| rev:text
| - Oh dear. This new place has tons of good intentions: lovely hosts and servers who enthusiastically explain how they are presenting "authentic Italian street food" and that you should feel like you've "walked down a small alley in Tuscany" (note: Tuscany is a region of almost 4 million people, not a small town). The menu includes an extensive list of amari (after-dinner cordials, including many that are hard to find in the US), a good selection of Italian wines, and some really appetizing-looking dishes.
The problem is all in the execution. Basically, everything - the food, the decoration, even the presentation - feels like someone went to Italy for a week's vacation, made a quick note of everything they liked, and tried to replicate it at home without any further research or training. Some of the appetizers were very good, like the salumi plate or the whipped lard with truffle; but there were also missteps, like serving the aforementioned lard with a dense, strongly flavored, seeded bread that would be more at home on a German or Danish table than an Italian one. The mains were even more problematic. The porchetta, announced as the house specialty, was basically a pork roast wrapped in a ring of fat. The outside of a porchetta should be crispy and crunchy - and scored, to loosen the fibers of the meat - and should be cooked so that the fat renders into the meat inside. In Talia's version, the pork skin and belly on the outside are rubbery, fatty and inedible - something to be removed and discarded before eating the insides. Also, porchetta should be thinly sliced and is usually served on a bun (this is, after all, street food, even at $26 a pop). This version was a big thick slab, closer to a massive pork chop - which again made it rubbery and hard to eat.
The worst culprit, though, was the "pizza." I've traveled from the Alps to Sicily, and never once had pizza that looked like this. The crust seemed to be made of phyllo or some kind of savory cardboard. The sauce was caked on, and the cheese was greasy and rubbery - all sure signs that the oven is not hot enough for pizza. Even my kids wouldn't touch it...
I'm genuinely sorry that this review comes off as snarky. I admit to being an Italian purist, and maybe my expectations would have been different if this place hadn't been so loud about its "authenticity." My suggestion: hire a real Italian for a month as a consultant, and have him/her put your house in order. Have them correct the spelling on the menu and teach the waitstaff how to pronounce the names of dishes. At $120+tip for an underwhelming dinner, I don't plan on going back anytime soon...
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)