Tuscan Kitchen (Ryan)
Some supplemental comments --
I agree completely on the bread...it was marvelous dipping bread, with an interesting olive oil dipping sauce that was much thicker than the usual array of dipping material. Tasty though, and the garlic was very subtle, unlike the completely overdone garlic at Three Tomatoes.
The waitress was exceptional, very cheery and involved, and when she asked us how the food was it was like she actually genuinely cared whether we liked it or not as opposed to just asking a rote question. Wait times for food nearly cancelled this out though -- even at the end, when we were practically the only people in the restaurant, the dessert took 10 minutes to get there and it's not like they had to bake us a cake or anything. I'm sure that stuff is in the back and they just have to slice it, present it, and then bring it out. My dessert was excellent, a chocolate mousse cake drizzled in chocolate with bits of cheesecake scattered through it. It need not be mentioned that my blood sugar suffered for this, but I did eventually recover.
The place where we were sat was very scenic, lots of wood and glass archictecture to say nothing of the stonework ("Hey that's some really nice stonework", lol) which was also quite good. It was, however, very open and un-private and I'm not sure I cared too much for that. I think it was partly bad luck of the draw but with no walls or dividers or anything, the tables were spaced a little too close together -- you could hear adjacent conversations and that was uncomfortable because it also meant they could hear ours. Not that we were plotting world domination or anything, but it's the principle of the thing ya know? I mean open seating is fine and all but you need to put enough space between tables to give some degree of privacy...and they rather failed on that count.
Pasta...I don't even remember what I had, to be honest. The name, I mean. I think it was called "Harvest Tortellini"? Anyway it was tortellini in some kind of sauce with some assorted oddities in it, notably cranberries, to give it a unique taste. Unique is about all that I can say in favor of this dish. The tortellini was lovely, but the sauce was a major downer. I mean it was a great dish...but just not for me. Not up my alley; I'm sure someone else with more of a taste for that kind of thing would have enjoyed it. So it was good quality, don't get me wrong...I just picked the wrong item off the menu, perhaps. To me the failing of the sauce was mainly that I think they tried to do too much with it, where if they had simplified it a little that would've gone a long way to improving the dish. There was a confusion of flavor, if you will. Which is fine, if one dominates and the others complement it in a nice harmonious blend. But here that was not the case. Too many flavors all vying and no one particular one standing out.
I should observe that I think the bill Ty put out is including the tip for the waitress so I think it was actually a little cheaper than that? 48 sticks in my mind for some reason.
I agree completely on the bread...it was marvelous dipping bread, with an interesting olive oil dipping sauce that was much thicker than the usual array of dipping material. Tasty though, and the garlic was very subtle, unlike the completely overdone garlic at Three Tomatoes.
The waitress was exceptional, very cheery and involved, and when she asked us how the food was it was like she actually genuinely cared whether we liked it or not as opposed to just asking a rote question. Wait times for food nearly cancelled this out though -- even at the end, when we were practically the only people in the restaurant, the dessert took 10 minutes to get there and it's not like they had to bake us a cake or anything. I'm sure that stuff is in the back and they just have to slice it, present it, and then bring it out. My dessert was excellent, a chocolate mousse cake drizzled in chocolate with bits of cheesecake scattered through it. It need not be mentioned that my blood sugar suffered for this, but I did eventually recover.
The place where we were sat was very scenic, lots of wood and glass archictecture to say nothing of the stonework ("Hey that's some really nice stonework", lol) which was also quite good. It was, however, very open and un-private and I'm not sure I cared too much for that. I think it was partly bad luck of the draw but with no walls or dividers or anything, the tables were spaced a little too close together -- you could hear adjacent conversations and that was uncomfortable because it also meant they could hear ours. Not that we were plotting world domination or anything, but it's the principle of the thing ya know? I mean open seating is fine and all but you need to put enough space between tables to give some degree of privacy...and they rather failed on that count.
Pasta...I don't even remember what I had, to be honest. The name, I mean. I think it was called "Harvest Tortellini"? Anyway it was tortellini in some kind of sauce with some assorted oddities in it, notably cranberries, to give it a unique taste. Unique is about all that I can say in favor of this dish. The tortellini was lovely, but the sauce was a major downer. I mean it was a great dish...but just not for me. Not up my alley; I'm sure someone else with more of a taste for that kind of thing would have enjoyed it. So it was good quality, don't get me wrong...I just picked the wrong item off the menu, perhaps. To me the failing of the sauce was mainly that I think they tried to do too much with it, where if they had simplified it a little that would've gone a long way to improving the dish. There was a confusion of flavor, if you will. Which is fine, if one dominates and the others complement it in a nice harmonious blend. But here that was not the case. Too many flavors all vying and no one particular one standing out.
I should observe that I think the bill Ty put out is including the tip for the waitress so I think it was actually a little cheaper than that? 48 sticks in my mind for some reason.
posted by BenesHacha at 11:35 AM
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