Woah - this place literally came out of nowhere for me. I knew it would be fairly good, probably on par with the other solid Italian places like L'Apicio or Dell'Anima, but I was extremely impressed with my meal here. Everything from the service to the appetizer to the pasta and most importantly, the dessert was fantastic. The waitress started off the meal by describing all the specials and they did indeed sound very special - especially the suckling pig entree. I wasn't really in the mood for a pig meal but it really did sound delicious. Instead, we opted to start the meal with the fried artichokes and lemon ($14) and I ordered the Fettuccine alla Bolognese ($23), my mom got the poached cod ($28) and Aarti got the Cacio e Pepe ($16) and we split a side order of the wax beans ($8).
The fried artichokes were great - very crispy and slightly charred on the outside but still tender on the inside. I'm usually not a huge artichoke fan but if they were all made like this, I would totally eat it all the time. Next came the pasta and it smelled and looked amazing from the get go. This one was served with a delicious pork ragu. The sauce was a bit heavy for the summer but I couldn't stop eating this pasta. Everything just worked really well with each other - the pasta, the sauce and the meat. I didn't try Aarti's pasta but she mentioned that while it was good, she actually liked her pasta dish at Babbo more - which isn't really a slap in the face for the pasta but more of an observation. She just thought that her pasta here was a tad too salty. I also didn't get to try my mom's cod but she also said that it was really well done and enjoyed her meal throughly. The one disappointing part of the meal was the wax beans. They were overcooked and didn't have that crisp snap that I like with beans and it was also over salted. This dish (along with Aarti's comment about her pasta) is probably the only reason this place didn't get the 5 forks.
I was pretty full at this point but it's really hard to turn down dessert at an Italian restaurant. And boy, was I so happy that I didn't turn down dessert here because the chocolate croissant bread pudding ($9) was f*ing mind blowing. Hands down the best dessert I've had in a really long time. I was a bit nervous that the croissant part would be dry or flakey but the whole thing was incredibly moist and amazing. Everything about it was spot on and what dessert should be. I probably should have mentioned that it also came with hazelnut gelato which was a fabulous complement to the dish. All in all, I was really impressed with my meal here - even more so that my meal at Babbo. Total bill: $41/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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