I am always looking for places to review, so when people give me suggestions, I always start researching the place to see if it is review-worthy. Recently a friend of mine told me to go to Verdiles if I wanted a nice restaurant to review. Even though it is another Italian restaurant—that seems to be the bulk of what you find around Troy—I gave it a shot.
Verdiles Restaurant is on 2nd Avenue, also known as Route 4, in North Troy between 115th and 116th streets. It really doesn’t look like much from the outside, but when you walk in, the décor is very fitting of a nice Italian place. The walls were painted an earthy tone and the lighting was soft, setting a very calm, cozy atmosphere. Also, the waiters being dressed in tuxedos and being very polite added to the feel of an upper echelon restaurant.
My friends and I walked in around 6:30, and even though they were busy, we were seated right away. Just about as soon as we opened our menus, we had water and bread at the table. Now, I would have appreciated the bread a lot more if it wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t bad. So with cold bread and some interesting conversation, my friends and I all made our meal selections.
For starters, we decided to get an order of calamari. If you don’t know what calamari is, it is just deep fried small pieces of squid typically served with marinara and/or cocktail sauce. I am a big fan of calamari, and I have ordered it at many different places, but I must say that Verdiles failed to impress me. It literally had no taste whatsoever, and even the marinara seemed particularly bland to me. It tasted like the sauce was just taken out of a can and heated up, no effort involved at all.
For my entree, I decided to go with the chicken parmesan. Now, entrees are served with either a side of spaghetti or two vegetables. I went with the spaghetti and I think it was a good call. I must say the portions were on the large side, but not as insane as Holmes & Watson. Overall, the chicken parmesan was good, but it had some drawbacks. Again the sauce was just bland generic marinara sauce that seemed like it was bought at Price Chopper. The chicken and spaghetti were good, and there was a lot of it, but I think the meal could be improved drastically just by making the marinara from scratch and adding some seasoning to it.
My friend decided to have the baked lasagna. This, however, does not come with any side dish. He enjoyed the lasagna, and I distinctly remember him saying how he was surprised to see that they put things like mushrooms in it. This did not take away from the meal though, and he said that it was very good aside from the sauce, which was again a bit lackluster.
Overall, I’d say that Verdiles is a decent restaurant. They had a good atmosphere and a very cordial waitstaff. To give you an idea of the price range, the appetizers range from $5 to $10, and most meals are in the $10 to $15 range. Taking everything into account, I’d give Verdiles a 6 out of 10.
