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| - I am so damn broke. Damn you Mario Batali & Joseph Bastianich.
We stayed at the Palazzo so we figured... we might as well choose a restaurant within the property and finally decided on Carnevino. The restaurant itself is pretty big and we were brought all the way to the back, which was nice since it wasn't as loud as the main dining room and the high ceiling definitely makes it a nicer place to dine at.
After looking through the menu, the server somehow convinced us to go the "family-style" way, which is priced at a minimum of $100 per person but he would have the chefs prepare the top dishes in each course to share: 5 appetizers, 4 pastas, and 5 different cuts of meat. He also guaranteed that we would not go hungry even though it was 9 guys.
It ended up as one of the most expensive meals but pretty legit. They started out by bringing rosemary infused bread that everybody gets with 2 kinds of spread: housemade butter and flavored pork back fat. Yes, pork back fat, aka lard. Don't be scared cause it was amazing haha.
For appetizers, they brought out:
1. Insalata Caprese - amazing caprese salad with thick slices of heirloom tomatoes and a mozarella & cream combo called burrata.
2. Grilled Octopus - freaking amazing. I never had octopus that tender and the limoncello reduction over it was genius.
3. Fried Calamari - common item... but damn when it is done this well, I don't want it anywhere else.
4. Hanger Steak Carpaccio - special of the night and pretty much a pile of arugula with a delicious steak carpaccio underneath and over it.
5. Affettati Misti - selection of house cured meats with a variety of grilled peppers. The pork belly seriously just melts in your mouth.
6. Grilled Foie Gras - umm..... yes yes yes. I think they drizzled a balsamic reduction over it too. Crap.. I'm seriously drooling right now.
As for the pastas, each dish are all appetizer servings but if you want, you can add $15 more to make it into entree size. All the pasta dishes are much more about the ingredients. They brought out:
1. Potato Gnocchi Bolognese - just.. really really solid gnocchi with a really good bolognese. Wish there was more bolognese though.
2. Puttanesca - olives, capers, and anchovies with penne. Simple but so good.
3. Beef Cheek Ravioli - beef cheek = one of the most tender cut of meat ever and they even drizzle aged real balsamic over it. Yea. Heaven.
4. Black Truffle Pasta - when this came out, I was just... at a loss for words since it had real shaved slices of black truffle all over it rather than the typical truffle oil you see at many places. The spaghetti itself with made with extra yolk too so the texture was amazing. Favorite out of all.
For the meats, they bring it all out and they carve it off the bone right in front of you:
1. Veal chop - tender, perfectly done. The bone-in probably gave it extra flavor.
2. Dry-aged Bone-in Ribeye - I love the seasoning and the crust. Italian seasoned steaks is just good eating. I still think Gallagher's dry-age beef is better though!
3. Lamb Chops - ok this was the best lamb I've had. I'm not a big fan of lamb because of the gaminess, BUT somehow it's all good and it is absolutely amazing.
4. Pork Chop - done medium well, and the way it is brined gives what seems like a really boring piece of pork good flavors.
5. Maine Lobster Tail - they only brought out one so it was kinda hard to share among all of us but... it was buttery goodness! hahah.
They also brought out two sides: mashed potatoes with marscapone & guanciale (type of unsalted bacon) with raw egg yolk mixed in, and sauteed mushrooms & onions. Both were perfect as side dishes.
At first we were afraid that we weren't gonna get full since the appetizer and pastas' portions were not big at all but after everything, we couldn't finish all the protein and it ended up being the perfect late night snack after XS :P
If you come with a big group, definitely think about getting the "family-style" since you'll get to truly taste what Carnevino is all about. Just expected to drop... quite a bit of money especially if you order wine and after the 20% gratuity charge.
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