Caponata's Ristorante - Wheaton

Wandering about some last week, our original plan was to go to Emilio's in Wheaton only to find that they no longer open for lunch. One block east we saw an awning sign for Caponata's whose entrance was around the corner on Hale Street. There are extremely steep stairs that go up to the restaurant so we took the elevator instead. There is a small bar at the top with the main dining seating in an area with windows facing both Hale and Front Streets. We were there at lunch time and found that they have a nice buffet between 11 and 2. We didn't do the buffet but it had an antipasto assortment of prosciutto, salami, cheeses and olives, aranncini and bruchetta for starters. There were regular salad items and four hot entrees which vary from day to day. A chunk of warm crusty bread and a plate of oil, cheese and basil was brought to the table upon seating. I'm not a big fan of pasta so I opted for an Italian sub which came with the usual fixings and some blah fries. My partner ordered the grilled seafood salad which was an amazing mountain of octopus (tenacles), squid (rings), shrimp and scallops and under this a little bit of mixed greens. At 7.95 for the "small" plate, this was an extremely generous amount of food. Their dinner menu has everything from osso bucco to steaks, veal, seafood and many specialty pastas.

Caponata's Ristorante
100 North Hale Street
Wheaton, Il
630-682-5900
www.caponatasristorante.com

ps. I see that the online menu descriptions and prices do not match what we had or the printed menu I took home.