You'd think that I would be sick of eating Italian food after my recent trip to Italy but it's actually been the exact opposite. I have been craving good Italian food ever since I've been back so when Aarti and I decided to get dinner and she suggested I Sodi, I was all over it.
I've walked past I Sodi tons of times but have never been inside. I got there was 6:30pm on a Friday and I thought that it would be early enough to snag a table but the only available seats were these two tiny, cramped seats at the bar. It would have been fine if no one was sitting by us but shortly after I sat down this slightly larger older couple sat down next to me and I was literally pressed up against them and the bar and it was a bit uncomfortable. I get that the restaurant was trying to accommodate as many people as possible but they also need to realize when there are just too many people at the bar. Then the couple proceeded to ask the waitstaff if they could just make them spaghetti and tomato sauce or a pasta primavera. The only reason I bring this up was because I was totally appalled but the waitstaff was so nice and patient with them that it made me feel really bad about being so b*tchy. They gently told them that whatever is on the menu is that they serve but that they would be more than happy to help them with the menu. It was amazing how sweet they were to them despite how awkward the conversation was. I will say that the crowd here does lean more towards the older crowd, but there were a few 30 something couples here on dates too. It's just a much more subdued crowd here.
Since they were so nice, Aarti and I decided to ask them for their opinion too. I am on an artichoke kick lately and we were interested in the artichoke salad but the bartender told us that he really liked the fried artichoke side ($11), so we decided to go with that. For a starter, we went with the microgreen salad with parmigiano cheese and balsamic vinegar ($12). It was a great light starter salad. The mache greens didn't have a whole lot of taste to them, they seemed kind of like pea or bean shoots but it was totally fine for a light bite. For pasta we opted to share half sizes of the ravioli ($15) and the cacio e peppe ($12). I'm glad the bartender steered us away from the full size because when the pasta came out, the half size was more than enough food. I usually don't order ravioli in most places because it's normally like 3-4 giant pieces of ravioli and seems like not enough food. But not here. Even though it was only a half size, there was at least 10 pieces of ravioli (they were mini raviolis but still there was a lot of them). The inside was stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and served with butter, sage and lots of cheese. The dish was incredibly rich and decadent. The cacio e peppe was also wonderful. I usually opt for pastas that are more saucey but when I was in Rome a lot of my friends were raving about how fantastic the cacio e peppe was that I felt like I Sodi was the right place to try it outside of Italy. Essentially it's spaghetti with pecorino and black pepper. The pasta was so soft and clearly homemade and there was the right amount of pecorino cheese (lots of it) and pepper (not too much of pepper, it was pretty subtle) that I would totally get it again. I still like my pasta with traditional tomato sauce but this was definitely a winner in my book too. If I had to pick one dish that I didn't super love, it was the fried artichokes. I envisioned it to be large chunks of the artichoke fried but instead it was super thin sliced artichoke leaves. It just didn't have the meaty texture or flavor that I think is the best part of an artichoke. It just kind of felt like I was eating thinly fried dough.
In true Italian tradition, even though we were both stuffed to the gills, we had to order dessert. We opted for the hazelnut semifredo which honestly was good but it was a bit too hard and frozen at first to enjoy. Plus I think we were just pushing it too much because I don't think either of us were really in the mood for more food. The reasons I give this place 4.5 Forks are the really the pastas, the fantastic and empathetic waitstaff and a mean mean pomegranate martini ($14) that even almost knocked me off my feet. Plus all of this food was a very reasonable $50/pp including tip and tax.
Photo Credit: Yelp
No comments:
Post a Comment