Don’t let the next-door neighbors fool you, or put you off…Dino is very much worth a visit, and we bet you’ll keep coming back.  “Be sure to try Dino” someone told us…giving us directions to a spot you’d probably not spot if you were just driving by. “And don’t be put off by the outside…or by the next-door neighbors,” which, once we got there, turned out to be a “Unisex hair salon” (who the heck would want ‘unisex hair’? we wondered) and a “Waxing and nail” place.

And once through the door, what a delightful place it turned out to be! A surprisingly warm and cozy atmosphere – despite what seemed like quite a lot of space – and we got an especially warm welcome from the staff too.

The early arrivals in our party had already ordered some bruschetta with jumbo lump crab meat, which looked delicious… and were. So we ordered up a few more appetizers, including some lobster dumplings with a “citrus-asian dipping sauce” (and really big, meaty chunks of lobster, to our surprise and delight) and a beef carpaccio with parmigiano reggiano, capers and chive olive oil  - my favorite, probably because it went so well with the special Cabernet we’d splurged on…Dino is BYO, by the way.

As usual, Jimi shamelessly sampled at least a taste of every entrée ordered. Among his favorites; the plump roasted chicken with broccoli rabe and mashed potatoes in a tomato broth, the rack of lamb (just a tiny bit gamey, which is the way lamb should be…and especially nice with our second bottle of cabernet) and a very generous portion of shellfish fra diavolo, a dish Jimi hasn’t had in 30 years, since he moved away from his once-favorite Italian-American restaurant where it was the specialty. And for only the second time, we think, since we’ve been writing this column (mainly because Jimi tends to try the most unusual or most expensive item on the menu…to see if it’s worth the money) he ended up with the best entrée by far; a HUGE veal chop, on the bone, butterflied, beautifully breaded and crisply fried, Milanese style…served piping hot with a side of broccoli rabe. While normally he would have hoarded the entire thing, it was so good – and so big – he actually shared out more than he’d sampled from his dinner companions.

Desserts were special treats, our party agreed. The favorite was a banana cheesecake, served with chocolate sauce and fresh whipped cream…something that normally, Jimi the traditionalist, and basically not a dessert lover, would consider awful. Good thing he was sort of dieting, or he would have scarfed the huge piece down by himself. And good thing Dino is in that plaza, we decided, because midway through we had to walk a few doors down for a third bottle of wine. (We had a big group, honest!)