Panini Café

Panini Café
2333 E. Coast Highway
http://mypaninicafe.com/

Visited July 2, 2008 :: Holly, Charity, April, Adrienne, and Lindsey.
Prior to our visit to Panini Café, there was some confusion. Don’t be fooled by Google’s misrepresentation and think it is the same breed as Caffe Panini. One in our party has been avoiding this place for years, all because she thought it too was owned by Ten. Such a shame.

Ambience: 8.5
Suits the cuisine. Once you walk through the doors of this quaint Italian/Mediterranean establishment you feel like you’ve walked off the water taxi in Venice and into a family owned and operated eatery, including the flat screen television playing the evening news. Concrete floors & and canned soda helped create a homey and casual atmosphere.

Food: 9
I enjoyed the use of fresh mint and basil in my homemade lentil suppa and grilled chicken panini with Roma tomatoes on crusty Filone bread covered in melted brie. Mmmmm. Other dishes that adorned our table included a generous chicken kabob plate; seared Cajun ahi salad; couscous with tomatoes, raisins and walnuts; and paninis with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, pesto, and other yummy ingredients. We followed up our meal with the banana bread pudding con vanilla bean gelato, or was that Dryers? Either way, it was pure goodness.

Service: 7
The servers approached us in a tag-team style. I’m actually not even sure who our server was, but we were well accommodated. They didn’t seem to mind when our party grew & our water glasses were always full (the abundant condensation reminded us that we were, in fact, in CDM). It’s a small place with aspirations of relocation down the street sometime before 2010. There are no reservations, so go early or expect a bit of a wait.

___________________________________________________
We highly recommend Panini Café and have affectionately added it to our list of “to revisit…often.”