[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 29, 2011]
I returned to Roberta's recently, not for the lauded multi-course dinner which served to parties of four-and-a-half in leap years only, but to tour the regular dinner menu in the company of a visiting food writer.
It turned out to be the best meal I've yet eaten at the place. (Note: the picture above is from Roberta's, but from a previous occasion; photos from this meal "from me yot").
Roberta's, of course, offers a Menu of Today, meaning that you don't really know how much you should order and what to eat first unless you're a regular. We shouted dishes to our server, and she delivered the small plates in pairs, followed by the pizza, which worked out just fine. Whether or not it was the VIP halo surrounding my companion, service was excellent throughout.
The destination dish - i.e. you should travel to eat it, if you can possibly find out in advance if it's available - was Californian sea urchin served over creamy but still grainy grits. A fabulous texture as well as rich uni flavor. On this occasion, it came with a little white truffle shaved over it (spare from the "special dinner," no doubt).
The coppa di testa is widely recommended, and indeed it's good enough. A personal reservation: Roberta's, like Lupa, places thin slices of the headcheese on a warm plate so that it has melted into a savory mush by the time it arrives at the table. I will take my headcheese cool and firm any way, but if this is a tradizione, who am I to carp?
Sweetbreads were disarmingly small, or chopped small at least, about the size of bay scallops, but I've liked them with lime ever since I encountered the combination at the fabled Kabab Café and I liked these fine. Beef tongue, sliced and very grilled, was close to a good dish, but over-charred.
The other hit of the evening: cuttlefish. The kitchen serves very thin slices of the cuttlefish - deeply scored, looking for all the world like curly tentacles - just al dente, and kicks it up with some slices of green chili. I had demurred at first, distressed by the menu's mention of some fruit or other (banana?). Cuttlefish and fruit, I thought: no thanks. Whatever the heck it was (I know they've served cuttlefish with citrus fruit in the past), it was either well incorporated into the dish, or entirely omitted. Anyway, the result was first-class.
Purely out of curiosity, we ordered a plain pizza to taste the crust. Tomato, oregano and garlic thinly applied to the blistered frisbee of dough. Thin crust, but holding up quite well, nicely done. Those who regard a blistered pizza as burnt will have complaints. The rest of us will be pleased enough with it. The DeForville Barbera d'Alba, imported by Rosenthal, is just about a perfect pizza wine, and a perfect wallet wine too at $36 the bottle.
We were comped a heaping plate of molten chocolate pudding and ice cream and stuff. A couple of the savory plates were comped also. Roberta's, then, not some kind of magical gastronomic heaven on earth as some would have you believe. A little rough around the edges (and beer in mason jars still makes me cringe; wine now comes in proper glasses); but an enjoyable, and very well priced place for a casual dinner.
Of course, it becomes an earthly paradise if your Fairy Godmother invites you to the Brigadoon of the tasting menu (okay, all about it here).
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