A few weeks ago, Beer Boor and I had plans to have tea at Three Tarts. Unfortunately, due to some odd circumstances, we found ourselves in the area without tea, so I suggested visiting Donatella, where I’d been last December and really enjoyed, telling him that we had to go as I know he enjoys this style of pizza. Of course, life happened, and we never found ourselves there… until now! I was pleased that when I said “I think it’s near here” it turned out to be literally an avenue away. I’m usually terrible at telling where I am when I’m in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
We started off with beef carpaccio – paper-thin slices of beef topped with arugula, shaved parmagiano. Light, fresh and very tasty, we had no problem finishing this plate. I think Beer Boor liked it more than I did, calling it melt in your mouth beefy goodness.
Since I’d really enjoyed these, I suggested we also get a plate of meatballs. We were given the choice of spicy or not; since I’d had the regular, I chose spicy. Again, the meatballs were fantastic – soft, succulent, meaty orbs of awesomeness, this time with just the slightest hint of warmth at the end. My guess is a bit of crushed red pepper flake, but nothing intense that I couldn’t handle. I liked these – possibly even more than the regular. Beer Boor had no complaints about them either.
For our pizza, we chose the Enzo – smoked buffalo mozzarella, rapini, and sausage. While the ingredients were top-notch, and the crust was excellent (see next picture), we both agreed that the toppings were a little too heavy weight-wise for the puffy crust to hold up to, as it kept trying to bend in the wrong direction while we ate it. Tasty, but not quite the right toppings for this style of pizza.
Obligatory upskirt. Yes, they know how to do pizza here, perfect char, and the crust was puffy, soft, the way it should be… just that our choice of toppings wasn’t quite right for this style. I won’t hold it against them – I just won’t order this particular pizza again.
Though I was surprisingly full by this time, knowing Andrea Jarosh is a pastry chef genius, I had to order dessert. Not just any dessert though – Valrhona chocolate mousse!
Boasting a crunchy top…
Breaking through to reveal an awesome, ever so slightly sweet fluffy mousse. Love. I don’t think she makes anything that is terrible. Of course, as I dug deeper, Beer Boor informed me that was raspberry on the bottom, and damn him for being right and knowing all my allergies. I relinquished the rest to him – maybe that was his evil plan all along…
Yvo says: A lovely meal with fantastic company – though I honestly think this is the least amount of food we’ve ever ordered together! I’m forever waddling out of places when I eat with him, clutching leftovers – I would not be unhappy if Donatella opened another location closer to me or in an area I frequented. The pizza is solidly good, the meatballs are excellent, and I’ve not had anything there that I haven’t liked. (The eggplant parm is also delicious at Donatella.) I will definitely be back… hopefully not waiting 8 months or until something happens elsewhere to return!
highly recommended
TT says
mmm meatballs and pizza!
i like beef carpaccio, but now realize it’s pretty boring. almost every restaurant does it exactly the same.
CT add this to “The List”
CT says
Done! Looks great!
Feisty Foodie says
There were some special/different things to this one, but as it was a special, and neither BB or I could remember what the things in the picture were, I opted not to describe them 😡
TT says
shaved parm and radish?
Feisty Foodie says
We were debating radish or apple/pear since I thought they weren’t quite as radish-y and may have been sweet, plus these little things that looked like toasted/blown up capers.
Siobhan says
I want to go! Didn’t know you were allergic to raspberries too.
TT says
She is Dark Helmet!
BeerBoor says
Looking back… we really didn’t eat much at all, did we? Okay, this is a rather pricey place, but it’s the kind of place you can bring your mom, your friends, or a date and fit right in. Very eclectic crowd for an early evening.
Feisty Foodie says
Well, I know I was full at the end of the meal, but I do think 3 dishes + dessert is the least we’ve ever ordered at a restaurant together. Or maybe last night will be the new record? but I was pretty full last night, too.
Hungry says
Oooh, you just reminded me that I wanted to go here but still haven’t.
Also, what’s the white layer in your dessert? Whipped cream?
Feisty Foodie says
I think so. It was another special dessert that’s not on the website so I couldn’t remember the finer details, sorry. I just know it was topped with a caramely crackly top, and it wasn’t too sweet, which I loved.
