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| - I really wanted to like Forte more than I did. I went in optimistic and came out kind of disappointed.
Part of it was just bad luck. My wife ordered a diet coke and got light brown water because the fountain was down and the server hadn't noticed. She instead ordered a mango juice only to find that they were out. So she had a peach juice instead, which was good but tasted a little bit too much like canned peaches for my tastes. I ordered a mojito. It was plenty strong, but the bartender didn't use enough sugar and the mint was pretty obviously on its way out. I also don't think it got much of a muddle, if any.
The first thing they bring out foodwise is their house-made bread, which was nice and flavorful, especially dipped in the olive oil which is fruity and fragrant. There is a little wooden boat with herbs for the oil, only we weren't provided a spoon so it was difficult to use it. Not a big deal. We managed.
We ordered the pelmeni, vareniki, serrano and manchego, and garlic herb fries. The fries were tasty and they brought plenty of them, so if you're looking for filler it's a good bet. The garlic could have been a little stronger, but I'm kind of a garlic fiend so take that with a grain of salt. The pelmeni were juicy and delicious and the dumpling wrappers had bite and weren't waterlogged. The manchego and serrano was good, but I would have appreciated the ham being cut into pieces so we didn't have to hack the thing up every time we wanted some. It came with some alcaparrones (caperberries) that added some vinegar contrast to what is otherwise a fatty/salty dish.
The vareniki themselves were tasty, but the fried onions that came on top weren't fried - they were burnt. Instead of deliciously caramelized onions, I got black chunks of carbon with some residual onion flavor. Since the vareniki have a delicate flavor on their own, it overpowered the dumplings and killed the dish.
One other thing: the seating is mostly low cafe tables, so you end up kind of hunching over to get at your food. I think we'd have enjoyed it more sitting at one of the tall bar tables or even at the bar itself.
We're going to give the place another shot, because I don't think anyone should rule out a restaurant based on one experience, but this one wasn't entirely positive.
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