Archive for the ‘Restaurant Reviews’ Category
O Ya: Oh Yeah!
t says: We wanted to go to Cape Cod for k’s wedding last year – we were excited for the event and had also never been to the Cape before! But, when planning our trip, we had a big decision to make … With limited funds, we could either stay in a mediocre hotel and eat a medicore meal the night before, or stay in a very “inexpensive” hotel and splurge on dinner. As you might have guessed – we went for option 2 (that’s just our style). I’ll spare you the details of the hotel, as they are not appetizing (but g and I were fully prepared – we had brought our own soaps, towels, pillows, and sleeping bags – we could have just slept in our car), and just tell you about dinner.
We read that this little restaurant called O Ya was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in all of Boston. It was new, trendy, and tasty. What really interested me was the type of cuisine – a modern take on classic Japanese (sashimi with a twist). We had never had raw fish that had been “fooled around with” so extensively. Well, that’s not completely true – we had had ceviches, but this promised to be an entirely different animal altogether.
9/2009, Friday Dinner, Party of 2, Chef’s Tasting Menu. The chef’s tasting menu is supposedly created “on the fly”, however, we found that it was essentially composed of several options straight from the normal menu. The format was 18 courses, but each was either one or two bites of food per person. But, because these were “bites” of sashimi/nigiri, they were large bites. With so many courses, there’s no way that I’d be able to even begin to remember them all. There were oysters and squid and fish and kobe beef and truffles and even foie gras. I wish only that I kept a copy of the menu or the receipt so I could give you more details. In summary, this meal was the intersection of decadence and raw fish. And the depth of flavors were so expertly coupled with fish – there was everything from bright citruses to deep truffles. The kobe beef was superbly cooked, and the chocolate-foie gras dessert (it’s pretty much an obligatory dish should you go – they’re famous for it) was both intriguing and actually quite tasty – and I must confess that I’m not a huge fan of foie gras (it reminds me of butter+tofu).
As much as we loved the dinner, there were a few cons in the meal. I felt that salmon made far too many appearances (?4?) for an 18 course meal. Additionally, by course 14 or 15, we kind of really wanted a nice slice of “plain” fish in lieu of the doctored creations put out by the kitchen (n.b. anyone expecting classic Japanese sushi/sashimi is going to be severely disappointed with the entire experience) – I just needed to press the reset button once because my palate was getting a little tired.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience – we’ll remember it as our first trip together to Boston and a great preamble to a wonderful wedding. But, I don’t think we’ll end up going back anytime soon … unless someone else is paying.
Sampan: The Old, the New, and the Inexpensive
t says: Our recent poll ended in a tie, so we were left to choose where to go for g’s birthday on our own. After much thought, we decided to save a few bucks (we’ve been eating out a lot lately) and ventured through the rain to 13th and Sansom to Sampan – the pork banh mi was calling our names (as we’d had it once before – review here). Speaking of which – we don’t actually know if it’s pronounced “pork bahn mee” or “pork bahn my”… if someone knows their Vietnamese foods, please let us know!
3/2010, Wednesday Dinner, Party of 2. Because it was raining, we couldn’t get a cab. Because we couldn’t get a cab, we going to be late. Because we were going to be late, we had the irrational fear that the kitchen would close or something like that. Fortunately, problem-solvers that we are, we called to notify the restaurant that we were going to miss out 8:30pm reservation by about a half-hour and the hostess said that it wouldn’t be a problem. When we arrived, we were promptly seated at the bar overlooking the kitchen. Some people might not like sitting in barstools side-by-side – and normally I agree – but this time we were 4 feet away from one of the cooks and definitely within reaching distance of the food . We could watch as the dishes were prepared and feel the heat from the kitchen on our faces! It was like dinner and a show!
