Da Silvano

I started to write this review and then my computer crashed, leaving me frustrated and unhappy.  Much like my experience at this restaurant. 

The night started off well; though it was a Sunday night, the place was pretty packed.  Since I’d made reservations, I wasn’t worried, though found it a bit annoying that when I walked in, there was no obvious host stand and the maitre’d seemed to just walk around randomly.  While we waited outside for our party to be complete, I noticed that sitting on the bench outside were a number of people holding professional cameras.  I was interested in their cameras when I noticed one of them held a professional-looking video camera.  Huh.  It dawned on me that they were papparazzi and someone famous must be inside.  I perked up since I rarely, if ever, see (or rather, notice) famous people around me.

Once we were seated inside, a large party chattering away in Italian kept our conversation to a minimum as it was hard to hear each other.  At the same time, I felt reassured that the food was good, since “real” Italian people were dining here. 

Shortly after we’d arrived, however, that large group stood up… and so did the papparazzi outside. 

It became clear that the papparazzi were indeed waiting for that group, and so we peered at the party, trying to figure out who was the famous face.  I didn’t recognize anyone, so finally, when they had left, I asked the waiter who they were, and he informed me that they were Thalia & Tommy Mottola.  I only recognized Tommy’s name as Mariah Carey’s ex-hubby (and I s’pose a music mogul/exec).  Ah well.  Kind of cool.

That was basically the highlight of the dinner.

We ordered an arugula salad to start, and it was way overdressed in olive oil.  Literally dripping off the leaves, I could barely stomach the peppery greens and only ate a small bit before deciding, whatever.  Also, it was a bit outrageous that they wanted an extra $3 just for cheese, on a salad that was already $9.50.  I wish I’d gotten a picture of it- it was seriously a sad tiny pile of leaves, drenched in oil. 

HB’s penne strascicate (penne with meat)

LL’s rigatoni focaccia

While there was nothing wrong with the sauces- I tried a bit of both, and found them really lovely- the pasta itself was completely undercooked.  No, not al dente, with a slight bite to the tubes, just flat out uncooked in some parts.  Both LL and HB found themselves unable to finish their pastas because it was so hard and uncooked. 

Ironically…

SB & I both ordered the tagliatelle bolognese

Both SB & my tagliatelles were overcooked to the point of mush.  The noodles were overly soft and just soggy messes, and the sauce itself lacked depth of flavor, falling flat and just tasting vaguely of tomatoes and meat.  Blegh.  I’m not sure which I’d prefer- over- or under- cooked pasta, but either way, we were all unsatisfied with our meals.

In addition to the food sucking, in the middle of eating, HB noticed something odd to her left (where the wall was) and realized there was a huge roach crawling along the table near her elbow!  She jumped up and ran away from the table, causing me to jump up and pull on the waiter’s sleeve to inform him there was a roach invading our party!  The roach by this time had crawled onto HB’s bread plate and was happily swimming in the oil leftover from the salad.  The waiter walked over and attempted to smush it with a napkin, but according to SB, who sat across from HB, he missed and the roach crawled out and fell onto the floor. 

They promptly moved us to another table, but I was sufficiently skeeved to have lost most of my appetite, as was HB.  We tried to continue eating, but we were all fairly disgusted at this point.  The waiter came by to inform us that our desserts would be on the house, but this did little to assuage our annoyance. 

But we did order dessert anyway; afterall, we were here to celebrate LL’s belated birthday.

SB and I were twins that night.  She ordered the buttermilk pannacotta “Leila” style, with espresso poured on top…

… while I ordered it the regular way, with just dark chocolate syrup over the top.

HB’s chocolate souffle

LL’s tiramisu

I actually really enjoyed my pannacotta- the bittersweet chocolate wasn’t overly sweet, nor was the pannacotta.  I still prefer pannacotta with a fruit topping, but that’s personal preference.  SB said the espresso was super strong/bitter and went well with the pannacotta, but I don’t think people who like dessert in a traditional sense would like it.  HB’s chocolate souffle was standard, nothing unusual or extraordinary, she said, and LL’s tiramisu was pretty good actually- I liked how strong the coffee/bottom layer was- but still.  Dessert doesn’t make up for awful pasta.

Also, it was extremely unnerving for me to realize that had we paid for dessert, dinner would have been way more expensive.  As it was, dinner was just under $100 for what little we ordered (no one ordered any drinks, as it was a Sunday night), and had we paid for dessert, it would have been about $150.  Each pasta dish was $20.  Just a bit ridiculous for what we got, no?

Yvo says: Overall, this place was a huge flop.  While the menu had many items that stood out and sounded like they’d be yummy, the prices were just too high and then the pasta inconsistent.  Dessert was yummy but unless I am really desperate to see a celebrity- which, I assure you, 99.9% of the time, I am NOT- I would not return here. 
pass- not recommended at all