Best Italian meal, bar none, ever. Better than Salute in Marin County, better than Italy on the island of Capri, better than any and all meals in Cortona, Gaeta and Sperlonga put together. Better than Venice, and at least tied with some of our meals in Rome.
Maybe I was just ready tonight. I don't know, but I'm so picky about my salads. If I see a single little dark spot or hint of old lettuce, well I'm mad. Nothing wrong here. No limp anything. PERFECT. Hubby's romaine leaves, lightly dressed and with a wonderful aroma of spices and garlic - and he was served many beautiful emerald leaves, came with several house-made croutons - not those old dried up stale things. These looked like gems or minerals - crunchy and oily - made of good bread and baked to a deep crisp! Grazi!
The bread that came before, at sit-down, and the olive oil on the table were so good. No oil residue on the bottle, seems like a small thing, but it's not. Such a splendid color, full and rich olive flavor - must get some. We loved it so much that it made us get a side of olives to go with dinner - if the oil was that good, well then the olives themselves must be good! And those olives were VERY good. Little tiny itty bitty ones, jumbo ones - no old wrinkly standby olives here! No dents! Brought some home with us.
My salad; beets roasted to (again) perfection. Carrots same - prettiest salad I've ever been served. The roasted flavor of the veggies was so deep - they have roasting down. Then a subtle flavor of a cheese I've not had - a dried ricotta - hint of garlicky dressing - omg. It was presented in the shape of a star pattern with the carrots coming off the three slices of beet like a starburst. Yum doesn't cover it, but I'm running out of words. So many things could have gone wrong - but there was NOTHING wrong - everything was right.
Then the appetizer - so many to tempt us! - we got Spiedini di Gamberi (shrimp with croutons). Grilled or roasted, not sure, all I know is the taste of shrimp was so intense that I am sure this is how they are meant to be eaten - and no other shrimp for the rest of my life will ever measure up - then add some fennel and chili flakes and house-created croutons - I though my head might explode from joy. Geez I'm drooling all over my hands. The problem was we were splitting this 5-shrimp portion, and I nearly got stabbed with a fork for taking the 5th shrimp! Bastard made me rip it in half! But I got the half with the tail - you have to suck the tail! Bite they little heads off - nibble on they's tiny feet!
So on we went to secondos, and I chose the Bistecca alla Griglia --flank steak with roasted sunchokes in a chili cream sauce. Okay, you know this kitchen is ON FIRE when they can make the sunchokes on the plate OUT SHINE THE STEAK. And the steak was, wait for it, heavenly - medium rare as I asked - crusty on the outside and beautifully tender on the inside. Flank steak is hard to do. Not for Mingo.
This is not an average place. This is not your average food. This is outside the realm of great, to INCREDIBLE. Sublime. Intense, simple, fresh - geez I need a dictionary to find more words for my new love interest - this food. Thank god I didn't decide to go on a diet before coming here - but of course now I can never go on a diet. I MUST. COME. HERE. OFTEN. No I am not drunk.
Hubby had the Pappardelle alla Salsiccia di Coniglio - housemade wide pasta with also house-made rabbit sausage, butternut squash, omg drool drool slobber - I will get this dish next time. The cream sauce was very light but so intensely flavored that I was just struck dumb and had to roll my eyes and couldn't get the fork out of my mouth for a few moments while I had a mini food-gasm. Incredible! How did that DO it???
Plates were portioned PERFECTLY - just enough - maybe a tiny bit more than you should be eating, but exactly as much as you want to eat, and still enjoy each course.
I immediately made reservations for Valentine's Day. Our waiter, Alexander, was as wonderful as the food - well, I didn't actually TASTE him - darn it! He was unintrusive but available, always just at our elbow when we wanted him - knowledgeable (I asked some tough questions which he knew off the top of his head) and he was just plain NICE. Loved him, loved the world after eating here, love my husband more, love Beaverton and humankind and especially MINGO. I can't wait to go back on Valentine's Day.
Not cheap - $94.00 plus tip for just the two of us without cocktails - we had tea. Desserts were good but too-big-a-eat and have some in the fridge right now - omg. I can't wait to get up in the middle of the night and eat the rest of my house made panna cotta. Are you jealous? You SHOULD be! read more