La Bottega at the Maritime Hotel – Feast of the Seven Fishes

One of the perks of being part of the press?  Press events and press dinners, of course.  I was invited to a press dinner previewing the Feast of the Seven Fishes at La Bottega at the Maritime Hotel – a traditional Italian feast featuring why yes, seven courses of fish.  By the time this post goes up, the menu will no longer be offered (I write 99.9% of my posts in chronological order, and run on about a month-delay schedule) – just join in and see what I ate. 

Love the bottles of water they placed on each table with the name of the restaurant on them! 

First up, we were treated to some lovely thin crust pizza that isn’t part of the Feast of the Seven Fishes.  Great start to the night. 

Raviolini di granchio con brodo; crab meat filled pasta served in a seafood broth that bordered on too salty and was overwhelmingly fishy.  Not fishy in a bad-fish way, but the seafood-ness of the broth really slapped you in the face.  A diner at my table remarked that his was cold. 

Insalata di mare; marinated shrimp, calamari, baby octopus, conch, thinly sliced red onion & celery tossed in lemon thyme vinaigrette – easily my favorite dish of the night.  Super light and refreshing, with very fresh seafood, not a wasted bite was left behind.  I really enjoyed this dish. 

Vongole al forno; baked top neck clams stuffed with seasoned bread crumbs & herbs – I was surprised to see such large clams used for baked clams.  I’d have preferred either smaller clams, or to have the clam meat removed and chopped up, mixed into the breading for easier eating.  Maybe that’s personal preference, but these were kind of hard to eat the way they were, and the clams were even a bit overwhelmed by the thick layer of breading.  One of my clams was also pretty fishy… but the flavor of the breadcrumbs was good. 

Linguine con aragosta; pasta tossed with lobster meat, roasted tomato & chilies in white wine, olive oil, garlic & fresh herbs – the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente, and there was plenty of seafood in this dish.  A nice hearty dish after the lighter dishes of earlier. 

Capa santa con cavolini e melagrana; pan-seared sea scallops served with caramelized Brussels sprouts, crispy pancetta & watercress tossed in warm pomegranate vinaigrette – the scallops were cooked perfectly, though served on the cold side – it’s pretty hard to time everything so everyone gets hot food with as large a group as we were.  Another light dish, which was nice to break up the heavier dishes so we wouldn’t feel completely bogged down by all the food! 

Brodetto di pesce; classic Adriatic seafood stew of cod, jumbo prawns, sea scallops, mussels & cockles served in tomato seafood broth – I was pretty full by this point, so barely touched this dish. 

But then it was time for dessert!  Panetone gelati; Milan style holiday cake served with coffee gelato, whipped cream and caramel sauce – the cake was moist and the coffee gelato was really good.  I couldn’t eat too much of this from being so full, but I tried! 

Cannoli con cioccolata; crispy pastry tubes filled with sweetened ricotta, bittersweet chocolate chips served with chocolate sauce.  I couldn’t touch this as I was just way too full by this time, but it looked really pretty and I’m sure was very tasty!

Thanks again to La Bottega for their generosity and hospitality, and to their PR team for inviting me to join them in this lovely meal! 

I attended this meal courtesy of La Bottega’s PR; I received no monetary compensation nor was I obligated to post about it positively or negatively.