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| - This was surprisingly good a few years back, and it held up on this long-awaited revisit.
Flour & Barley is a pizza-focused Italian restaurant that's been holding down the 1st floor space below Brooklyn Bowl in the middle of the Linq Promenade for quite a few years now. Considering their location, they do seem a little pricey, but their $20 Restaurant Week menu was affordable enough to entice a small group of us here today for lunch. Nobody delved into the craft beer (about 6 on tap and many in bottles/cans) or other alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, so we managed to keep costs down.
Kale & Arugula Salad: almost certainly a reduced portion compared to the regular menu salad ($12), but still a masterful showcase of delicious, fresh arugula. They really do not mess around with the arugula here, so if you don't like its ubiquitous flavor for some reason, then avoid it. The toasted pine nuts were the most notable of the accoutrements, for texture of course.
Meatballs: smooth, seasoned well, juicy spheres of beef, pork, and veal. Salsa verde is an interesting choice and works for me. Two meatballs for the Restaurant Week menu, compared to the three meatballs on the regular order ($13).
The Big Apple (normally $15.50): traditional pepperoni pizza and no skimping. Every bite will have pepperoni. The grease really adds up though, and it softens up the crust a little. It's the heaviest of the pizzas which we shared and made me want to dig into a salad.
Mushroom Pizza (normally $16.50): a better showcase of the crispy crust. Delicious mushroom and restrained truffle oil usage, and more delicious arugula. Definitely would consider getting this again.
Verdure Pizza (normally $16.50): it's as meat-deficient as the Mushroom, but this is a lot more boring. There isn't really a sauce or anything other than the base of tomato sauce. I wouldn't get it again.
Mini Cannoli: great flavor and texture between the crispy shell and the fully cream-filled interior. But why was one end dipped in just pistachio and the other in just chocolate chips? How about making each end half and half so that I don't have to do pull off the weird lengthwise multiple bite play to get both in one bite?
One interesting twist to the meal was that we had one person suffer the misfortune of getting two full glasses of water spilled all over her by one of the servers. Fortunately, the staff was quick to clean up and General Manager Ryan threw in some meatballs and several other comped food items to make up for the indignity:
Crispy Brussels Sprouts ($12): an amazing, balanced bowl with crispy deep fried individual leaves of the Brussels sprouts, nice and soft diced potato, smoked bacon, and a sunny side up egg on top to boot.
Calamari Fritti ($14.50): I like the calamari and the accompanying roasted tomato aioli. The battered peppers are kinda fun, but after a while, you realize that they're so common that they're being used as filler. However, I'm actually okay with the frisée at the bottom of the bowl for the added texture. It was the only component that held up in a to-go box.
Pizza French Toast ($14): honey ricotta and cream cheese instead of mozz, maple syrup instead of tomato sauce, and plump, ripe berries as the toppings? Oh my. It's a brunch menu item (Saturday/Sunday 11-2) that's as good as it sounds, and it's not too sweet.
I will add that there was one more service concern: it kinda took half an hour or more to get the mini cannoli out for whatever reason. I wasn't in too much of a hurry, but others at my table were irked and it's just not a good look.
I'll have to consider coming back to Flour & Barley if I have a pizza craving and am stuck on the Strip; perhaps happy hour deals and other offers would work too. It's a pretty good restaurant that hasn't stuck around for no reason.
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