‘Watts for Dinner’ the Takeout Edition: DaVinci's offers top-notch Italian fare

Our next takeout adventure comes from DaVinci's Ristoranté Italiano in Marco Walk Plaza.

For the sake of this review, we ordered takeout; with restaurants’ limited in capacity, we’re doing our part to help by eating at home and opening a table for someone else.

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DaVinci's was practicing social distancing with limited seating both inside and out. There’s a special pickup window for takeout orders and the restaurant delivers on island. The staff were also wearing masks.

This restaurant choice was determined after I received a mass-emailing from the restaurant about their sunset menu, an office too good to pass up. For $29 per person, you can choose from select appetizers, entrees and desserts. I do love a special!

For my appetizer, I picked the crab cake. Golden and delicious, and even in the takeout container, a thing of beauty. And it tasted great too!

For my entrée I picked the shrimp scampi, medium-sized shrimp sautéed with garlic and finished in a white wine lemon butter sauce over linguine. Anyone who thinks the portions are smaller with this special would be wrong. This was a huge portion! And the flavors blended beautifully. I enjoyed every bite.

For dessert, I picked the cannoli. Featuring the traditional tube-shaped pastry dough and filled with a sweet ricotta cream cheese. A great way to top off this meal.

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My partner in dine got things started with the calamari fritti, calamari dusted with flour, lightly fried and served with marinara. He didn’t let the fact that this was a huge appetizer delay him in the least, finishing every bite. The sauce was also amazing!

For his main dish, he picked the salmon ratatouille, featuring pan-seared salmon served with ratatouille, peppers, vegetables and linguine with a pesto cream sauce. The salmon was beautiful and a huge portion. The pasta was also generous, and both were cooked to perfection.

For dessert, he picked the tiramisu, Savoiardi cookies soaked in espresso, spiked with coffee liqueur and layered with mascarpone cream cheese. Yum! Yum! Yum!

If you’re looking for first class food without first class prices, the sunset menu, available for a limited and during an early evening window, is the way to go. But even during regular hours, you won’t be disappointed with the top-notch quality of Da Vinci’s expanded menu.

As always, support local restaurants in their time of need, if you can. Stay healthy and eat well.

More:Hey Marco Island, looking for a place to eat?

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If you go

DaVinci's Ristoranté Italiano

• 599 South Collier Boulevard, Marco Island
• 239-389-1888
• ristorantedavinci.com