Del Raye Bar & Grill

The Del Raye is no longer. They are now the Paridise CIty Grill

Just bear with this quick little tale — I wanted to try Spoleto based on Penny M’s review. My friend and I saw the Spoleto van in the parking lot and thought well this isn’t where map quest says it is — but map quest sucks, whatever — walked right past the sign, got seated and menued and then looked at each other and both said «this doesn’t seem very italian». Then my friend, the much smarter of us both, looked at the name on the menu and realized we were at a different restaurant.
Anyway…
The best thing about this place was the amazing amazing almond crème brûlée cake. A wonderful, warm, perfect sized, yummy little dessert. The duck taquitos were pretty good too.
BUT, my entrée was boring and bland and expensive. I got pork loin with baked apples. I think the whole thing was overcooked and just blah. And it came with these huge slices of seared/​burnt just pork fat just sitting there looking gross — burnt and gelatinous at the same time– ewww ewww ewww!

Why is everything so expensive?! For the price, the food isn’t all that great.

I came here for New Years Eve dinner and was kind of disappointed in what was supposedly the best place in the valley. The prix fixe menu was four courses, with the salad and dessert courses being set.
My appetizer of aranccini was fine enough, but I’ve had better at my local pasta take out joint. The main problem with them was plating– two little fried balls in an even tinier ramekin. Was I supposed to pick it up with my hands? Stab it with a fork?
My rack of lamb was humongous to say the least. I think I ate about a third of it. The plantain and pine nut crust was tasty, but didn’t really make sense with the other flavors on the dish. Even more confusing was the pile of mixed greens on the dish– right after I had the salad the course before. The lamb itself was very nice, but the «sweet potatoes» were about 90% regular potatoes, 10% sweet potatoes.
Then dessert. The long wait. The kitchen staff made the dreadful mistake of not putting the souffles in the oven until entrée plates were returned (or so it seemed) and we waited about 40 minutes between entrée and dessert. For a too-​bitter chocolate soufflé.
Their wine menu is very impressive, to say the least. I was very pleased with our selection. However, on New Years Eve, I was very disappointed to have to PAY for a glass of champagne on top of the prix fixe menu.
For what I paid, I feel I could have gotten a far superior dinner in Boston. I have, in fact, paid half the price of my dinner at Del Raye, for far superior dinners in Boston.

Is it possible I was too psyched for the Del Raye. It being New Year’s Eve and all — the reservation made a month in advance… perhaps I was expecting too much. But on pretty much all fronts the Del Raye was not worth the price on the check.
This is not to say that the food was bad or that the service was even sub-​par, really. It’s just that everything was a bit underwhelming. The food was ok – the best thing being the ragu that came with the quail appetizer. Quite delicious. The quail itself was a bit extra crispy, making the presentation one big bowl of dark brown. The salad was just too extreme in its flavors. It was a wine soaked pear with this powerful cheese creamy stuff on top — two powerful flavors that battled it out while the greens stayed dry and bitter. This salad could have used it’s own pallet cleanser. (Speaking of which, the pino was excellent.)
The entrees were equally ok. The flank steak dish had cuts of steak over asparagus and risotto. The steak was tasty, the asparagus was simply steamed and the risotto was all right. Again, nothing exciting going on here. The rack of lamb had good flavor itself — but its apple flavored crust had a bit too much going on and didn’t really compliment the lamb as much as compete with it. To tell you the truth, no pun intended, the cheeseburger and fish and chips we had for diner the night before at The Dirty Truth were more exciting. And I’m not entirely kidding. For more than $ 200 I want at least one dish to surprise me, that didn’t happen here. But everything was ok – so it gets the three stars.

Expensive for the area, but a really great splurge restaurant. Actually, if I were to splurge on a meal in Western Mass, this is the only place I would consider. The décor is really nice in a modern sort of way. The food is excellent and they also have a great wine selection. The staff are also well trained and attentive. Now that I live in the SF area, a place this nice would cost twice as much.