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jpk8216

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Everything posted by jpk8216

  1. Hello all, Just wanted to know if anyone had been to Mesa lately...Do you have any recommendations? My fiance and I are going soon... Thanks
  2. Hi, Just wanted to thank you all for your replies. As most of you suggested, we went to Beacon and I have to say that I agree with your assessments. There was a lot of charred meat on the menu and that suited my parents just fine. I enjoyed the meal there but it is not a restaurant that I would go to again. I started with a pured celery root soup with star anise and lovage which was pretty ordinary and lacking in consistancy and flavor...and it was luke warm...I hate that. My parents both ordered the arugala salad with potato crisps and parmesan shavings which was good but very simple and unimaginative. For the entree, we all had the Grass fed steak with onion herb relish which was a very nice sized piece of meat that was well charred on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. The relish and the baby greens which garnished the plate were excellent...One really stupid thing annoyed me about the main course...the steak knives had the restaurant's logo nicely inscribed on the blade but I have eaten with butter knives that have been sharper. I cannot enjoy steak if I have any difficulty cutting through it...stupid but I really bothered me. The sides that we ordered to accompany the main course were at best ordinary. The roasted baby potatoes tasted like they were boiled or thrown into an oven without even a touch of salt (although my mom thought they were little and cute ) and the sauted spinach with garlic and red pepper flakes was not worth the seven dollars that they charged for it. Overall, I believe that the restaurant is not meeting its potential. The three level dining room is gorgeous and the service is good but the food is in some desperate need of inspiration.
  3. Hi everybody, Next week, my family and I are taking my mom out for her 60th birthday. We are going to a play and are opting for prix-fix pre theater dinner. After checking out Zagat's list of restaurants, we narrowed or choices to either Beacon or Aquavit. Only problem, my parents don't really enjoy modern cuisine and are content with Boulder Creek Steak House... Which of these restaurants would you recommend? Any other suggestions?
  4. jpk8216

    Il Cortile

    I have never been to this restaurant but Cafe Napoli in Little Italy is also fantastic...
  5. Tommy, You said Babbo was one of your top five...what are the other four...
  6. Hey everybody...my name is Patrick and this is my first time writing...I was reading what you all wrote last night before my fiance and I went to Babbo for our 11pm reservation and I thought it was hilarious!!! You were absolutely right about the MD, he seemed like a real prick and the girl with the long blond hair was much nicer...Thanks for the warning, she gave us a table at 10:40 which was nice because we had not eatin since lunch. Everything I have ever heard about the food was true but I think the decor of Babbo is breathtaking. It might not have the Disney land feel of Vong but it is gorgeous inside. We sat on the upper level of the restaurant near the center table where the wine service was done...which by the way, if anybody understands what was going on there, an explanation would be greatly appreciated because I never saw anything like that before. Although I was tempted to take someone's advice and go for the marinated sardines, I tried the goat cheese truffles with the pepper caponata which was very rich and my fiance had the grilled octopus with the limoncello citronette. Both were fantastic, my only gripe was that there was not enough bread on the plate to fully enjoy the goat cheese. I had to bother the bus boy for bread which was the freshest and most rustic bread I have ever eaten. Out of the two, I would definitely go for the octopus because it was incredibly tender and dressed to perfection. When the pasta course came, my fiance enjoyed the pumpkin lune with the sweet amaretto and sage butter sauce. This pasta was so sweet, so delicate that I could have eaten it for desert. The texture of the pasta and the filling were exquisite. I tried the mint love letters (thank you for the old english translation) with the spicy lamb sausage which was exploding with spice and the fragrant flavor of mint. I enjoyed it because I never tasted anything like it before but the mint was a bit overpowering for my taste. The main courses at Babbo are breathtaking. Once you dabbled with the appetizers and the pasta, the wait for the main course is exciting because you expect it to blow your mind and it does. I tried the braised short rib which was cooked to perfection. I could have eaten it with a spoon because it was absolutely falling apart in the creamy polenta which it was served on top of. The fresh horseradish and parsley gremolata was so interesting to an aspiring foodie like me that has never tasted fresh horseradish before. Yet my fiance out ordered me again when she got the grilled skirt steak with pickled onions and salsa verde. WOW!! I loved it and the grilled endive that it was served with was so unusual that I am going to spend $3.99 on a small piece of endive when I get home to try and replicate it...like that would ever happen. Once our dinner plates were cleared, it was about 12:30 in the morning and we chose to pass desert and opt for cigarettes in the car because there is nothing like a smoke after such an amazing meal. THANK YOU for all of your insights and humor. I look forward to actually having enough money to dine at a restaurant like Babbo in the future so I can share it with you. Later.
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