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| - First the wine. We've been here a number of times before and consider their wines to be reasonably good, as Pennsylvania wines go. We outgrew sweet wines in the 70's, so at most PA wineries our choices are limited. It seems that as dry wines go, white wines seem to do best in our climate, and among white wines, the Riesling grape stands out. Despite this observation, at Narcisi we usually drink Stella, one of their red wines. At their wines great? No. Are they good? For PA, yes, but not up to the quality of California, Washington, or Oregon. Mostly they lack the complexity you find in better west coast wines, but other than that they are pretty well made, pleasant and easy to drink, if somewhat simplistic.
Now for the food. This afternoon I had their braised short rib. It came with risotto. It was decent, but nothing special. My favorite place for this dish is at Lidia's. This fell well short of Lidia's in terms if flavor. The risotto was also ok, but nothing special. My wife ordered their steak salad which earned style points for presentation. My wife was impressed with the amount of filet she got on her salad (4 oz.). She said it was perfectly cooked medium rare, as she ordered it, had no gristle, and melted in her mouth. She would order her meal again, while I'd try something else, perhaps something less ambitious, like a pizza. We shared bread pudding for desert. It was large, and came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and pecans. Quite yummy! For me though at least, the jury is still out on the food. Maybe next time I'll have something that impresses me and earns another star, but for today it was only average.
Service however was excellent. Our server who took great care of our party of 6 to 8 people throughout the afternoon and early evening. She had a very natural friendliness about her without being intrusive. I felt like I had known her for years, yet she didn't hang out at the table telling us sad stories about how miserable her life was.
Pros: Outdoor patio (weather permitting), ambience, service
Cons: Acoustics inside (we came to hear Jamie Wright perform and I didn't care for how he sounded inside their cavernous dining room), noise level inside (even with no music).
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