My seventh Taste of Hartford visit delivered me to Hot Tomato’s doorstep.
There was hotness aplenty at the hostess station, thanks to Zenani and Katie.
For those few individuals who have never set foot inside Hot Tomato’s, this restaurant wears its love of the bright red fruit and its pop-art heart on its sleeve.
Its lower dining area,
with its bar,
and its towering ceiling,
is apparently destined to be transformed into a lounge in the near future.
In the rear of the restaurant is a romantic wine room that will be dedicated to fine dining.
Meanwhile, the elongated space in between will be devoted to family dining.
This area, where my dining companion and I sat, includes a lengthy kitchen open to public view.
Hot Tomato’s has nothing to hide, utilizing premium ingredients and employing good talent
like chef David Belton.
One of the top talents at Hot Tomato’s is Venezuelan general manager Neil Fuentes, a.k.a. the Sensational Singing Chef,
who has made a number of appearances on WTNH Channel 8’s Connecticut Style and whom I knew from his days working at Bespoke in New Haven. Also coming from Bespoke was our handsome waiter, Christian, seen here opening a bottle of wine.
I was really pleased by changes made by Hot Tomato’s for this edition of the Taste of Hartford. During the last go-around, the restaurant offered three courses, one of which was its signature garlic bread. This time, Hot Tomato’s offered four courses counting the bread, great value added for its Restaurant Week visitors.
The popular garlic bread is slathered with Mozzarella, Asiago Mild, Romano and Provolone cheeses that melt into it irresistibly.
That bread can be taken home and is even shipped as far away as Australia.
There were four choices of appetizer. We passed up a house salad with balsamic vinaigrette and even fried calamari with marinara sauce. Instead, we ordered terrific crab cakes served with a vanilla coconut sauce and pineapple salsa
as well as soft housemade sweet potato ravioli in a sage cream sauce, long one of my favorite Hot Tomato’s dishes.
There were five choices of entrées. We were tempted by but didn’t order the chicken and ricotta gnocchi in a pesto cream sauce, the eggplant rollatini or the “black chicken.” The “tort rose” of four-cheese tortellini with sweet sausage, mushroom, spinach and tomato in a light cream sauce that we did order provided more evidence of the kitchen’s deft handling of pastas,
while grilled Atlantic salmon in a sweet-and-sour sauce with Asian stir-fried vegetables and warm soba noodles showed the kitchen’s light touch with fish.
Thanks to Hot Tomato’s munificence, we wound up getting to try two of its other entrées. Served over creamed spinach and potato wedges, one was a smaller version of the restaurant’s marinated filet mignon in a demiglace topped with an arugula salad and truffle-fried crispy onions.
Served with Parmesan polenta and asparagus, the second dish was the “black chicken” offered as a Restaurant Week special. The name refers not to Cajun blackening but to the use of more flavorful dark meat further darkened through marinating and cooking with brown sugar. Its Fuentes’ mother’s recipe, which he adapted for restaurant use.
The filet mignon proved as tender and tasty as it sounds, the Venezuelan chicken an exotic pleasure.
And finally, there was dessert. The three choices were sorbet, ice cream or tiramisù. We sampled the black raspberry and Butterfinger flavors, good and awesome respectively.
The tiramisù was wonderful.
Hot Tomato’s is already one of Hartford’s most popular restaurants, but the management clearly isn’t planning to rest on its laurels. Keep a close eye on this favorite to see how it evolves over the coming months.
Hot Tomato’s, 1 Union Place, Hartford, 860-249-5100