Gratzi

Gratzi loyalists, I'm sorry.

Overrated. I'm watching Survivor online as I write this review, and this show is more exciting than my last experience at Gratzi. I hate to come off catty and rude, but I was just so disappointed and feel safe letting it out here.

I went last year for a friend's birthday and was actually quite satisifed with that experience. I had something reminiscent of the Filetto de Manzo off the current menu - herb crusted beef tenderloin served on a portobello cap with tomato, goat cheese, roasted potatoes, and shallots. It was very enjoyable and perfect with a side of asparagus. I remember leaving with a smile on my face that night.

I went again last week for another friend's birthday. I don't often get an occasion to go out to the Main St restaurants, so I was pretty excited. The place is lovely; classic and upscale. The host/ess (a guy took care of the people in front of us, then I turned around and some tiny girl came to help us) were great. I'm sure service is usually great, but our server didn't really seem to know what was going on when she first came to help us. She wasn't sure if we had been seen to, had to ask us, then wasn't sure if she was supposed to be serving us, came back saying that apparently she was our server, etc. In her defense, she was very nice and attentive after that first bit of confusion. After perusing the menu, birthday girl CL got the Gnocchi con Pancetta Affumicato e Gamberi, AU got the Orecchiette Rustica, and I had the Spezzaino di Cinghiale. A bunch of fancy Italian words for mediocre. CL's gnocchi was served with shrimp and applewood bacon in a tomato sauce with red pepper flakes for a kick. It was definitely the best of the three dishes, but still nothing that I'm going to be thinking about tomorrow. AU's orecchiette was served with sweet Italian sausage, broccolini, and radicchio. It was decent. I think it could have used more garlic or anything else to give it a little more flavor and more of a kick. And now we get to my dish, on which I have the most criticism. I have no idea what spezzaino means, and Google is no help. Cinghiale means "wild boar"... so you can guess what the protein in that dish was. I knew this going in and was really excited, having never had boar before. I was debating between the boar and a risotto dish that was a special that week. Then I asked myself, "when else am I going to have wild boar?" The menu says "a savory stew of Texas farm raised boar simmered in wine, tomatoes, juniper and rosemary, served over hand cut pappardelle pasta." The description reads as delicious on paper, but honestly... I can do better than this in my kitchen at home. I thought I was going to be getting a hunk of meat. Not necessarily in steak form, but definitely not the ground meat mish mash that did end up on the plate in front of me. The meat itself is lean, tastes a little porky (which makes sense), I want to even say a little beefy, not too gamey. The preparation was nothing fabulous. The meat and the sauce was just spooned on top of the pappardelle, so the pasta had soaked up absolutely zero flavor. Eh, I mean... I really don't have much more to say other than passable. I'm thinking now that I should have gone with the risotto.

Gratzi's one saving grace for this review is the birthday deal. 1/n (where n=number of diners) off the check and a birthday cannoli served with fresh fruit. Thank goodness for the birthday cannoli, the best part of the meal. Wow, I'm being such a negative Nancy. It's just that if I'm paying $20+, I want to really enjoy myself and have my palate satisfied. The only reason I'd be able to enjoy another experience like this is if I'm with company as great as I had that night.

Jung-Ah and I originally set out to write only good reviews here, but I think it's only fair to everyone that I give my honest review. But hey, maybe it was just a bad night. Nothing was horrible, it was just not up to the caliber of what I had expected. I'll be open minded and give it another shot... when it's not $25 out of my own pocket. There are definitely other items on the menu that I'd like to try and have a feeling will warrant a better review than this one. Yummers?

$$

www.gratzirestaurant.com/pages/gratzi.html