We ordered a pork banh mi, crispy brussels sprouts, and the Korean rice cake dish. The pork banh mi came out first. No longer clad in plain kraft paper, rather, a stylish paper with “Sampan” printed all over it, it still bore the blue painters’ tape. That made us smile. But the sandwich was a little different this time …
g says: For some reason i remember it being larger last time – perhaps it was because then it was cut in quarters after being wrapped, hiding the sandwich’s true size. Or maybe it was all mental, as I knew that Michael Schulson was at the restaurant during our first visit and I hoped he had prepared it himself (he was at some kind of speaking engagement this past night, I believe). It had a little less of that interesting mystery sauce and the bread wasn’t as fluffy, but it was still yummy, and just enough for me. Birthday girl was happy, what more do you want, t?
t says: I agree with her assessment – it was still a very delicious sandwich, and it coupled extremely well with the crispy brussels sprouts, which were still awesome. These two are still on our list of things to try if you go. They cut the sandwich into four pieces when they serve it, so it’s totally share-able.
The new dish for us was the Korean rice cakes. I must confess that I was hesitant when considering this dish as I feared that it would not meet my expectations. For instance, when we ordered pad thai last time, it was a little different than just pad thai; their rendition was lighter and more lively, but lost some of the classic pad thai appeal that I wanted. So this time, I had to ask myself – did I want Korean rice cakes done the traditional way, or did I want them the Sampan way? I eventually realized that all I really wanted was the actual rice cakes (I really like rice cakes as a starch in a meal), so I ordered it. Good decision. I think this is a great example of Sampan’s interpretation of a dish working out splendidly. Now don’t get me wrong – I did like the pad thai, but I didn’t love it. This dish, I loved. The rice cakes are kind of like a gnocchi in texture, but sliced into oblong coins. They were in a spicy sauce with some kimchi, sausage, and what I assume were chiles and scallions – there were some other ingredients that I didn’t easily recognize. In sum, the dish still resembled the hot-and-spicy rice cakes from my younger years, but the other flavors were like swapping out some Gregorian-chanting monks for a rockin’ gospel choir. For me, this dish was equivalent to the pork banh mi the first time we had it, and actually surpassed the banh mi we had this time. That said, not everyone will appreciate the Korean rice cakes – for instance, I think that g’s not too crazy about the taste/texture of the cakes, themselves. They’re almost like a pasta, but not really. They’re probably closest to rice noodles (e.g. drunken noodles at Thai places), but they’re thicker, so they’re a little gummier in the mouth and you actually taste more of the noodle, itself. On top of that, if you’re not comfortable with spice, then this is not the dish for you. It’s not SUPER-spicy (we have some friends/family that would laugh in the face of this level of spice, and we have yet to have something at Sampan that’s too spicy), but if you consider yourself a spice-wuss, then avoid this dish.
For dessert, we went for this interesting pineapple-coconut themed concoction. There were three tea cakes (which contained toasted coconut), topped with a pineapple compote, topped with a scoop of coconut ice cream, topped with a slice of ?dried? pineapple (looked like a mohawk). It tasted very good – but we wished that the cake:ice cream ration was a little lower, as the cake was a little dry. Sadly, the chocolate bomb was no longer offered.
Service was good throughout the meal. Random staff who weren’t our waiters stopped to ask how our meal was going – we felt well taken care of (although we did have to wait a while between the pork banh mi and the rice cakes).
Our meal was $40 before g’s glass of Australian bubbly (she really likes the bubbles), thus the final bill was cheaper than two tickets to the flower show! Defray the cost with our $20 opentable.com dining check (kaching!) and we just went to dinner for less than 1 person during restaurant week (kaching-kaching!). BUT … were we full? Indeed. We were stuffed. In fact, we were so stuffed that g started sneezing. For those who didn’t read the “why sneeze” page, g sneezes when she’s full (hence, the name of this blog). She’s not a huge fan of sneezing in general and especially dislikes sneezing in public, feeling that it draws attention to herself. Well, tonight she had the usual satiety-induced multi-sneeze bout (they don’t come rapid fire – there’s 20 seconds or so between each). She was totally embarassed, but even moreso than normal given our proximity to all of the food! Don’t worry … g does a good job covering her mouth.
Melograno: Our Nearby “Go-To” for Italian
t says: Ah, Melograno. You’ve never given us a bad meal. You’re BYO, and you’re within walking distance, thus saving us cab fare. And your pastas … there’s just something about your pastas …
We’ve been to Melograno four times, and g and I alone have had 7 pasta dishes. The first time we went, I had a special of the day – a braised short rib pasta that was to die for – it actually was the reason why I had to find a recipe on how to cook short rib pasta at home! The third time we went there, g ordered another special of the day – a lamb ragu pasta – another genius dish (now I have to start cooking some lamb). And then Melograno sprinkles in those “weird” dishes – we once had a mushroom and pear “lasagna” as an appetizer (g says: actually, I think it was peach, not pear) – it was such a great idea and so close to perfection (the textures of the ingredients were a little mismatched – the pear [peach?] was a little lost).
