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| - I thought this place was called Aioli, and was thinking it was a pretty funny name for a restaurant unless you have a thing for garlic mayonnaise. I'm not a linguist, but a google search tells me that alioli means the same thing, the spanish version of italian aioli. Not sure what they intended with the name, but the garlic was very prominent in my meal.
Service was very homey. Our waiter was like my baba, dishing more food from our antipasto plate onto everyone's plates. You couldn't say no, and your plate and wine glass kept being filled so you lost count of just how much you had. Our group was very large (I think there were 17 in our party), and they managed to get our dishes out together and mostly without mishap. An order of veal was overdone, and was quickly replaced with a very rare replacement.
The antipasto misto, frutti di mare & prosciutto alla grillia plate had a wonderful variety of vegetables, mozzarella, calamari, shrimp and several prosciutto rolled around cheese and arugula. It was a great way to start the meal. My tortellini alla fungi was delicious, but the garlic was overpowering, which for this garlic lover is rare. The portions are huge! My dinner companions were helpful on sampling the tortellini I couldn't finish, but there were still a few left after my plate made the rounds of our table. They have a good variety of desserts, coffees and liqueurs to finish the meal. My limoncello was crisp and cold, I tried it to see if it met the glowing descriptions I've heard for this lemon infused liqueur. It was good, but I may need to travel to Italy to understand why some think this is like sunshine in a bottle. The cheese plate included fig jam, three variations on pecorino/parmigiano reggiano, walnuts, grapes and cracker style bread sticks. A bit light on the cracker options and I prefer more variety on the cheese front. I have yet to be wowed by truffle being infused in anything and in this case, the truffle did not stand out against the strong cheese.
A great spot for a group or romantic evening, excellent food and service.
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