rev:text
| - You're kidding right. As close to authentic Italian as I am (I'm Asian).
RANT: Even in the black chip world of Las Vegas, charging twice as much as anyone else does not mean the food is twice as good. $22 for a personal Margherita pizza? $22??? The best example I had in Italy, from a widely acknowledged top pizzeria rated by professional food reviewers, 7 ($9). And yes, it was more than twice as good.
The menu reads well with dishes from Toscana, Lazio, and Campania. Ordering done. Anticipation builds, then WTF, bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Italians would never commit such a culinary faux pas. The producers of either great ingredient would sooner see it run down the street then mix them together. Not a good sign.
The springtime Roman classic, fried artichokes. They should be well trimmed, fried golden brown. The contrast between the bitter, crispy leaves and sweet tender heart makes the mouth all kinds of happy. NOT HERE. Half cooked, inedible leaves around an undercooked heart. Bitter and vegetal in all the wrong ways.
The pizzas hailing from Nappoli, decent ingredients, properly blistered, crust well seasoned with a decent chew. So what's wrong? Rustic is one thing, plain sloppy is another. Margherita had 90 percent of the cheese on one side of the pizza. The desiccated, burnt basil on the other. The prosciutto with asparagus had all of it's ingredients centered in the middle with a two inch wide crust all around.
Finally, the wines. This is an enotecca right? So Roman food, no wines from Lazio. Limited selections from Campania (Nappoli), Tuscany well represented. Vegas resort prices.
Euro contemporary ambiance. Servers lack energy. Italy, still half a world away.
|