Critic's Review
Talento is closed.
Review 7/10/2019
I've tried Tuscan Prime and Piazza, so Talento will complete the cycle of fancy restaurants serving Italian food on Las Olas.
I wasn't 100% sure they were open for lunch; other restaurants who announced their openings start with limited hours, but when I drove by there was someone at the hostess stand so it was safe to pay for parking.
I got a spot close by, luckily the Balcony, Sushi Shack and the Floridian are all dead empty at lunch time. The disaster that is Las Olas Boulevard can be illustrated with a single picture; the genius city planners have eliminated at lane to accommodate bike paths, so you now park in the middle of what used to be a lane of traffic. This when traffic is getting worse and there are never any bikers in the 95 degree weather that engulfs Fort Lauderdale from May to October.
The patio is sheltered from the sun but I still thought it was too hot to eat outside; they have better TVs outside than at the bar or in the restaurant.
In a completely empty restaurant I was offered the worst table in the restaurant; a tiny table right next to the front door (the sliding doors were open so it was essentially outside. I expressed disinterest and was offered a tiny table in the corner.
I don't understand why they insist on using the filler tables in empty restaurants. Seat people at the table for 4 (which are really too small for 4 people) at 2:30. Why not try to make your guests as comfortable as possible?
Some comedy transpired when I pointed out that my table was too wobbly to endure; instead of being offered another table in the empty restaurant she spent a good 10 minutes trying to level off the table. Finally some napkins did the job.
Music wasn't half bad, with Lauper, "Crash" and REO speedwagon detected.
The lunch menu here stinks; it's arguably worse than Piazza's menu; You won't find any Italian favorites here: not even Veal or Chicken Parm. No risotto, sausage and peppers, lasagna, arancini, Linguine w/Clams, Carbonara, Ossobuco, scarpariello, mozzarella di bufala, chicken other than a $20 half rotisserie; not even shrimp scampi or fra diavolo. I ordered an iced tea while I decided.
I didn't get a pizza menu, but I'd seen it online. $18 for a 12" pie. No thanks.
I ended up ordering the "Napolitano" Panini. I don't usually order panini but the entries were overpriced and unappealing. My server asked if I wanted bread, even though I was having a sandwich. Why would that make a difference?
The bread comes with Olive Oil, balsamic and oregano, so you can make your own dip; good for me as I don't like balsamic generally.
Unfortunately the bread was all crust, and not a good crust. You know, the kind you chew and chew and wonder if you'll have to spit it out because you can't chew anymore? I wrestled with it trying to find non-crust but I wasn't successful.
This is an example of bread that looks good but can't be used for anything.
The sandwich came out in 11 minutes.
Imagine how my spirit dropped as they put this in front of me. First, it was more of a wrap than a sandwich, did they get a bad shipment of yeast in this place? Why is all the bread so flat?
The menu says it comes with a green salad; I was expecting an actual salad; this was a bunch of weeds with a splash of olive oil. But the worst part was the rapini, which was woefully overcooked.
You'd think with 1 customer eating food in the restaurant they could avoid overcooking the Rapini, which takes exactly 2 minutes to cook properly. Also, the entire point of the dish was missed with the bland, crumbled sausage.
The point of the classic sausage/Rapini pairing is the spicy sausage with bitter Rapini; a great sandwich would include some roasted garlic. When you overcook Rapini it not only gets soggy, it loses it's taste; so what I got was just soggy green stuff with not enough sausage on unleavened bread. A truly incompetent sandwich.
I asked for the check with an empty glass on the table; at first it was ignored but as I handed her my card she asked if I wanted another tea to take out, which was a good save on her part.
Conclusion
The Owner/Chef here used to own Dal Maestro in Hallandale; a glorified pizzeria that had a much better menu than this place. If an owner or manager had bothered to check on me, I would have opened up the sandwich and asked "Would you serve this Rapini to your family"?
If you want to see a competent sandwich, check out what I got at La Mia Focaccia. What we have here with Talento is yet another fancy place serving junk at high prices. They can't even make bread.
Mayo calls Del Frisco's. a "hot spot", which is an outright lie. It's never been a hot spot. The bar area sucks and there's a handful of sad looking people in there on a Saturday night.