We had a prix fixe menu and began with a salad of greens, roasted tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette, and shaved parmesan. This salad was evenly dressed, with a moderate amount of cheese, and thus made for a comfortable starter.
For entrees, we had a choice of a pasta combination, salmon, or chicken. I chose the pasta, which consisted of three different preparations: mushroom risotto, gnocchi in tomato-basil sauce, and pumpkin ravioli in a sage cream sauce. The pumpkin ravioli were the clear winner, with wonderfully tender spinach pasta, a precise balance between the pumpkin's sweetness and the cream sauce, and a very pretty appearance. Risotto has never been among my favorite Italian dishes (unfortunately, it reminds me of porridge), though I am a fan of mushroom flavors. I liked the acidity of the gnocchi's tomato basil sauce, but thought the gnocchi themselves were a little too chewy. The overall portion size was just right.
The prospectives on either side of me ordered the chicken marsala and seemed to enjoy it very much.
Dessert was a vanilla bean panna cotta, neither too soft nor too Jello-like, served with some mixed berries. There was plenty of wine (to accompany), both red and white. We had a very charismatic server who, apart from being charmingly old-fashioned in purposefully serving all the women first, also struck me as the Italian version of Coach from Coach Sushi; twice, I had to put my hand over my wine glass to prevent a refill.
Dinner was followed by pomegranate margaritas at Palomino, which serves an all-evening happy hour menu of reasonably good drinks for the pleasant price of $5, in a relatively classy (albeit loud) lounge environment.
