Well, let me say right off the bat that the food and the service get 5 stars... so why only 4 stars then... well, when it comes to a place as expensive as this (€€€ is closer to reality), I get a little nit-picky. A few errors in execution led to the lost star.
I was not super hungry, and ordered bruschetta, and a starter portion of beef tartare (my first - I had had tuna tartare before). Delicious, pretty plates, relatively mild, not in-your-face flavors.
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Bruschetta was very pleasant! Usually, the bruschettas I get end up being a little bit acidic (from balsamic, tomatoes, etc). Here I was pleasantly surprised - the balsamic dressing, the salad, and tomatoes were a little on the sweet side, the lack of strong acid was very pleasant! The side salad was also a very nice touch.
I would have liked a few improvements though. First, while they claim there is garlic, I didn't really taste it too much, other spices on the actual bread would be nice too (basil perhaps?). Second, while I liked that there were thinly sliced red onions, I would have preferred if they were more evenly distributed; one bread had one circle, another had more than five. Third, I would have liked the bread just a hair more toasty.
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As for the beef tartare, I didn't really know what to expect... I know what tuna tartare tastes like, but raw beef would be a unique experience definitely. It tasted similar to tuna tartare, both flavor and consistency-wise. There were slight differences, obviously, but I didn't feel like I was eating raw meat. I am sure there is some sauce that goes into tartare, but I would have preferred just a touch more. of it.
Salad was the same kind that came with the bruschetta, only the leaves of it were not cut up at all. I understand that a restaurant shouldn't cut it into tiny shreds, but these leaves were too big. It looked pretty, but when it came to eating was a different story.
Another "execution error" is that the tartare came with these little green things I have never in my life seen before. In them, the stem is not edible. They removed the stems from some, but forgot - or didn't finish removing it from others (I saw a crease on one as if knife was there, but didn't finish the job)
Toast that came with it was perfectly toasted, and actually a very nice touch. P.S. Those little wedges that look like cheese aren't cheese, they are butter!
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Service was excellent. Extremely attentive, and not overly so. They were striving to make sure I, as the customer, was satisfied. For instance, when I was sitting there without a plate in front of me, they made sure someone had taken my order, and that I was all set. At one point I mentioned I was just waiting for my tartare... they went to the kitchen to see what was going on. The dish came out very soon after...
Perhaps this is why there were a couple issues... they realized they had forgotten about me, and rushed it in getting the dish finished. read more