But of course, we need to be fair … Melograno has had some issues. The cheese plate (which we also had the first time we went) was an atrocity – they need some cheese guidance up in there (and this is coming from a guy who knows absolutely nothing about cheese). We haven’t tried it since for fear that it hasn’t improved (but maybe it has – who knows!?) Also, they had a pasta carbonara on the menu that totally misled one of our pork-loving friends (their version used anchovies as the salty protein in lieu of pancetta) – on one hand it might have been his fault for not reading the menu – on the other hand, it could have been their fault for not printing in bold letters the lack of pig in the dish (someone’s gotta take the fall). Finally, the portion sizes are a bit small, which is definitely not helped by the fact that they serve their pastas in ridiculously large dishes, so anything seems small the moment it hits your table. Additionally, I firmly believe that they have somehow calculated exactly how much pasta it takes to fill someone up adequately and don’t give a single noodle more; I’ve never been hungry after eating there (but I’ve always had room for dessert – luckily Capo Giro is right there), but I’ve also never had leftovers (g has had leftovers once). While most are ok with not having leftovers, if you consider that other Italian BYOs are ~25% less expensive (e.g. La Viola) and give you a bit more food, you really have to ask yourself what you want out of a meal. Is the taste worth it?
We recently realized that we had not gone to Melograno in a while – with all of the new restaurants we’ve been trying, we had forgotten about the old goodies. So, what we needed was an excuse to go. Aha! People’s birthdays! Excellent excuse! We got together a party of people and looked forward to some good Italian …
2/2010, Sunday 5:30pm, Party of 7. We got together a party of 7 (there were some birthday friends among us) and headed out to Melograno at the geriatric time of 5:30pm – it’s the easiest way to book a table this large. The original reservation was for 9, but we had two last-minute cancellations – it was an opportunity to see if they could roll with the punches (although I guess a real challenge would have been reserving 7 seats and then showing up with 9 people). The hostess (actually – I think she’s one of the owners?) looked at me kind of funny for a few seconds after I told her that we needed to change the number, but after contemplating what I was saying, she said that she thought it would be fine. She left to go adjust our table (they had just pushed together a bunch of tables along a wall for us, so she just separated a two-topper) and was back in a flash to let us know that, if we wanted, we could be seated before the rest of our party arrived. We were happy to hear this, as we’re so “over” restaurants making parties wait until everyone’s shown up when it’s clear the table’s ready, and moved to colonize our own little territory of the restaurant. It’s a good thing we did – 2 of our party didn’t show up ’til 6 (but we still love them).
We ordered an antipasto plate for the table – it was fun to pick at. Overall, it was a solid antipasto with a selection of grilled vegetables (e.g. eggplant) cured meats, mozzarella, and pickled vegetables (g especially liked the celery). Personally, I think Mercato does it better (theirs is a little more “rustic” – I still remember the grilled peppers – mmmm), as does Vetri (duh), but Melograno’s wasn’t bad at all – definitely leagues ahead of La Viola.
I ordered the pasta carbonara. WHAT? Pasta carbonara? Did I not just whine and complain about this dish in the second paragraph? Yes, I did. But this time was different. While I was browsing the menu, I noticed that Melograno had swapped out the anchovies for pancetta in their pasta carbonara (too many fooled customers?). It was a sign – they were begging for a chance at redemption. I knew I had to try it – that and there was no lamb pasta of the day. When it came to my plate, it looked plain – a neat clump of off-white spaghetti against a large white bowl. My eyes were not amused. But then I ate it. It was the second best carbonara I’ve ever had (the first best was made by our pork-loving friend that I mentioned above – that’s right, a home chef still holds the title). Melograno’s pasta was perfectly cooked, there was just enough sauce to cover the noodles, and the bits of pancetta were nice little meaty surprises. It was a very rich dish, so, in retrospect, I’m happy there was only as much as there was – if there was any more, I would have eaten it and been unable to move.
