Would you eat here?
Enixa — Sun, 07/05/2009 - 14:44
Bella Vita
Appetizers
Arancini - 12
3 Cheese Risotto balls breaded and deep-fried.
Bruschetta - 10
2 Slice of French Bageutte bread topped with fresh Bruschetta
Carne Piccolo Gusto - 14
A taste of delicate sliced meats inculding: Pancetta, Pepperoni, Proscuitto, and several Salami's
Entree's
Risotto del Mare - 21
A hearty 2 cheese risotto with delicious clams, mussels, oysters, scallops and bay shrimp.
Risotto del Carne - 24
A combination of beef tenderloin, chicken breast, chorizo, and italian sausage.
Lamb Ragu - 22
Light freshly made lamb ragu served atop piping hot rigatoni noodles.
Three Cheese Risotto - 19
Creamy blend of Ricotta, Parmigiano, and Provlone cheese.
Side Items
Caprese Salad - 6
Fresh Beefsteak tomato sliced and topped with mozzerella, basil, and olive oil.
Minestrone Soup - 8
Cup of thick Minesrone soup garnished with parmesaen cheese.
Calamari - 8
Lightly breaded Calamari served with a side of house made tomato sauce.
Dessert
Tiramisu - 8
Soaked Ladyfingers with a hint of coffee perfection.
Creme Brulee - 8
House made vanilla bean Creme Brulee.
Spumoni - 7
Single scoop of Spumoni ice cream to cleanse your palate.
I copied it so the font changes and what not aren't all there. Tell me what you think and ANYTHING i can add/remove to make it look that much better :D Holla
A) Agree with the 'something
Allikat — Tue, 07/14/2009 - 10:51A) Agree with the 'something other than risotto" lots of risotto and lots of cheese. Perhaps something with a marinara or a pesto?
B) Pricing: 33% of food cost should help give a target price, at least that is how industry figures it out. ie...if it cost you a buck to make, charge $3 for it.
C) Your desserts are all custard based....your health conscious consumers are going to freak on you. Fruit, Chocolate, Seasonal, custard. Let me know if you need some ideas : )
D) What's your target market? Besides Italian food, are you going for people in the Portland area? New York? Miami? LA? Seattle? Granted you can't keep everyone happy but there are the vegitarians, the gluten frees, the lactose intolerant, and the hippies to think about when it comes to dishes. Also, is it a summer or winter menu? For summer they seem pretty heavy vs they would be really good during winter :D
e) just a thought, an aioli with the calamari?
f) anything with pecorino? sorry...sucker for that cheese :D
g) is the salami coming with anything? Other platter ideas would be soft, semi hard and hard cheese platter, few slices of baguette and honey and crackers
Everything that's there looks
Kognus — Tue, 07/14/2009 - 07:52Everything that's there looks very good. Perhaps one or two more pasta options and two to three pizzas (Margerita, Quattro Stagioni, and possibly one other one) would lend a bit more variety to the menu though. I totally agree with the "do a few things really really well" philosophy when it comes to restaurants and I absolutely would eat there, but having a couple more options wouldn't hurt in this case.
Your question was "would you
Karli — Mon, 07/06/2009 - 08:05Your question was "would you eat here?". The menu overall looks good, although having 3 risotto choices and only one other entree is a bit sparse. I know my husband does not care for lamb or risotto too much and so he would probably make us keep looking elsewhere. If there was another solid looking meat item on there like maybe a picatta or a marsala then maybe that could round out your options. Also, the appetizers are priced a bit high for what I would normally pay (I usually will not go over 8-9$) in comparison to the entrees. The last time I paid $12 for an appetizer was for a jumbo shrimp cocktail with my $35 steak.
good points
Vitriola — Mon, 07/06/2009 - 09:05Karl, you make good points and I must confess that I did not answer his actual question. Allow me to correct that.
The answer must be provisional. You do not list prices. I also would not go out of my way for risotto and certainly not for cold cuts unless I heard amazing things about them. I do not eat American lamb. I love it in Europe but in America it is too gamey for my taste. It tastes more like mutton than lamb to me. I think that, were I to find myself dining there, I would wonder what I would select from the list you give and wind up with the 3 cheese risotto because cheese just rules. Now for the provisional part: you said that it was in a resort. If the prices were good, the convenience would make a large part of the decision and I would probably give it a go.
Turth makes mayo too?
Derchlon — Sun, 07/05/2009 - 20:07I would eat from that menu, the bruschetta sounds really good especially.
Also, if you do make your own mayo, I'd like to try some. I make my own mayo myself, and have several varieties of it. Normal, Herbed, and a kind of Chipotle (not a true chipotle).
Anyway if you do make your own, if you could bring a small amount to the meetup I would definitely try it.
homemade mayo
Vitriola — Mon, 07/06/2009 - 07:53I make my own mayo. I usually keep it plain and add things ad hoc when I know just what I want added for some recipe. I have never gone with chipotle. I do not much go for hot foods, though sometimes I put in a little ground red pepper flakes or chives. Sometimes, I make an aioli. I do like to take mayo, add dijon until it has almost a salmon color, then add honey. It makes a tasty and very simple sauce for shrimp. All in all, I think that no store bought mayo can compete with homemade. Besides being a lot cheaper, it is far richer. I use one egg yolk per cup of oil. No store bought mayo does that, though kewpie (Japanese mayo at about $5 a jar) comes close.
Edit: For those that have never had the joy of homemade mayo, it is very simple. Try it this way:
http://www.justhungry.com/2006/02/basics_mayonnai.html
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Vitriola — Sun, 07/05/2009 - 19:11There sure are a lot of sales words in there. It is not sliced meats, it is "delicate sliced meats". It is not ladyfingers soaked in coffee but "soaked Ladyfingers with a hint of coffee perfection." Once you get through the sales, the menu seems simple and straightforward. This approach, done right, can be truly outstanding. Bread and cheese, sliced cold cuts, varieties of risotto, lamb in tomato sauce, etc. The way we do such at home bears no resemblence to what a good chef can do with it. There is considerable potential here.
OBTW, when you make your own mayonaise, do you use mustard powder or dijon, lemon or vinegar?
Mayo....
Enixa — Sun, 07/05/2009 - 22:091st, I don't eat mayo, I do make it however.... I use dijon and lemon juice, for a standard mayo. If i'm making a flavored blend everything must be puree'd and basically all liquid. I've made a habenero mayo. That didn't go so well.
i would try a habenaro
Grasen — Mon, 07/06/2009 - 09:49i would try a habenaro mayo, but to answer your question, no i wouldnt eat there, i dont do itialian.
sounds yummy to me.
Alexinaa — Sun, 07/05/2009 - 18:30sounds yummy to me.
It looks really, really
starstalker — Sun, 07/05/2009 - 17:15It looks really, really similar to the menu at Pastini's