Sunday night, our favorite night out for dinner, we spent at the newly opened Il Poeta Ristorante on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills, New York. A family owned spot with northern Italian cuisine and a crack staff that knows their stuff. In the front of house is Luca, who makes you feel right at home and in the kitchen is Chef Mario DiChiara, formerly from Harry's Bar (owned by cipriani in Venice, Italy), Cipriani (NY), and Il Corso also in NYC.
We started with a bottle of the Chiante Superiore 2006 from Poggiotondo, Tuscany, Italy. Licorice and cherries accented the nose with smooth silky tannins, pepper, oak and cherries on the palate. There are 40-50 wines on their menu, mostly Italian but a few from California, New Zealand, France, Chile & Argentina.
First appetizer was Carciofi in tegamino, baked artichokes served with shrimp and smoked scamorza cheese.
Next was Burrata, a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream at room temperature with arugula, mushrooms, capers and olives in what I believe was a brown reduction sauce.
My wife had Tagliolini del Poeta, a home made pasta in porcini mushroom sauce wrapped with smoked prosciutto, which I tasted and unsuccessfully tried to switch with my wife... delicious.
And I had Risotto with veal in a rich fresh mirapoir sauce.
For dessert was a creamy pana cotta with ground pistaccio and a raspberry coule.
Overall it was a close to perfect night out and I can't wait to go back to try some fish dishes, which looked good. Prices were reasonable and service was excellent.
No comments:
Post a Comment