k was also at our meal with us. A Melograno virgin, she maximized the number of things she’d taste by ordering two appetizers as dinner. Her first was the roasted portobello, which I sampled. It tasted quite good – a little more umph than just a mushroom, but I didn’t hear her say “holy crap”, which I’m pretty sure I’ve heard her exclaim about food in the past. For her second, right before she ordered, we had an interesting discussion:
k: What is carpaccio?
t: It’s really thinly sliced raw meat.
k: But this says pear carpaccio …
t: Oh … ummm … really thinly sliced pear? or are they going to hide meat somewhere?
It turns out that it’s thinly sliced pear, an aged balsamic, and micro-greens. k liked that dish as well, as [I feel that] she’s a huge fan of a good aged balsamic. I kind of wished I had seen that on the menu because it definitely seems like something I’d order.
d was also at our meal. After seeing him at this dinner, I can say with complete confidence that he has a food obsession, which is surprising because he normally “keeps it real” and thus seems like he’d be immune to crushes, obsessions, and fetishes. I figured he would “like” a lot of things, and maybe even “love” some things – but no – these terms cannot even begin to describe the affection he has for Melograno’s pappardelle tartufe. This pasta dish seems simple on the menu. It has mushrooms (shiitake, button, and portobello), truffle oil, cheese, and walnuts. See? Simple. But, you know what – if there was a woman who could make this dish like Melograno (or maybe even only half as good), I’d bet he’d make her his wife … like, tomorrow. But you better act quickly, ladies – I hear he’s going to start trying to make it, himself …
g says: I can’t remember the name of my dish, but it was a spaghetti-like pasta with some olive oil, grated cheese, and fresh cracked black pepper. That’s all. And it was AMAZING! Sometimes I need something simple to satisfy my cravings for homemade italian – it resets my palate, bringing it back to a baseline standard for greatness.
Also, all that jazz about t being so picky-picky — you can take that with a grain of kosher salt because this place is certainly one of our favorites. It has delicious food, pleasant atmosphere, and plenty of space to breathe (not like many other tiny Philly BYOs which can cause claustrophobia). And their bathrooms are pretty darn nice, I must say. Bravo to them!
t says: In summary, Melograno did a fine job. Everyone seemed satisfied with how everything tasted – there really weren’t any complaints. I’m happy that pig is back in the carbonara and that they’re still experimenting with interesting appetizers (I guess they have a thing for pears?). I do wish that they would have a dish featuring their namesake, the pomegranate. Yes, they do have some in one of their salads (and I had a few seeds in my water – but no one else did – weird!), but I’m hoping that one day they have some sort of melograno appetizer that every first-time visitor just has to get. We had good friends and good food (and good service – I didn’t really notice them, so I assume they were good) – we had a great time. Nevertheless, we didn’t stick around for dessert – Capo Giro is less than half-a-block away.
Giwa: Homely Korean
t says: g and I desperately wanted to go to Zavino for some free wine (while they lacked their liquor license, they were offering patrons two free glasses of wine with purchase of food). Anticipating that everyone else also wanted free wine, we figured that we’d go during the first night of our second “big” snowstorm in Philadelphia. Dumb idea. Everyone else figured that, too. Turned off by the 2 hour wait, we went out looking for a new place to go. We eventually remembered that there was this small Korean place that we’ve been wanting to try called Giwa. We trekked on over through the falling snow and got there safely – it was small, but inside it was warm and not precipitating, so we were happy.
2/2009, Friday Dinner, Party of 2. Giwa’s dishes are not “fancy” or “fusion” Korean dishes – they’re plain ‘ol Korean (with a little bit of polish/pizazz cuz the place is still new). The selection isn’t huge, and perhaps it’s more geared towards a lunch-ish crowd, however, most people, Korean or not, will find something on the menu. I recognized quite a few menu items, so g and I were in good shape.
When we first sat down, we were presented with an assortment of tiny little dishes of various items, pickled and not. This is test #1 for any Korean place – how is the kimchi. Giwa’s was pretty good. I ate it. Theirs had a little more funk than I like, but I’m sure the older crowd (i.e. mom) would like it.
