Davios: Completely Frumpy.

My husband and I seemed to have struck out the past two years when we dine out to celebrate our May wedding anniversary. (We were originally married in May 2004 at City Hall, but we didn't have a wedding until July 2004. We celebrate both days.)

Last year we ate at Icarus, here in the South End. That place was stuffy. The food wasn't bad... But the ambiance was B-O-R-I-N-G. It's a place (I think) for senior citizens to go and dine. Plus, it seems like a lot of Boston restaurants I go to, the lighting is awful. It's TOO bright. Icarus has awful lighting.

So this year, we vowed to get it right for the May anniversary dinner. But it appears we chose un-wisely.

This year we chose to eat at "Davios." This was bad.

I should have sensed just walking the place, as the front door was difficult for me to open, that we needed to not go in. Then we got to the hostess stand. They were under the impression that we would be a four-top, rather than a two-top. They seemed a little perturbed that we were only "two." But we made the reservation for "two."

"So they can suck it," I thought.

And you can kinda of get the sense as to what kind of ambiance a restaurant is going to have by usually looking at the hostesses/hosts. The hostesses at Davios were frumpy.

One was tall and skinny. She had seriously gelled, curly hair. And she wore a very short black layered skirt and a Lycra whit tube top, with cork edges with white leather straps. It didn't work well together.

Another one wore a suit with a blazer that did not match the fabric of the pants. Both the pants and fabric were black, but each appeared to come from a very different dye lot of wool. Plus, the blazer had sleeves that were way too long for her. And she wore clunky black loafers with it. She was a very fit girl. There are probably a million other things she could wear that are inexpensive and would have looked fabulous on her.

The third hostess was just a "no" period. She wore black capris that were flared; and she paired it with a black velvet blazer that had a "corset" type closure at the wrists. The corset closure was tied with white shoe-string material. It was a bad look.

So we sat for dinner. And I thought Davios was an Italian type place. But they had an eclectic mix of cuisines on the menu. We each had a starter (rocket salad for me and steak egg rolls for the Husband). Then we each had a pasta selection for dinner. Both of our choices were bad.

Mine was very novice... A pasta bolgonese... Which is just pasta with a rich red meat sauce. (I have meat on weekends.) It's not difficult to make. I make a GREAT pasta bolgonese. But the one Davios makes, it was bland." Even my husband though it was "bland." And he has a very plain palette when it comes to food. (Doesn't like anything to rich or spicy.)

The Husband had pasta with chicken, bacon and a cream sauce. It was bland too. So we opted not to even peek at the dessert cart, given that dinner was bad.

And the ambiance at Davios was not ideal. The lighting was not romantic or even platonically intimate. And it tries to be an upscale place, but the table next to us rolled in a Bugaboo stroller with a little (though cute) baby girl. Fine dining places don't exactly scream "kid-friendly" to me.

So I do not recommend eating at Davios. It's generic. And frumpy. My husband and I ate at PF Chang's last night, and our meal was ten times better than the one we got at Davios... And it was about $60 cheaper

To make up for a bad dinner, though, we went over to Finale, a dessert bar just a block away from Davios, afterward. And that was a tasty and cool experience. I definitely recommend Finale. But Davios...

Hell no.