Are You Gonna Eat That?: Il Pasticcio

She says - a dream come true . . . sort of

Il Pasticcio is one of those restaurants that has taunted me on the corner of Broughton and Bull from the first time I saw it in 2008. It's not just any building that can deter the average St. Patty's Day drunk from the festivities, but Il Pasticcio did just that. There I was, decked out in tacky green and looking for a restroom when I passed Il Pasticcio. It's massive windows beckoned me to look into inside. The walls were lined with wine and the tables were decorated with what I call the Pretty Woman set up: lots of forks, lots of glasses, and a table cloth I'd be scared to eat on. I was in awe, but I was also a poor college student at the time. So I stuck it in the back of my mind and continued my St. Patty's Day quest.

Ever since that day, I have dreamed of eating at Il Pasticcio. I'd look at it through the car window like an intrigued child if I passed it while driving home. I'd stop and read the menu if I walked by it while running errands. But never, EVER did it cross my mind to go until Will suggested it for our Valentines Day dinner. I reacted the same way I did when I found out Nine West was having a 50% off sale last Christmas: I lost my breathe, felt faint, then asked, "really"?

So the day before Valentines Day, we dressed up, drove downtown, and went to the Italian restaurant I had been dreaming about for the past two years, Il Pasticcio. I knew it was going to be a good night when we found a parking spot right around the corner from the restaurant on a Saturday night. When we walked in, we were greeted by two well dressed hostesses, one of which escorted us to the second story (there are three in total) of the restaurant. The decor was nice, but a little too modern for my taste. Exposed brick made up the walls, and modern, I'm-not-really-sure-what-that-is-but-I-think-it's-a-bull artwork was displayed. It isn't that I don't like modern art, it's that the loud colors in the artwork took away from the restaurant's most beautiful feature: the wine cases. Glass cases filled with wine are used to separate the rooms, and line the ceiling in Il Pasticcio and they are absolutely beautiful. I could gaze at them for hours. The way the light hits each liquid is absolutely exquisite. Who needs art when you have that?

Needless to say, the wine list was not small. Ranging from under $10/glass to $2000/bottle, Il Pasticcio is the place to go for every wine drinker. If you are new to wine, you can try out different types for an average price; if you are a pro who likes to spend the big bucks, this is the place to go. The only bad part about such a big wine list is knowing where to start. I'm a less-than-$10-per-bottle type of wine drinker, so I really wish there was a sommelier there to help. After looking for ten minutes, and still having no clue what to get, I opted for a vodka and cranberry instead.

Where the restaurant failed to help us place our drink orders, our faithful waiter Edwin stepped up to the plate and helped us figure out what to order from the Valentines Day menu. I ultimately decided on pomegranate infused foie gras for my appetizer and lobster stuffed ravioli for my entree. But before my salad even arrived, we received bread with a roasted red pepper dipping sauce. It was fresh, and the olive oil in it was fruity, making my palette excited for the salad that was up next.

I'm a firm believer that salads (and all food really) should reflect the season. This salad did just that. It was a mix of herbs, dried cranberries, sheets of freshly grated parmesan cheese, and walnuts. While it may seem like a traditional winter salad, it was well executed and all the ingredients meshed perfectly together.

As soon as I finished the last bite of salad, my foie gras was sitting in front of me, looking perfect on the plate. The foie gras sat on top of toasted brioche, was topped with a small salad and walnuts, and was complimented by two candied figs sitting beside it. It was absolutely beautiful. But that didn't stop me from digging right in. This particular foie gras was infused with pomegranate juice, so it had a slight red tint to it and was a bit sweeter than foie gras naturally is. But it melted in my mouth. It was almost like a really fine cream cheese, smooth and rich. Matched with the figs and sugary walnuts, it was a perfectly sweet dish. It wasn't so sweet and rich that I felt like I couldn't eat any more, but it wasn't savory enough for it to be an appetizer in my mind. I really think it would have made the perfect dessert. What would have changed it from being a dessert to an appetizer in my mind was the walnuts. If they would have been seasoned with spice, it would have triggered that salty/savory button on my tongue. I'm not saying it wasn't delicious. It was divine, but it wasn't right as an appetizer.

