Trattoria La Siciliana (Berkeley)

[Pan]

I was taken to Trattoria La Siciliana for dinner today, by a friend who has dined there frequently and is a friend of the chef/owner and his family. We had a very good meal.

We started with some good sour dough bread and a dipping sauce that was so tasty I would have enjoyed it over noodles. We then shared some delicious Caponata con Crostini, which was mainly fairly large pieces of eggplant fried in olive oil. We also shared Melanzane Impanate, which was (were? after all, the name of the dish is plural) quite nice. I enjoyed the tomato sauce a lot and sopped up some of it with bread.

We then had primi piatti - Rigatoni Cosa Nostra for me and a dish I can't find on the menu right now (also rigatoni, as I remember, with a tomato/cream sauce and prosciutto - perhaps it was San Giovanella, and it was pancetta rather than prosciutto, but the description on the online menu seems off when I read it). My rigatoni was made with a pesto plus a bit of tomato, but this wasn't a typical thick pesto, but instead, a more liquid, very green-tasting one, and very good. If anything, my friend's dish may have been even better.

The portions were big, and I had previously had a large dim sum lunch at East Ocean in Alameda (which was good, though not mind-blowing), so secondi were impossible. We did get dessert - good Tiramisu' for him, good Bomba (basically, molten chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, so not so interesting) for me.

I was also given a bit of delicious Limoncello on the house.

So you see that we were given VIP treatment, but take that for what it's worth. I don't think you can fake the quality of the meal, and everything being served to others looked just as good as what we ate.

From their business card:

Trattoria La Siciliana

Authentic Sicilian Cuisine

2993 College Ave

Berkeley, California

(510) 704-1474

Website:

http://www.trattorialasiciliana.com/

And a bit of a heads-up:

The chef/owner told us that he will be opening up a deli in Emeryville in a month or so, and it might double as a wine bar in the evening. I'm sure their panini will be well worth checking out.