Tavolata

A breezy evening in search for a meal brought us to the doors of a darkened elongated hallway of a room. Lights flickered ethereally, brining an eeriness to the high industrial ceilings. The beech-wood benches that stretched through the room gave a welcome respite to the dark – and the sounds of the kitchen and gentle murmurs of the crowd brought it all together.

Our happy little troupe all thought the same thing: we have found our place.

A relatively small, yet prolific menu – we found ourselves poring over everything – unable to decide on just 1 dish. Eventually we decided it would be best to go family-style and share everything. A plate arrived with a bulbous piece of bocconcini centred upon it, with sundried tomatoes and green olives littered about – a lone stick of grilled bread jutting out above it all. It was amazing. The bread was grilled perfectly with the olive oil meshing in to accentuate maximum flavour. The cheese and tomatoes altogether gave us a welcome start to the meal.

The pastas then came. Not huge portions by any means, but just right for these night-worn hungry travellers. Garganelli dressed with a strongly scented almond parsley pesto; surreal orecchiette mixed with the earthen pair of mushrooms and sage; a creamy tagliatelle carbonara. The garganelli was very strong – perky really, a welcome taste for a day that had started early, and was going longer. The orecchiette dish lost a lot of its depth of flavour due to an overabundance of salt – each bite of mushroom provided plenty of flavour – not necessarily the right kind though. The tagliatelle was warming in the way only a homemade carbonara can – very tasty and flavourful in its simplicity.

It’s funny how the road can take us in circles, yet at the end, we always end up where we need to be.

This was high on my to try list and it definitely didn’t disapoint! They serve family style over three courses. There were four of us and we barely finished 3 Firsts, 3 Seconds and 2 Thirds. We should have just gotten one Third.

For the 3 Firsts, we ordered the Mozzarella, Baked Oysters and Grilled Octopus. The first two was really good, the Octopus was a bit chewy but still very tasty.

We then ordered the Spaghetti, Rigatoni and Linguine, this was the best part of the meal! I don’t think I have ever had such amazing pasta in my life, perfectly Al Dente style. I think I will order more from the Seconds the next time I go.

The Thirds were the most disappointing part of the menu, though it still wasn’t bad. We ordered the Pork Chop and the Whole Grilled Brazino (fish). The pork chop was this giant piece of meat and it was undercooked, atleast to our eyes. The waitress claimed this was by design to keep it juicy. Anyways, we asked for it to be recooked and of course it was now too dry. The fish was decent, but I think we were simply too full at this point in time.

Overall, a great experience, although with a beer and two bottles of wine, it came out higher than expected. The beer was surprisingly tasty for a “light” beer.