Black Truffle Carbonara Tagliatelle, sitting at the top of the menu at $18.99, had the honour of being my lunch today. Garnished with healthy grating of parmesean, pea shoots, a raw egg and grated black truffle, this sizeable dish certainly looks to be delicious, but was it?
After combining the egg with noodles (which I thought was more fettuccine than tagliatelle), I dug into the quite sizeable portion, whereupon my first bite revealed not a fresh, perfectly al dente pasta, but a formerly dry noodle that spent an extra thirty seconds too long in the bath. Pushing aside my disappointment, I turned my attention to the unmistakable delight of black truffles which single-handedly carries this dish (and also dominates over the other flavours). While containing pancetta, a raw egg and cheese, I found the flavour of the sauce to be single dimensional, with consistency on the looser side. A little more richness to better bind the sauce to the noodles at the beginning, instead of leaving a pool at the end would have been welcome. It isn't to say that this dish wasn't good, but the potential is there to be great.
In terms of service, our party was a large group of nine with five other tables of two in the restaurant. Our dishes came out staggered, with the first diner finishing before the ninth diner received their meal. This was explained to us that there were only two chefs in the kitchen and as a consolation, we were offered a gratuitous drink - a choice of lemonade or blue raspberry lemonade. I chose the latter, but received (what I am sure was) blue koolaid instead. Recommendation: forego this.
In general, the size of each dish is quite large (ravioli notwithstanding), and the value for each is quite high. With that in mind, if you come with the expectation of an average meal at a reasonable cost, you would not leave disappointed. Just don't drink the koolaid.