BeerBoor says
Maybe it was a Raspberry Brulee? (The kind you find at a secondhand store)
I’m going to get hit, aren’t I.
Feisty Foodie says
I don’t know what that means, but I long ago came to the conclusion that you like getting hit, so I’ll just say yes to be on the safe side! 😛
BeerBoor says
Sigh. You kids today, not remembering Prince before he got really weird.
John Wozniak (aka JohnnyDoubleU) says
I’ve heard the food here is quite salty (from a very reputable source) — bordering on inedible. I am surprised that didn’t color your experience.
@BeerBoor: I doubt the youngin’s know much about “really weird” Prince either. Raspberry Beret was a classic song and early music video, wasn’t it!
http://www.elyrics.net/read/p/prince-lyrics/raspberry-beret-lyrics.html
Anywho — glad you guys had a good meal 🙂 (all that really matters)! The crust looks spectacular and almost as good as mine (which is a pure sourdough ;).
Feisty Foodie says
Hey Johnny, I’ve been here three times now, and while I admit that I like my food pretty salty, I never thought any of this food was salty (or even the normal level of salt I add to my own food)! But meatballs, eggplant parm… dunno, they were fine. The pizzas vary in salt level obviously, but I’ve never had a problem, honestly!
And yum. It’s been over a month since I made my own pizza at home, unfortunately. I’ll have to fix that 🙂
John Wozniak (aka JohnnyDoubleU) says
Just goes to show that taste is so subjective. I also think it is somewhat cultural (some cultures using things like fish sauce or preserved products probably handle higher levels of salt than those with less implicitly less salty food — just a theory). I am pretty sensitive to salt myself though I do believe it is a really important part of making food pop, in the right amount. For pizza, I like around 2-2.2% salt in the dough (irrespective of toppings). Many Neapolitan places will go with 2.5% and even up to 3%, which I have fiddled with but then settled back to 2’ish%.
I do take your word for it that it was fine. Maybe the person that told me it was too salty just had food that had been salted by more than one preparer before it hit the table. It’s important for cooks/chefs to test for seasoning and not just assume it needs more salt (without tasting) IMO. It can ruin a perfectly fine dish.
Feisty Foodie says
Completely agreed, Johnny! I grew up with soy sauce as the predominant ‘salt’ in our household, but after I left (almost 10 years ago), I started cooking a lot more and progressively moved away from that, so my salt buds are very oddly trained! And yes, one of my biggest pet peeves with exBF was his propensity for salting his food before he tasted it (after I cooked it). I fixed him of the habit by oversalting his piece of chicken before serving, so when he salted it… well, he wasn’t pleased. He still ate it, but he finally heard what I’d been repeating for literally years: taste it before you eat it, because maybe, just MAYBE the person who cooked it knew what they were doing.
John Wozniak (aka JohnnyDoubleU) says
That is funny. I would do the same thing! I always chuckle when I see people dumping salt on stuff — clearly some people really, really like their salt. I do find that fries are often not salted during very busy stretches at McD’s (and other times they are very well salted) and the like — then (and really only then) I will lard it on, cause fries without salt kinda suck. I also find more sit down places that serve steak fries (or similar) seem to perennially forget to season their fries. They did not get the memo — fries need salt — apparently ;).
BeerBoor says
Yes, this is true, the kids don’t care about Prince whatsoever, save the halftime Super Bowl show.
Paisley Park was his first foray into weirdness, coming after Purple Rain was such a success (so not too early, though I guess it’s all relative). Turned out psychedelia didn’t really work very well in his hands. I still remember that MTV debuted the video for this by showing it at the top of every hour for a day. Good times.
Andrea J says
Thanks! A friend just showed me this! So glad you enjoyed yourself:) next time you come in I’ll make an Yvo friendly version sans raspberries. Thanks for the support. It’s means a lot up us.
Feisty Foodie says
Thanks for stopping by, Andrea! That is so sweet of you, but no need for special treatment – I’ll just eat all the mousse next time and leave all the raspberry for Beer Boor 😉