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

Olazzo - Silver Spring

You know those days when you need a drink and nourishment, and even though you have the supplies at home, you just want to be served by someone else? I was having one of those, and thankfully, so was JC. I'd never been to Olazzo, either in Bethesda or Silver Spring, so we thought we'd give it a try.

The ambience inside Olazzo is cozy and warm - a TV screen at the end of the bar showcases a digital fireplace, the room is dim, yet there is a warm glow that lights up the place, and the booths are big and welcoming. We settled into one of the cushy booths and ordered a bottle of riesling. I feel like I get a lot of requests for a fruity riesling at work, which we don't carry - for those you who are searching for a fruity and sweet riesling, Olazzo's got it. We sipped away for a while, having girl talk and giggling a lot, as we do often.

We started with the fried calamari, which is a pretty impressive portion. For $9, we got a giant platter of lightly battered and deep fried, hot and crispy calamari with marinara. It was delicious, not overdone, and did I mention, it's HUGE?

Unfortunately, the rest of the meal wasn't that great or memorable. JC ordered the mozzarella neopolitan, which wasn't particularly remarkable, and I made the mistake of ordering what turned out to be a country fried steak of some sort. It had some charming Italian name that lured me to it and I was feeling like some red meat. Without frills, it was pretty gross. It was dry, there was way too much breading that was too salty, and I couldn't eat more than 1/3 of it. Ew ew ew ew ew. Perhaps that's why it's not on the menu anymore. Good riddance, I say.

I like Olazzo. I will go back and perhaps this time, I'll get a pasta...that should be safe in an Italian restaurant, don't you think? Tasty tasty!!

Mamma Lucia - Silver Spring

I just realized how much I dine alone, and that people must think I'm quite strange as I coo over my food and perform a photo shoot before (or sometimes in the middle of) the feast. I must say I have been eating out alone more since I started writing Tasty Bites entries - I used to hate doing that, but now I have a purpose for doing so. It's research, you see.

So this one fine afternoon, I stopped in at CVS at Blair Park, and on the way out decided to grab a bite to eat at Mama Lucia's which is next door. For research, of course. I have never been, so I wasn't sure how the place worked. It seemed a little bit disorganized, you walk up to the counter and there are 3 men taking orders/payment. They are all very nice, but they are also loud and want to know what you want to order as soon as you walk in. I looked at the menu and I wanted to try everything as I was quite hungry. I debated between a pizza or a pasta, decided to get a pasta, then had to choose from about 20 different items, gah!! I wanted carbs but also some seafood, so linguine alla mare chiara sounded perfect. I ordered my food and a bottle of water from one man, paid another man, and then yet another man appeared from (I promise this is what happened) under the counter and handed me the water. The man I ordered from told me to sit at any table, so I did, all the while wondering how the food was going to find me, since the dining room was pretty full. Lunch rush, I guess, it was about 1:30pm.

About 10 minutes later, a young lady came by with a basket of bread and my pasta. How did she know it was mine? How did she know where I was? It was like magic!! I took a bite of the pasta with one of the clams, and oh! It was exactly what I wanted - yummy pasta with yummy sauce with yummy seafood. As a lady pretending to watch her girlish figure, I didn't touch the bread basket, but the contents seemed pretty old and stale. The pasta was of good texture, not overcooked, the seafood was delish, the shrimp, clams and calamari tasted fresh and didn't have the strange, synthetic texture that frozen seafood sometimes have. The sauce was decent, not magnificent, but it was good enough to hit the spot. It was a pretty hefty portion and I'm a little embarrassed to say that I ate the whole thing. After checking my email and Facebook on my phone, I managed to remove myself from the table and waddle out of the restaurant.

If I get a chance to go back, I would really like to try the spaghetti aglio e olio and the penne norcina. They have a couple of specials - Monday nights are pasta nights, where you can get a second pasta dish for $3.99 and Tuesday nights are pizza nights, where you can get a second pizza for $2.99. Oh carbs, you're so delicious. Tasty tasty!!

$ (Lunch)
$$ (Dinner)

www.mammaluciarestaurants.com