We went tasting at Tahona Mercado, but we didn’t eat dinner beforehand. So after all of that mezcal, we needed some food in our bellies before heading home. This meant a late dinner which is a bit unusual for us old folks. I did a quick search to see what was nearby on Google Maps and this looked like a decent enough place.
We walked in a bit after 9pm (their closing time was 9:30pm, although a party of 8 or 10 with a reservation did come in right around then). For starters, Andrea opted for the caprese salad and I went with the Tartare Della Rita (filet mignon tartare). Food came out relatively quickly which was good. Andrea liked her caprese even if she thought it was a bit too salty (capers), but I was fine with that, although the out of season tomatoes (not their fault) were not great. My tartare was decent, although I was expecting more flavor from the beef, but perhaps because it was filet which is very lean (I’m a ribeye type guy…fat is flavor), that’s just the way it is.
For our mains, we both went with pastas. Andrea went with the Raviolo Carbonara and since they did have white truffles available from Alba, Andrea asked to have that as a supplement on hers. I opted for the pappardelle Lamb Ragout. My dish was decent and had not complaints since it was pretty much delivered what I was expecting. The winning dish though was Andrea’s. It was interesting to have carbonara in a raviolo, but I am a sucker for a creamy, eggy dish and the fried bits of guanciale were flavor bombs (not subtle and perhaps even a touch strong for the dish, but a bit of a guilty pleasure to be sure). The truffle appeared fresh although I didn’t get much aroma or flavor from it.
It was kinda funny/obvious that there was a couple of attractive women at a table alone and the chef gave them a lot of special attention, lol. He basically didn’t spend any time at any other table and spent all the time talking to them (didn’t see him in the kitchen) and was just sitting down next to them by the time we were leaving.
Andrea liked the meal overall more than I did, but either way, it served it’s purpose to fill our bellies without offending our palettes after an evening of mezcal tasting.
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