Review: Upscale Italian restaurant in cozy neighborhood has daily happy hour menu at bar

Maribeth Renne
·3 min read

Indian River County seems to be the hub for celebrating early happy hour.

Many restaurants offer happy hour menus at their bars, where they showcase tasting/sharing portions of their specialties and perhaps some special items that aren’t included on the regular menu, along with reduced prices on some drinks.

Among them is the friendly and very cozy Trattoria Dario, which is tucked in a quaint south Vero Beach residential neighborhood and offers an outstanding happy hour menu from 4-6 p.m. daily.

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At Trattoria Dario in Vero Beach, the nonna cake has a layer of pastry, a layer of lemony filling and another layer of pastry with whipped cream and nuts.
At Trattoria Dario in Vero Beach, the nonna cake has a layer of pastry, a layer of lemony filling and another layer of pastry with whipped cream and nuts.

On the happy hour menu, a full-size Mediterranean salad ($18) was so delicious and large enough for ample sharing. When our server overheard us say we would share, she had the kitchen break the salad down onto separate individual plates, something very few restaurants will do these days. We were delighted with that level of customer satisfaction focus throughout the visit.

We were tempted to order another salad; it was that good. Arugula, radicchio, fennel, dried apricot, pears, candied walnuts, Parmesan shavings and citrus dressing is a healthy concoction made in heaven. This salad is also available in a smaller size. But, of course, we had ordered lots of other happy hour menu items to share.

Polpette, two large, succulent house-made meatballs ($14) were served in a pool of yummy tomato sauce and topped with ricotta and Parmesan cheese. Served alongside were garlic crostini — so absolutely necessary for sopping up every last bit of that delicious sauce.

At Trattoria Dario in Vero Beach, the thin-crust, flatbread and sweet basil marinara pepperoni pizza received an A+ all around.
At Trattoria Dario in Vero Beach, the thin-crust, flatbread and sweet basil marinara pepperoni pizza received an A+ all around.

Thin-crust flatbread and sweet basil marinara pepperoni pizza ($12) received an A+ all around. Enough cannot be said about the thick, juicy and tantalizing Italian burger with mozzarella cheese, served with fries ($15).

Those who enjoy big, meaty chicken wings (6 for $11) can have them mild, medium, hot, Parmesan and garlic, or Caribbean jerk. I was sorry we ordered Parmesan and garlic rather than a traditional Buffalo sauce, which I think we would have enjoyed more.

Who can resist a dessert called nonna cake ($11)? It’s a layer of pastry, a layer of lemony filling and another layer of pastry with whipped cream and nuts.

There are so many items on this happy hour menu, but we had to stop there.

At Trattoria Dario in Vero Beach, not enough can be said about the thick, juicy and tantalizing Italian burger with mozzarella cheese on a grilled bun.
At Trattoria Dario in Vero Beach, not enough can be said about the thick, juicy and tantalizing Italian burger with mozzarella cheese on a grilled bun.

Happy hour is usually limited in restaurants to their bars. Dario’s bar offers various seating choices with high tops and convenient booths for a larger party. We were a group of three comfortably seated at a high top. Items came out of the kitchen at a nice pace, allowing us to share a dish and then begin tasting another.

For the purpose of writing this column, I limited everyone to the happy hour menu, but the regular menu is very tempting as well. So much so we will soon be back to have the beggar’s purse!

Trattoria Dario

Maribeth Renne dines anonymously at the expense of TCPalm for #WhatToDoIn772. Contact her at maribeth.d.renne@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Restaurant review: Trattoria Dario Italian restaurant in Vero Beach