Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Cesca, 12/13/05

Tonight was a pre-holiday treat with my parents. True to form, the first part of the evening was same-sex events only. JB & my Dad went to the University club for cocktails and my mom and I went to the Nutcracker. We met up for dinner, of course.

My mom had picked the restaurant, Cesca, since it was sort of close to Lincoln Center and she thinks it's "hot". JB and I, having never been, happily agreed and a I booked a reservation on opentable.com.

We arrived early at 8:20 for a 9:00 reservation. We asked if something was open and they said no, but to keep checking. We sat at 8:45 in a side room that seemed to have just opened. I'm not sure I would say Cesca is "hot" although it was certainly bustling.

I had heard about the parmesean fritters so I ordered those for the table. Everyone loved them. Who can disagree with fried cheese? There was a meat, pork maybe?, in the mixture, but it was pretty much 100% cheese tasting. A must order.

Because of the frigid temperatures we ordered two soups. My mom had mini-veal meatballs in a beef broth with acini di pepe. JB, my dad and I split a carrot soup. Which was light years ahead of the pumpkin soup JB and I made for Thanksgiving.

Main courses came quickly, too quickly. They had barely removed the soup bowls when the hot plates were put down.

My mom, who always has to have the most expensive thing on the menu, had the whole fish which was roasted dorado. A bit fishy for me, but the roasted tomatoes were perfect. JB had bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. I found it interesting to have two parts of the pig at once and so did he. I did not taste it, but JB devoured it. His plate also came with a surprise - fried broccoli rabe. Imagine broccoli tempura, this was amazing.

I had the smallest dish of all, a pasta with asaparagus and ricotta salata. The food was fine and the portion allowed me to try a lot of other dishes.

My dad had the lasagna and did not share, which I guess means he liked it.

Overall, the food was delicious. But we all agreed that the service was way too fast. They should have a dollar to minute ratio for food. If your dish costs less than $10 it should come out in less than 10 minutes. Less than $20, less than 20 minutes and less than $30 you get the idea. Otherwise, I think I'm getting ripped off.

Until we eat again, KLB

No comments: