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| - I was in town for work for the day and a colleague brought me here for lunch.
Nice ambiance, understated but comfortable.
The food was very nice, we split an octopus salad which was quite delicious -- very thinly sliced octopus which I believe was simply poached and served over arugula with a light oil and vinegar dressing.
My host ordered the gnocchi, and when I saw porchetta on the menu, I knew I couldn't NOT order it.
The gnocchi were superb, I'm used to a heavier dumpling (which I think are more Argentine than Italian), but these just melted in your mouth, and were served quite simply in a butter sauce with parmesan and sage.
I'm used to porchetta being Roman street food, as a sandwich. This was a slice served over a bed of wilted greens (perhaps broccoli rabe, but with the stems mercifully removed). The fillng was the usual rosemary, garlic and other herbs. The drawback to me was the fact that the fat surrounding the roast was pretty thick, and a bit hard to discern between the muscle. My first bite was mostly fat. Once I figured it out, though I was able to trim the portions before taking a bite. The meat itself was nice and tender.
An espresso rounded off the meal. I dislike the trend of serving single shots in a demitasse . . . it doens't look chic, it looks cheap. Fill the cup!
I thought service was polite, if a bit unpolished . . . if the aim is to try to redefine Italian away from the much-maligned (but to me beloved) Southern model of red-lead sauce, meatballs, lasagne, and the like, the menu should be perhaps a bit more descriptive (and avoid using the "EVOO" abbreviation if you want to be taken seriously) and the staff trained on the basics of standard Italian pronunciation! The restaurant isn't called "CHEE-nato," it's "kinATO," and both my colleague (a full-blooded Italian) and I paused when the waiter repeated my order as "porch-etta." Mamma mia!
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