18 Park Street
Corner Brook
Ph. 639-3466
Had it not been for the lighted sign that stands near the entrance telling otherwise, one could be forgiven for mistaking Corner Brook’s Sorrento for a bank or post office. Outside, Sorrento is a nondescript, no-frills building of light-colored brick. Inside, Sorrento has a warm, casual ambience. One wall is of stone, the ceiling is of stained wood paneling, the floor features ceramic tile, and the whole restaurant is wrapped in a ribbon of beautiful Newfoundland art (on loan from a local gallery).
Sorrento has become one of the most popular dining and
drinking establishments in Corner Brook. It is owned by a couple, formerly from
Bulgaria, who made their reputation several years ago as owners of a small
pizza joint on Broadway called Dino’s (pronounced dye-nohs by the Corner Brook
hoi polloi). Their pesto pizza is a good example of why Dino’s established a
name for making pizzas unlike any seen before in Corner Brook. Dino’s so-called
gourmet pizzas offered residents a taste of something new and very different
from the pepperoni/salami/ground beef discs usually found at pizza take-outs.
Sorrento continues to offer a wide selection of pizzas, in
addition to pasta, beef, chicken, and pork courses, soups and salads, and
various appetizers. Unfortunately, there is zero seafood on Sorrento’s menu.
During my visit to Sorrento I was joined by a spirited group
of friends. All of us were visiting Corner Brook for different reasons. We were
hungry, so a good portion of the menu got sampled.
Sorrento’s spinach soup comes in a big bowl and arrived with
a basket of house breadsticks for the table. The soup was good but the spinach
had lost its edge because of an excessive amount of rice. Perhaps it should
have been called rice with spinach soup. As with many of Sorrento’s recipes,
the soup packed some heat (probably a couple of pinches of cayenne) but not
enough to alert the fire department.
The salad a la shop had some kick as well but too much for
me. The salad itself was terrific. It had loads of good things like olives,
grated feta, cucumber and so forth. The Bulgarian dressing, on the other hand,
seemed to contain mostly vinegar. (Are Bulgarians particularly keen on
vinegar?) It murdered the salad, as well as my nice glass of Lindeman’s red.
David, one of my dining companions, had no trouble polishing off his salad a la
shop but even he (of the “cast iron” belly) acknowledged they might want to
ratchet down the vinegar a notch.
Sorrento’s striploin steaks got rave reviews from our table.
They were tender and succulent, although one of the plates was missing the wild
rice apple risotto that was supposed to come with it. Perhaps they used up all
their rice on the spinach soup and my stuffed bell pepper.
The stuffed pepper entrée was tasty enough but there wasn’t
much evidence of the lean ground beef or veggies that were supposed to comprise
the stuffing, along with the ubiquitous rice, of course. Speaking of starch…set
beside the pepper was a garden salad AND a perfectly roasted, very delicious,
potato patty. It was a nice touch, but was another starch necessary since Uncle
Ben seemed to have that department more than adequately covered?
Like many professional kitchens Sorrento’s does a lot of its
roasting and grilling at high, smoky temperatures (way over 400F I suspect).
This makes proper kitchen ventilation an issue. They appear to have a problem
in this area. I visited Sorrento twice, and each time, thin clouds of kitchen
smoke made the dining room look as if it were shrouded in fog. Ironically, one
of the reasons Sorrento is so popular is because it is a smoke-free (cigarette
that is) restaurant and bar.
If you like cheese, cino del duka is for you. The portions
were large, and we got lots of cheese. It was a chicken breast stuffed with
three cheeses, spinach, and herbs and served with cheddar sauce. Our table gave
it an unqualified thumbs-up.
Sorrento’s organic quail was quite stunning, in more ways
than one. Visually it was completely over the top. It had a very Chinese look
in its presentation. Two bacon-wrapped roasted quails with radish heads and
coxcomb headdresses (carved from a slice of carrot) were encircled by rings of
sliced cucumber and sliced tomato, dotted with pieces of black olive. It was
extremely labour intensive decorating. What this achieved was an overall look
that reminded me of decorative tile work. God knows I appreciated the effort,
but the dish looked way too fussy for my taste. (Besides, our less than
diplomatic waiter alluded to my “time consuming” quail dish when apologizing
for the delay in bringing our food, so I didn’t appreciate the dirty looks his
comment generated toward me from my dining companions.) However, the quail was
delicious. The bacon kept the quail meat quite moist and the wild rice was
beautifully seasoned and sumptuous.
For dessert I was looking for something light and cool. I
opted to try Sorrento’s walnut topped crème caramel. The size of the thing
shocked me a little. It was twice as big as a normal sized crème caramel. I
also noticed something else unusual. All around its edge this big-as-a-saucer
caramel was studded with tiny and not-so-tiny air bubbles. It reminded me of an
Aero bar. The texture of Sorrento’s caramel was coarse and disappointing. It
should have been a “melt in your mouth” silky smooth. That is what a classic
crème caramel should be like, but what I got was either a weak attempt at the
classic caramel or an effort to do something different that just did not work.
Service at Sorrento is slow and the servers need training.
They are bright and friendly enough, but they made basic errors, like not
clearing the table of dirty dishes before serving the next course. Our waiter
foolishly bragged they could make any type of specialty coffee we could name.
When I asked for a simple Irish coffee he had to ask us what went in it. We
told him and he returned to inform me that the only ingredient they actually
had in the restaurant was coffee. They didn’t even have the whipped cream for the
topping. For the record, he thought an Irish coffee was coffee mixed with
Bailey’s Irish Cream…a good guess, but no cigar.
My dinner at Sorrento, including a glass of Lindeman’s red
and tip, cost $49.74.
Best Points:
Good grilled meats.
Areas for Improvement:
I’d like to see some seafood on the menu.
Ratings Category:
Sorrento is a good restaurant with a few shortcomings. It
gets 7.5 points out of 10.