A Fine Way to Eat Yourself Stupid

[ladysycamore]

Originally Posted by wolf

Each of the dining areas is themed ... it's pictures of these which the site lacks. You can choose to eat at The Kitchen Table, which is highly sought after ... the table is actually IN the kitchen of the restaurant ... you get to watch the hijinks of the chefs, food prep and wait staff as you dine. The only table which is more popular is in the "Pope Room". Seats 12 comfortably, or 18 very skinny, very close friends. We had a few more people than that this evening, and were seated in the Cardinale room ... photos of many members of the Vatican College of Cardinals adorned the walls of our dining area. Photos in the bar consist of two subjects ... sports, mainly soccer, and breasts. There's breasts a-poppin' galore in there, including Jayne Mansfield (I think) and a view of the Mona Lisa that I can't say I'd ever seen before.

Wow, this sounds cool as all hell. I had to chuckle...I got a "visual" of the pics of the members of the Vatican College of Cardinal gasing down on the diners. Don't know if I should be impressed or intimidated. :p

The food was phenomenal ... I was with an extremely large group. I think that we ordered a total of nine entrees ... I know that I had some Lasagna (a special, not a regular menu item), Baked Ravioli with Meat Sauce, Lemon Chicken, Buccatini (proprietary pasta ... looks like spaghetti only it's hollow) con Pollo, Eggplant Parmesan, and also managed to scam a shrimp from one of our other table's Shrimp Scampi. (I was actually seated at a table that declared itself fish-free, but I wasn't the first violator of the rule ... one of the other women took the anchovies that the group who ordered the cesar salad thought were icky).

Sheesh, I'm getting full just reading this!

Our table went for the Cannolli in a lake of chocolate sambuca sauce, a double chocolate cake, and what is possibly the best Tiramisu I've ever had. Each of these were more than sharable six ways, and one lucky person even ended up with leftovers of all three. I'm used to tiramisu being a little square of cake and cream, mildly dusted with cocoa ... not here. It filled a large pasta bowl ... the cocoa was perfectly applied to the top of the cream, not enough to make your mouth dry, but certainly enough to make it happy, and the ladyfingers were SOOOO drenched in liquor that they were delightfully soft and yummy.

That plus three large glasses of the House Chianti (no fava beans) put a very happy glow on my evening.

Whew. Did they have you roll you out of the place in a wheelbarrel? (as my Dad would have said after such a hefty meal).

Ooohhh the tiramisu sounds heavenly:

"TIRAMISU Rum and espresso-soaked lady fingers layered between Marsala wine custard and mascarpone, topped with cocoa and crumbled biscotti."

I remember when I had my first taste of that years ago. A friend and I went out to dinner and had that for dessert. I had never had it before, and from that point on, I was in love!!

Heck, I might have to go to Buca just for that! (checking out the website now)