Monday, July 25, 2011

Cafe Milano

This past weekend we went to Cafe Milano in Georgetown to celebrate Diana's birthday. And you know, I was pleasantly surprised! Perhaps it was the perception-expectation gap, but I thought it was a downright solid meal. I hate to make yet another comparison to Kinkead's, but CM was to Italian was Kinkead's was to seafood. (See my earlier review if this doesn't make sense! :) )

They put us in a weird spot in the center of the restaurant, which was kind of awkward and super noisy. Our waiter swung between being very attentive and not, but overall did alright by us.

Of course, most important is the food. The bread--I had read a couple yelp reviews that said the bread was amazing. I thought it was fine. A little heavy, but overall not bad. The olive oil was totally pedestrian, which was a bit of a disappointment for such a well-known Italian resto. There are SO many good oils out there, this should not have been hard to do well.

Things looked up from there. P and I split the baby artichoke salad, and they divided it between two plates (which is not done often but which I sincerely appreciate). The salad was a bit aggressively dressed, but not offensively so, and the flavors were simple and clean. My entree was the whole wheat tagliatelle with asparagus, oven-roasted tomatoes, and ricotta; the pasta is made in house and was cooked to perfection: on the chewier side of al dente. They were also generous with the vegetables, which was certainly a welcome change from the usual vegetarian pasta dish. P got a special for the evening, the roasted sea bass with peppers, which was super flavorful, if a teensy bit overcooked. (We think both dishes sat under the heat lamp for a while--my pasta was so hot when I got it I nearly burned my tongue). The portions were a decent size too: enough so you could clean your plate and not feel like a pig but also not go home hungry.

A few folks ordered dessert, and they brought Diana a gratis bday pound cake. These I was totally underwhelmed by, but these days I expect to by disappointed by restaurant desserts. So, no damage done there.

Definitely better than Dino! (portions x-posted to yelp.com)

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