Cecco Ristorante in Solvang

This past weekend the Englishman and I took a little road trip up to the Santa Ynez Valley in hopes of finding a venue for our wedding next year (spoiler alert: we did!).  We ended up spending the night in Solvang, and had a lovely dinner at Cecco Ristorante.

I actually visited Solvang about 3 years ago with the Englishman and I remember thinking it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  But I have to admit after this past trip Solvang has definitely grown on me.  I now appreciate the quirkiness of this Danish-inspired town and all that it has to offer.

But back to Cecco Ristorante.  The Englishman and I were looking for a nicer restaurant to have dinner and this place seemed to fit the bill.  It was Italian-inspired, and had a nice wine list which is always a bonus.

We opted to sit inside for dinner because it was a bit chilly, but Cecco does have a lovely outdoor patio that would be perfect on a nice warm evening.  I started the meal with a glass of prosecco and the Englishman got a beer.

cecco ristorante_wineWhile we perused the menu, we enjoyed some fresh baked bread and olive oil which is always a nice way to start a meal.

ceccoristorantebreadSince neither of us were starving, we decided to split a salad and an entrée.  We started with the Insalata Cecco which came with mesclun, tomato, ricotta salata, artichoke and lemon viniagrette.

ceccoristorantesaladThe salad was good but it was definitely lacking in the ricotta salata department.  In fact, I’m not sure there was ricotta on it at all.  The salad also came with chickpeas and potatoes, neither of which were on the menu.  It was almost as if the restaurant ran out of ingredients for the salad and just threw some ingredients together on the fly.

For our entrée we ordered the half roasted chicken with potatoes and vegetables.

ceccoristorantechicken

The chicken was cooked to perfection and the flavor of the au jus was incredible.  We basically demolished the chicken because it was that good.  The sides however were a bit lacking.  Only two tiny potatoes and 4 baby carrots.  All delicious mind you, but a few more vegetables would’ve been nice.

Even though the restaurant clearly has a few kinks to work out (like serving the salads on their menu), it’s still a nice dining option if you are in Solvang.  They do have a wide variety of pizzas and pastas as well which is perfect if you aren’t in the mood for schnitzel.

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