprano’s have had their restaurant in Mashpee, MA, but they recently added a new location, “Casino by the Sea.” Although it says “casino” in the name, it is not a casino in any way. It is a restaurant, with a gorgeous view of the water during the day. As it was during the holiday season, we had a big Santa welcoming us at the door.
It had fun wall murals at the entrance, with runners with crowds cheering them on. We entered at the Finish Line, somehow feeling accomplished, and ready to get our rewards…some tasty food!
They had a large bar at the entrance to the left, that takes up quite a lot of the space. The bar counter goes all the way around the bar, with a good amount of counter seats. They had an impressive amount of Christmas socks hanging from the bar, I assume for the employees. Cute! They had a large, life-size Santa greeting everyone at the front of the dining area.
The dining area was spacious and elegant, in full holiday sprit. I liked the contrast of white wall and dark wood floor. We sat by the window, so we could see the wood deck right outside. As it was the evening, we couldn’t see anything other than the empty deck. During the Summer, they will have tables and chairs on the deck, so that the customers can enjoy their meal with the beautiful view of the water. Nice!
Once we were settled, we received their complimentary bread with three kinds of dipping oil, which was great. My favorite was the one with garlic chunks. The bread was soft and moist, fluffy and good size too.
We started off with some cocktails, Caramel Apple Bomb ($12) and Banana Nut Bread ($12). Yes, they are cocktails, not desserts, well, kind of a drinkable dessert? Caramel Apple Bomb is made with vodka, butterscotch and apple cider. It was sweet with wonderful caramel flavor and good apple taste. It was like an apple dessert with caramel drizzle, in a liquid form. Banana Nut Bread is made with vodka, banana liqueur, amaretto, and rumchatta. This one was super flavorful with great banana flavor! Nutty with some spices that went great together. An excellent dessert cocktail!
For appetizer, we ordered Vongole alla Florentine ($15.95), Little neck clams baked with a classic Rockefeller style. It was perfectly cooked, packed with flavor. Each one was juicy, and I enjoyed the nice flaky bread crumbs on top.
We also had Roasted Beet Salad (14.95), with red and golden beets, candied pecans, cucumbers, sundried cranberries and mandarin oranges, finished with our house Italian vinaigrette and goat cheese. We told our server that we will be sharing this salad at the time of order. To our surprise, they divided the salad into two equal amounts on two plates, so that it was easy to eat. How considerate! It was very fresh and tasty.
We ordered one more cocktail to go with our main dishes. We went with Cape Cod Mule ($12), made with Tito’s vodka, ginger beer, fresh squeezed lime and a splash of cranberry. It was an interesting drink. Fruity and sweet with ginger, strong and tasty.
We all ordered different main dish. The first two ordered Baked Lasagna ($22.95) and Veal Saltimbocca ($30.95). Baked Lasagna ($22.95), is made with layered bolognese, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. The sauce was a bit tart, but otherwise, it was very tasty dish! Veal Saltimbocca ($30.95), made with layered prosciutto, fresh sage, spinach and asiago cheese, topped with a mushroom Madeira sage demi-glaze over fresh linguini. Veal was cooked perfectly, so tender! It had some sweetness to it, very tasty!
I went with one of Soprano’s Favorite menu, “Frutti di Mare” Fra Diavolo ($33.95). This dish come with three different options; mild marinara, spicy red sauce, and Bianco sauce. I chose the spicy red sauce. It is made with scallops, little neck clams, mussels and shrimp simmered in a spicy red sauce. It is served over linguini topped with fried calamari.
It had loads of seafood! And each was a good size too. Loved the combination of seafood with fried calamari, nice plump and soft texture with the crunchy fried calamari, really good. It was spicy but not too spicy, just right. I say this was pretty amazing! Pasta was cooked perfectly.
But, I must say, my hubby had the most impressive dish of the evening. He ordered from Winter Specials menu, where they offer daily special. On this day, they had Baked Stuffed Lobster ($23.95), made with 1 & 1/4 pounds of lobster. It didn’t say much of anything else on the menu, but when it was brought to the table, it totally stole the spot light! Look at this giant, impressive, incredible looking dish! I have never seen anything like it!
The presentation of this dish was not the only impressive and great thing about this dish. It was prepared with much care, it was delicious! It came with potatoes, veggies, and the lobster was topped with scallops. The lobster meat was juicy and plump, awesome with warm melted butter that came with it. And all of this for less that $24 was another incredible thing about this dish!
After packing some portions of main dishes to take home with, we ordered some desserts to share. We went with Tiramisu ($9.95) and Crème Brûlée ($9.95). It said on the menu that the Tiramisu is from Boston’s North End, so I assume they get the Tiramisu from the Little Italy somewhere located in North End? The espresso liqueur was amazing. It was so moist and super tasty! Crème Brûlée is made in house here. It was so creamy. It had some granulated sugar on top, which was actually nice, giving crunchy texture to this creamy dessert. The container was quite shallow, so it wasn’t much when it comes to portion size.
They had a nice bathroom, roomy, clean and well-lit. They are handicap accessible too.
While we were there, they had live band came and started to perform. It can get kind of loud in that space. The service was friendly and polite. The only thing was that after the silverware was taken away with finished appetizer plates, she didn’t bring back new set. We had to grab some new silverware from other empty tables so that we could eat… Other than that, it was a really nice dinner. We all enjoyed all the dishes that we ordered. The drinks were really good too! I would love to go back during the warm/hot season to see the water view!
Soprano’s Casino by the Sea – 286 Grand Ave, Falmouth, MA 02540