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| - 7-Eleven, Stop & Shop, Costco, Carnevino - I love self-explanatory business names. Meat and Wine? Yes please.
Ambiance:
More old world Italian than steak house feel - we preferred the smaller side room, decorated like a library - quieter for conversation. Though, its open door and proximity to the hall was weird and made it feel less private.
Service:
Our server was SUPER friendly, professional, attentive, and knowledgeable about all the menu items and food in general. If he were older I would have guessed he was one of those career waiters.
Food:
Everything is pretty heavy handed with salt and sugar, so be warned. I'm good with it, but some people might find it a bit much. Their wine list is about the size of the table.
- Bread - Average ciabatta. Gotta love Batali for serving lardo as a standard spread, though the way it was seasoned had an off finish that was kind of yucky.
- 3-cheese fried cicchetti - Complimentary, but too salty, not cheesy enough.
- Grilled octopus - smokey, acidic, delicious the best thing we had.
- Spago w/ lamb ragu - the small portion is perfect for a one person app. I don't do lamb, but took this on a recommendation, it was not bad - but by no means Batali's good pasta, go to NYC for that.
- Sweetbreads - Very good - I love it when they are not battered. they were juicy, a bit smokey. The polenta cake (or something like one) and grilled corn were SO good.
- Semifreddo - Very smooth and I like the pistachio brown butter, but super sweet. Nice with the chocolate crumbs underneath. Good, not great.
Overpriced? Yes, by about 20%. Dining here is just another expectations thing - at the end of the day, B&B are the restauranteurs, not the chefs. Unlike my disappointment with much hyped Osteria Mozza in LA, I expected nothing here, and was pleasantly surprised.
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