Fuzzy has been talking about La Braceria since he lunched there several weeks back with a client. I've only heard him being so enamoured with a restaurant, on two previous occasions; this place must be good. I've never eaten there, but heard that their home-made pork sausages are fabulous. So for September's special day, we made a reservation. Oh my... was it an amazing dinner.
We ordered arugula, tomato and Parmesan salad, clams sauteed in white wine, olive oil and garlic, grilled tenderloin, and linguine with langoustines in a brandied tomato cream sauce. You seldom hear me say this, but everything was downright yummy, and very nearly faultless!
The salad was a good-sized portion, and the leaves were dressed with the right amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
I need to rave about these clams. I have NEVER seen a larger plate of clams before! It's at least twice the normal portion you get at other Italian joints. That's me dipping bread into the sauce because I simply could not wait for Fuzzy to finish snapping a photo. It tastes sooo good!
We slurped up almost all of the sweet, fragrant sauce. Fuzzy, who is not really a shellfish kinda guy, probably ate more clams tonight than he did his entire life before. This was our pile of shells after we've devoured everything.
Fuzzy's main course of beef tenderloin came on a bed of arugula, dressed simply but deliciously in lemon juice and olive oil. The doneness of the meat was perfect (something which restaurants always have problems with), it was tender, and the flavour was robust. It was even more wonderful paired with the huge glass of Sicilian Marabino we had.
I had an interesting pasta dish with langoustines (similar to yabbies) and brandy. I must commend them on the amount of seafood they gave with the dish. It made up almost 40% of the plate. The sauce was sweet with the goodness from the shellfish, and had the right amount of garlic in it. Most importantly, the pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce did not over-power the delicate flavour of the langoustines.
We wanted to try some of their desserts, but Chubbs missed his late afternoon nap. So we didn't want to test his limits, and decided to call for the bill. There were four minor setbacks of the night though. The restaurant uses plastic crockery! Bread was not warmed. They could have used more fresh herbs in the dishes, to liven flavours and lift the dish. The baby chair Chubbs was provided with was poorly-designed. There's no safety belt, so he could actually climb out of it.
With good quality, quantity, and not too hefty a price, we're definitely going back to this hole-in-the-wall joint soon. And hopefully, the home-made sausages will be available then.
