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After 16 years in Redwood City, Italian restaurant Donato Enoteca has undergone a major revamp – including an entirely new menu and white marble bar.
The menu no longer touts owner Donato Scotti’s signature bigoli pasta with braised oxtail or his risotto parmigiana with crispy pork belly. Instead, diners can expect a variety of smaller, sharable dishes (but not as small as tapas, Scotti said), all developed by new executive chef Marco Bertoldo.
“His idea on Italian food is more innovative, more fresh, more young, but it’s all concentrating around the value that we’ve always kept over the past 16 years at Donato Enoteca, which is the quality product, value and taking care of every customer that comes in at any given time in the restaurant,” Scotti said.
Bertoldo formerly was the executive chef of Poesia in San Francisco, and has worked at three-Michelin starred Le Calandre in Italy. He has reimagined Donato Enoteca’s menu into three sections: vegetarian, fish and meat ($11-$18). Scotti recommends the chef’s tasting menu, which is a customizable four-course ($54) or seven-course meal ($85).
“Just communicate with a server what it is that you don’t like and what it is that you don’t care for, and then we create the menu according to that,” he said.
Expect dishes such as spinach and mascarpone cheese cannelloni with Genovese pesto and fermented berries, Venetian milk-braised salted cod and squid ink polenta, and crispy saffron carnaroli rice cake with braised pheasant and pine nuts. A daily selection of whole Mediterranean fish and a grilled 40-day dry-aged rib-eye are also available at market price.
Bertoldo has also added two new styles of pizza to Donato Enoteca: crunch and pizza al padellino. Crunch pizza is a high-hydration pizza with a crunchy crust and toppings added after cooking the dough. It’s most similar to pizza al taglio from Rome, said Scotti, and is served at Donato Enoteca with zucchini marinated in cardamom, lemon, mint and gin.
The pizza al padellino has a spongier and thicker dough and is cooked in a pan and finished in a woodburning oven. Donato Enoteca offers it in two varieties: with organic parsnips and Ahi tuna tartare or prosciutto and burrata. Scotti recommends sharing this style of pizza at the beginning of the meal.
While tiramisu is still on Donato Enoteca’s dessert menu, it’s Bertoldo’s recipe instead of Scotti’s, featuring coffee gelato and crumbled lady finger cookies. Joining the “tiramisu nuovo” are desserts such as housemade marigold gelato with boysenberry gel and almond-cinnamon-chocolate cookie and mango-coconut pavlova with mascarpone cheese ($9-$12).
Donato Enoteca’s new dessert menu still includes tiramisu ($12), but the recipe is all-new and created by Chef Marco Bertoldo. Photo by Nadia Andreini. 
Housemade marigold gelato with boysenberry gel and an almond-cinnamon-chocolate cookie ($12) at Donato Enoteca in Redwood City. Photo by Nadia Andreini. 
Meringue with mascarpone cheese, mango and grated coconut ($10) at Donato Enoteca in Redwood City. Photo by Nadia Andreini.
Lunch service will begin Thursday, Sept. 18, featuring panini, classic pasta dishes such as Bolognese and carbonara, and pizza ($16-$20), including pizza al padellino with smoked swordfish, eggplant cream and confit cherry tomatoes.
Like the food, the bar menu is completely new, offering more modern cocktails as well as a cicchetti menu, which Scotti equates to bar snacks or tapas.
Girasole, a mocktail made with Seedlip Grove, passion fruit, lemon juice and vanilla syrup, ($14) at Donato Enoteca in Redwood City. Photo by Nadia Andreini. 
Confusione with gin, lemon and lime juice, agave syrup, matcha green tea and heavy cream ($18) at Donato Enoteca in Redwood City. Photo by Nadia Andreini. 
Rosso Relativo with citrus vodka, vermouth, Campari, lemon juice and rosemary syrup ($15) at Donato Enoteca in Redwood City. Photo by Nadia Andreini.
Guided by Massimo Stronati, an award-winning mixologist from Italy, and overseen by Martina Cirina, general manager of Donato Enoteca, the bar menu currently is an ode to classic Italian songs. “Tu Vuoi Fa’ L’Americano” features popcorn-infused bourbon, dry Marsala, Amaro Montenegro, banana liqueur and pimento bitters, and other cocktails utilize ingredients like tomato water, organic pistachio gelato and even matcha green tea ($15-$18).
In addition to an all-new spritz made with hibiscus-infused vodka ($16), St. Germain and mango puree, guests are able to build their own spritz for $15.
During happy hour (Monday to Sunday, 4-6:30 p.m.) select cocktails (including limoncello spritz and blueberry mule) are $11, select wine $9 and select beer $6. The cicchetti menu ($5-$8) is also available, featuring snacks such as prosciutto-wrapped melon and seared ahi tuna with horseradish mayo.
“The small bites that Marco created are just incredible,” Scott said. “He keeps changing stuff, so if you come in, don’t be surprised if in your second visit you might not find what you tried the first time.”
While the menu at Donato Enoteca has completely changed, Scotti said it’s not an entirely different restaurant. He still intends on organizing wine dinners and his semiannual Enoteca100, a wine tasting event with more than 100 wines and food from Donato Enoteca.
“What comes on the plate might be different, but at the end of the day, the hospitality and the positive service, knowledge of food, that did not change,” he said. “Different restaurant? Not completely. But different menu? Completely.”
Donato Enoteca, 1041 Middlefield Road, Redwood City; 650-701-1000, Instagram: @donatoenoteca. Open Monday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4-9:30 p.m., Friday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4-10 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4-9 p.m. Happy hour is Monday to Sunday from 4-6:30 p.m.
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