Next up was my ravioli. Maybe it was the vodka, but I almost cried when Edwin sat this dish in front of me. The ravioli was absolutely the most amazing pasta I've ever seen. The artist had cut strips of white and black pasta dough, then rolled them side by side to make a black and white striped ravioli. This was accented with a rose colored blush sauce (made from tomatoes, butter, and cream), and big pieces of lobster. It took me a couple of minutes just to admire it. Then, I dug right in. The blush sauce was amazing: rich, buttery, and creamy. The ravioli dough was perfectly in between too light and too heavy and the filling was a light mixture of ricotta cheese and lobster. I savored the first bite, but then was immediately put off by the second. I got a strange, overwhelming lemon taste that completely took over the delicate filling. So I tried another bite of the same piece of ravioli and got the same thing. The next piece of ravioli didn't have that flavor, but the following piece did. I was perplexed and a little disappointed. It seemed as though the chef had used a mixture of lemon and water to seal the ravioli together, but brushed a little too much of the mixture on some pieces. Luckily, those two pieces were the only ones that tasted this way. However, it left me unsure of what I was getting every time I put a piece of ravioli in my mouth, which is never a good thing for any restaurant.

After our entrees, we ordered dessert. I got a lovely chocolate cup filled with pineapple and pomegranate sorbet. Again, it came to the table and I was in awe from its appearance. The pastry chef had made a cup out of chocolate, but also had managed to sweep an rainbow of white, green, and pink colored chocolate right through the middle of the cup before the chocolate hardened. It was gorgeous. Will and I sat for ten minutes talking about how the chef could have done that before I even took a bite. The sorbet was the perfect ending. The sweet and tart flavors cleansed my palette and pleased my almost bursting stomach.

Before I knew it, we were leaving. It really was like a dream. But in my dreams, I imagined the entrees to be better than the one I got. In my dreams, Il Pasticcio was the perfect modern Italian restaurant. In reality, it was good. But when I eat at a restaurant where entrees start at $2o and go up from there, I'm expecting my dreams to come true.

Taste: Two and a half noms

Plating/Appearance of Food: Five noms (I would rank it higher if I could)

Service: Five noms

Cleanliness: Five noms

Atmosphere: Four noms

Overall Noms: 4.3

He says - It's a step up from Olive Garden

Ok, so Il Pasticcio was little more than just a step. This place was pretty amazing. The ambiance of the restaurant combined with a steak so tender you really don't even have to chew it (you ever seen a duck eat?) made for a fantastic experience for myself.

As always, as soon as we walk in I'm scoping out the art on the walls. They have huge impressionistic bull and bullfighter paintings on the wall. I'm more of a realist when it comes to art, but I was in love with these life size brightly colored bulls and bull fighters on the wall. The walls are a very dark, rich looking, wood which gives a very intimate setting but the seats have fire engine red upholstery which really pops against the dark walls. I guess I would call the overall look "modern rustic with a mediterranean flair" (shut up, can't a man watch HGTV?).

Another cool aspect of this place was the ENORMOUS wine list. The wine list was at least 200 wines deep (ranging upwards of $1400 for one of the bottles, a little classier than the Arbor Mist Licia drinks). The best part was the wine cellar . . . or should I say, wine ceiling! The dining room was two stories high and the perimeter of the room is a glass wall to the second story that showed rack after rack of wine bottles.

Our waiter, Edwin, was fantastic. I always like a waiter that doesn't act like he's too snobby to take my order. He walked up to us and answered all of our questions, made recommendations and broke down each dish for us.

First up was my appetizer - Ahi tuna with sesame sauce and angel hair pasta. This was a gorgeous piece of fish. Perfectly seared on the outside only about 1/16th of an inch deep with a rich red color in the center. Seriously, one of the best pieces of fish I've ever had in my life. It was a very light appetizer (I needed that in order to eat my entree) and primed my taste buds for my main course.

My entree was the 16oz dry aged Kansas City strip loin with shrimp and a side of what I am going to call "Fancy Funyons". This wasn't the be all end all of steaks, I like my steak with little to no fat on it and this cut had a little too much fat/gristle for me, but that was due to the style of the cut, not the quality. It was definitely one of the most perfectly cooked steaks I've ever had. I ordered it cooked medium and it was textbook. It was slathered in butter and topped with fantastic grilled shrimp. The "Funyons" were onions cut in long thin strips and then deep fried with a peppery kick. They were so good that I wanted to order seconds.

My steak and shrimp with fancy Funyons

(that's my finger to show you how thick that steak was)

For dessert I had a dark chocolate Godiva tort. This thing was Wilford Bremley's nightmare. A dense chocolate tort with a rich chocolate ganache icing and a strawberry on the side. Both of our desserts were amazing and left us stuffed to the gills.