Our first dish was the Haemul Pa Jun appetizer, or, as it was called when I was young, “the Korean pancake”. That name’s a lie – it’s not a pancake – it’s more like a seafood-pizza-pancake hybrid. Imagine you take some seafood, mix it in some pancake dough, and fry the dough into a large disc on a frying pan, cut it like a pizza, and then serve it with a soy sauce based dipping sauce. It was very good. They didn’t skimp on the seafood and the dough still had good crisp – two common problems with haemul pa jun in restaurants. Note that this appetizer is definitely large enough for two people – I’d say more like 3 people (we had plenty leftover).
For my main dish, I had the eel dolsot bibimpap, which is not available for take-out – only for eat-in. The dish comes out in a super-hot bowl. It has rice, veggies, eel, and a delicious spicy sauce that you mix together as the bowl heats the ingredients and browns the rice, giving it a nice flavor (like when you sear a steak to get the outside nice and caramelized). It was hot and spicy and had a lot of different textures and flavors – I liked it a lot. Actually, I would take this dish over every other rice- or noodle-based dish I’ve seen at fancier Asian fusion restaurants (including Morimoto). In my mind it had the same soul-soothing quality seen in Sampan’s pork banh mi, except for a larger quantity (although it does cost about twice as much). It’s just so simple and hearty, especially on a cold day. (n.b. there are a lot of things that those other fancier places do better, however, like having raw fish or desserts).
g went for the kimchi fried rice – it was good, but a little “blah” because it was a lot of rice and super-finely-chopped ingredients, so it was texturally monotonous. It was more like a dish that everybody would share some as a side rather than one person eat all of. But, then g stole some of the spicy sauce from my dish, and she felt the fried rice could take center stage. I guess her dish just needed a flavor that was more dynamic than what it had originally.
In summary, I’d highly recommend Giwa for some not-fancy food. If you’re afraid of spice, there are still things to eat, like bulgogi and dumplings. Also, you could just use less spicy sauce in your dolsot bibimbap. The dishes will come in around the same price as pastas at La Viola, but for me, I’d take dolsot bibimbap over anything at La Viola, so I have a clear personal winner. And for those who might not have such nostalgia attached to Korean food, I think it’s still inexpensive enough to give it a whirl.
Kanella: Doing the Robot …
t says: g and I anticipated a weekend without any plans, so we decided at the last minute to go out for a date night! We visited Tria first, which was delightful as always. And, after we each had some wine, a bit of tete de moine cheese, and a salad featuring grilled asparagus, white bean, and artichoke, we headed down the street to go to Kanella. Kanella (transl. cinnamon) has gained some attention recently – a lot of people on chowhound enjoy it, claiming that it was one of the best BYOs in the city, and, as I found out right before we went, a dish was going to be featured on Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate”. We didn’t know which dish it was, but were happy to go and check out Kanella’s dinner.
2/2010, Friday Night, Party of 2. When we arrived at the restaurant for a 9:30 reservation, we were told that they were running a bit behind. So we, and at least three other couples, crammed ourselves into the super-tiny entrance-way (it was very cold outside, so we stayed indoors). While some of the other waiting people were getting frustrated, I was still happy from the wine I had at Tria. After the first half-hour, I could only laugh that we were still waiting while no patrons had left the restaurant (we figured someone would have to leave for us to move in). The hostess was super-apologetic for the wait (she apologized every five minutes), but there clearly was nothing she could do. Then, she came with a dish of the grape leaves appetizer “from the kitchen”. Then the chef came out and apologized, bearing a plate of the fried halloumi cheese appetizer. I have to admit that g and I weren’t particularly impressed with either of these. The grape leaves had a nice sour punch, but the stuffing was quite bland. The cheese was just that … cheese. But, these aren’t the kinds of appetizers that we would have ordered, anyhow, so we were happy to try something different and greatly appreciated the sentiment. Eventually we were indeed seated – we were the last couple they were seating that night, so we had a nice four-seater to ourselves. On our way in, an older couple dressing to leave commented, “don’t worry – it’s worth the wait!” We hoped so.
