As myself and my buds dragged our reluctant trigenarian friend around Uptown for his birthday dinner, I really didn’t know where we’d end up. You can walk for 10 mintues and see twice as many appealing places to dine. Eventually, we ended up at Arcodoro & Pomodoro, a sardinian-italian restaurant which, five minutes prior, I had never heard of. And might I note: moderately difficult to say out loud without deliberate enunciation. Or maybe it’s just difficult to hear. I haven’t once yet mentioned the name to someone who didn’t ask me to repeat myself. Moving on.

After reading on their website a bit, I get the impression that Arcodoro and Pomodoro used to be two separate restaurants that, in a very corporation-like-manner, merged to bring their collective culinary capacity to the dining public of Dallas. Fantastico!

The interior is very elegant. There’s a centrally located bar and multiple dining rooms, including a quaint little two-person table at the top of the stairwell, which has a bird’s-eye view of half the restaurant. Sort of like a little balconette. Also visible from behind glass doors was a large portion (or the entirety?) of their wine collection. A very pleasant place to be.

Starting at the bar, the first thing that was clear was that the bartender was very concerned with service. Not only was he very attentive, but when we ordered appetizers to hold us over during our 30-or-so minute wait, we received place-settings, folded napkins - the whole treatment. Our selections included some wonderful calamari, mushrooms with buffalo mozzarella, and some absolutely fantastic foccacia served with the traditional olive oil and balsamic dipping combo.

After being seated by the lovely hostess, who not only pulled out our chairs but also lap-placed our napkins, our waiter popped by to take drink orders and announce the specials. In addition to what I recall was four specials for the day, their menu was chock full of spectacular-looking dishes. I was quite hungry that night and ended up ordering the stinco (that’s leg of lamb to you), which was served with a surprisingly delicious risotto “cake.” The portion was huge - I don’t know for sure but it had to have been a good 16-20oz of baby sheep, which was oh-so-tasty. Oh, and I must mention, my friend who was celebrating his birthday with much chagrin, went all A-list on us and ordered off the menu - a wonderful trio of buffalo skewers, which looked almost as fabulous as they tasted. What a prima donna.

I skipped dessert that night, instead opting for a nice cappuccino which was delicious, and a perfect cap to such a satisfying meal. I don’t honestly recall what my friends ordered for dessert, but I do know that nobody went home with doggy bags, and all the plates on the table were clean when we left. This is definitely a place I look forward to trying again.