| rev:text
| - I enjoyed a pretty good lunch at Cibo e Vino a couple of weeks ago, so when friends called and wanted to go out for dinner Friday night and were open to suggestions, this is where I suggested.
Oh, dear.
We arrived at 5.45 to take advantage of HH prices and were told there was no dining seating available on the patio, we would have to eat inside. Bummer, 'cause it was a gorgeous evening, but it WAS Bike Week. So we sat at the bar to have cocktails---we were told we'd be seated in about 10 minutes. Good, we're hungry.
At 6.30, one of our DC's (DC=Dining Companion) went and lassoed the young hostess, who said "five minutes more". Ten minutes later, DC went back in AGAIN and she must have been firm, because the hostess came out to collect us, only to pause and then say: "Oh, wait, there's another table I need to seat first." DC nailed her with a steely glare and the child gulped and led us into the dining room, where only half the tables were occupied. (WTH?)
We should have stayed out at the bar and just drank. Walking into that dining room was like walking into a wall of heat. And there was a chemically smell---the other of our DC;s, a former builder, guessed it was whatever finishing product they used on the (very attractive) back wall of reclaimed wood. I mean the restaurant looks very nice. You can tell they did it on a budget, but I actually like that better than an over-the-top place (plus there are ideas I can steal, heeheehee)
Our waitress came. We commented on the heat and she agreed: "It's hotter in the dining room than the kitchen!" But I have to tell you, this young woman provided stellar and personable service throughout the night---she was a bright light in an otherwise dim evening.
The bread that was brought to our table was good---nothing special. Everyone was starving at this point, so we skipped the appetizers and went straight for meals. DC #1 ordered the chicken parm and a dinner salad, DC #2 ordered The Bartlett Pizza and dinner salad, DH ordered a pepperoni and onion pizza and dinner salad and I ordered the Tuscan Risotto and Caesar salad.
Salads came out pretty promptly, were fresh, but again, nothing special. Just nicely dressed salads, fresh, with decent dressing.
Entrees arrived in a timely manner as we finished our salads---nice pacing. Unfortunately... DC #2's pizza was dead cold. On the other hand, DH's pie was bubbling hot and he said it was pretty darn good. (Is their new pizza oven too small to bake two pizzas at once?) So The Bartlett was sent back to the kitchen for a reheat and DC #2 urged us to go ahead and eat so our food didn't get cold.
Like I said, DH liked his pizza. He said he would put it on the positive side of a 1-10 scale---maybe a 6.5-7? DC #1's chicken parm---well, the chicken was well cooked, but the tomato sauce ladled over it was very acidic---not well balanced at all, and DC #1 did not like it. Oddly enough, the spaghetti that was the side was tossed with an entirely different sauce that was actually pretty good! (I tasted both sauces and there was a very noticeable difference!) As for my Tuscan Risotto. I really should have sent it back, it was so disgusting. Look, if someone back in the kitchen had a lick of sense, it could have been a delicious dish---sausage, green and red peppers, onions, and, of course, arborio rice. The rice was really well cooked. Tender but with some bite. But there was so much cheese mixed into the risotto it was a nasty, greasy mess (see photo---that yellow blob about six o'clock on my plate is a puddle of grease), and once my meal started to cool, all that cheese started globulifying and it was just...gross. I think I ended up eating scarcely 1/5 of a $22 dinner, once I had removed enough and all that yellow-y grease started oozing. Like I said, I should have returned it. Instead, I actually allowed Nice Server to box it! (What was I thinking?) As for DC #2, when his re-heated pizza was brought out to him, it was now hot, but dried out. He ate one piece and then had it boxed---he probably did what I did, which is just dropped the carry-out container into the garage garbage can when I got home.
I am not sure why I am giving this place 2 stars, except DH liked his pizza and our server was such a sweetie. But I probably won't go back---at least not to eat.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)