When we sat down, we were greeted by a very friendly waiter. He was super-enthusiastic about the food here, so that was great! But things changed a little when we asked him which dish was being featured on the Food Network. He kind of rolled his eyes and admitted that it was the Cyprus Breakfast. Later on, when I returned home and googled it, it turned out that the Cyprus Breakfast had been garnering quite a bit of critical acclaim recently. The waiter said that he was shocked that it was the dish getting such favorable comments, as he felt other dishes were superior; we appreciated his honesty. But then he commented that they would get a LOT of people asking for it at breakfast, referring to them as “robots”. During our conversation, as another server passed by, ours broke conversation and said, in a robotic voice, “cy-prus-break-fast”, to which the passer echoed “cy-prus-break-fast”. Apparently it was a common joke among the servers that patrons mindlessly order the Cyprus Breakfast. I felt a little awkward by this exchange as I felt that even if it is a “simple” dish, if people are willing to pay for it – who cares? Also, had the dish been a dinner dish that I could have ordered, I think I would have been one of those robots they were making fun of. This possibility led me to conclude: if you like something else better, then that’s all you have to say – you don’t have to put down patrons – have some tact! *steps off soapbox* So, that put a sour taste in our mouths to start.
Having had some food at Tria and also the “ok” appetizers we were given while we stood, we decided to go straight to dinner. g ordered the pork tenderloin with chickpea fritters while I had the lamb with some sort of orzo concoction (?giuvetsi?). g’s pork tenderloin and my lamb were good; they were cooked well and seasoned well, but they just didn’t sing to us – it’s hard to be pleased by a pork tenderloin after having had one at Cochon. But perhaps the meats being only “good” was not the fault of the pork or the lamb or the chef, rather, it was the fault of the orzo side on my plate – it was fabulous. We agreed that it was the most delicious thing on both of our plates. It was rustic and tasty – it could have been a dish by itself. And there was so much that I brought some home and reheated it for lunch the next day – it was still phenomenal (so I knew it wasn’t just the wine talking the night before).
Before our entrees were cleared, we had another odd encounter with our waiter. He dropped by specifically to ask g if the pork “was too rare for her” – but something about the way he said it didn’t make it sound like he was being helpful, rather, being critical – I interpreted it as, “are you too much of a wuss to eat pork the way it’s supposed to be cooked?”. The answer was no, the pork was fine and she was just full, but I was tempted to say “no, it’s just too unremarkable for her to eat the rest”. I bit my tongue and let her do the talking (she doesn’t even remember this happening, so perhaps it wasn’t that big of a deal) …
For dessert, we had their assortment of ice cream which included cinnamon, coffee, and pistachio. The cinnamon ice cream was absolutely delicious – the cinnamon flavor wasn’t overpowering and the texture was great. The coffee and pistachio were also very nice and worked well with the cinnamon – we liked these ice creams very much.
So, all in all, we had an “good” meal at Kanella. There were two shining lights (cinnamon ice cream and the orzo). As for whether the rest could stand up to Kanella’s reputation – maybe it was a rough night in the kitchen with how busy they were? Maybe the attitude of the service influenced our perception of taste? Maybe we were just too full from Tria? I don’t know. But I do know one thing … we will be going back … for the cy-prus-break-fast.
Pepe’s Pizza: Makes Us Happy As Clams
t says: One day I told one of my bosses that I was driving to and from Cape Cod for a wedding. His immediate comment was, “You should stop by Pepe’s pizza in New Haven.” Well, maybe it wasn’t the first thing he said (I’m sure he said other, more normal things like, “why?” or “have a safe trip!”), but it’s definitely the comment that stuck out in my mind. Not one for superlatives, my boss claimed that Pepe’s pizza is the best pizza. Now, I didn’t inquire whether he had gone to New York, Chicago, Italy, etc and tried their pizzas (although he was in New Haven for a bit, so maybe he just feels it’s better than that other famous place to get pizza in New Haven), but for such a positive testimony, I knew that we had to go. He did attach one caveat, however (I knew there was a catch): “you have to like clams …”. What a peculiar thing to say?
9/2009, Sunday Lunch, Party of 2. On our way back from Cape Cod, we took the exit to New Haven. Google maps had surprisingly good directions with the exception of a single left turn onto a street that was not marked (that wasn’t google’s fault, that was New Haven’s fault). Sensing that there was going to be a wait, we called ahead of time and ordered a pizza as I was instructed: “White Clam Pizza”. It’s a good thing we called – Pepe’s was mobbed. People were waiting outside to get in. The parking lot was full. Fortunately, we just wanted to pick-up instead of eat-in, so we walked in the express-door, told them we were there, and watched the show while they prepped our pizza. It’s actually quite impressive how big their pizza-sliding-device is. We picked up our pizza and dashed out the door, not looking up at the eyes in line staring us down for our food. We jumped in our car and locked the door (it is New Haven, you know). We drove off to a nearby park we spotted on the way in and sat down to have a picnic-bench-lunch. Here is what we saw:
Say hello to my little friend ... Frank Pepe!
It's heart-shaped!!
How did it taste? Well, I actually will admit that if you consider this a pizza, then yes, this was the best pizza I’ve ever had! The crust was a smidge thicker than the thin crusts at Osteria, but it was still nice and crispy. There was lots of roasted garlic, and those clams were oh-so-tender. I still wonder if they put raw clams on the pizza and let the oven cook them or if they cook them before the pizza goes in. In any case, if you like garlic, cheese, and clams, this pizza will blow your mind (and I like all of those). However, some might say that this is not a pizza – no tomato sauce! Clams? Blasphemy! So, maybe it’s unfair to call Pepe’s the best pizza I’ve ever had (I mean, how can I compare it to others?) – but it was certainly a delicious thing. I’m glad we ran out because I’m pretty sure I would have eaten myself sick … Next time, we’ll try out the other pizza place (?Sally’s?).
Osteria: More Than Pizza
t says: We loved our visit to Vetri – everything was superb, from the moment we walked in to the moment we walked out. That said, we wished for a similar quality of food, but for less expensive dishes, like pastas and pizzas, as g and I are not yet bawlers. Then we heard of Osteria, a second eatery by Vetri that promised just that: delicious pasta and pizzas. So, when an out-of-town friend came to visit, we took her to Osteria (actually, she treated us, which was very kind of her).
1/2010, Tuesday Dinner, Party of 3. Despite an 8:30pm reservation, we had to wait ~20 minutes. Normally waits don’t bother me, but the place just didn’t really seem that “packed” (and open tables were in plain view), so I just didn’t know the cause for the wait. Fortunately there were seats at the bar so took the opportunity to relax and get reacquainted. As we made chit-chat and ordered some of their mixed drinks (I had an espresso martini – it was ok), we looked around and took in the space … there was a lot of it! I guess I would have never guessed that a place with rustic foods could occupy such a large venue – both by square footage and by height – then again, it’s a little out-of-the-way, so there’s probably a location-space trade-off.
We were seated at the table, and, after perusing a menu of very appetizing-sounding dishes, we opted for … surprise … some pizzas and pasta. We placed our order with our slightly awkward server and waited with excitement, enjoying the bread and oil they had provided. The octopus pizza and the margherita pizza (gotta try the classic) were both delicious with perfectly-thin thin crusts. The octopus was still tender, and the margherita, despite being so basic, sung tomato and basil. Our friend’s side of kale was a nice complement to the pizzas. I, on the other hand, had the potato gnocchi in a mushroom sauce with piave vecchio. I was flabbergasted by the texture – it was so soft and airy, but not mushy – perhaps a little more dense than the gnocchi at vetri, but the lightest potato gnocchi I have ever had (I got the spinach gnocchi with the brown butter at vetri). And the sauce was perfect – mushroom flavor without overpowering the other herbs and cheese. I found myself trying desperately to slow down sending the gnocchi to my mouth – they were so good. I will confess, however, that I wished there were more on the plate for $16 …
Desserts on the other hand were hit-and-miss. We ordered the chestnut crepes, but found that there was just too much honey for the chestnut flavor to handle. The polenta budino with hazlenuts was spot-on; it was a new dessert to me, and one I hope to try out at other places, too (if anyone else serves it).
In my opinion, the pizza was very good – I look forward to trying out the other combinations on the menu. However, the possibility that the other pastas on the menu could be at least as half as good alone warrants a second visit. Now if only they were BYO …
after dinner sneeze 