My wife and I ate here on a Sunday evening (3/28/10). We had a 7:15 reservation, and they seated us early.
After looking over the menu, we decided we would go for the Gran Menu di Mare for two ( $155/person)
We both enjoy red wine, but aren't terribly knowledgeable, so I asked the waiter to select one. He asked for a price range, and we had the Il Borro 2006 Super Tuscan ($92), which was very good and complemented the meal well (so much so that we finished it far before we were done eating which is very rare.) The sky is the limit on their wine list, BTW, so for more experienced (or flat out baller) customers, prices range from about $50 to well into four figures.
The menu included the following (all items are available on the a la carte menu):
Appetizers
- grilled saber fish, radicchio, anchovy sauce
We both thought the fish was just a little overdone. I found the bitterness of the radicchio to be too strong for the mild flavor of the fish, so overall, this was pretty average and our least favorite of the appetizers.
- seared sea scallops with porcini mushrooms
Two scallops, perfectly cooked, served with sauteed mushrooms...delicious
- sauteed tiny clams with tomato sauce, white wine, parsley
A very generous portion of sauteed clams with a nice, fresh flavor. This dish suffered a bit based on the pacing (more on that later.)
- Ligurian octopus salad, olive oil, lemon
Steamed chunks of octopus in a simple dressing. I am not a big fan of octopus, which as often as not is tough and slightly bitter. This particular preparation was fantastic. Fork-tender, but with a good mouth feel. This was the best of the appetizers.
- grilled langoustines
Two grilled langoustines, split in half. There was some kind of a crusting on the body portion that reminded me of thermidor, but not as heavy, while the meat in the tail was simply grilled and seasoned. This dish is not included with the Menu di Paranza, and accounts for a portion of the difference in price.
A minor quibble I had with the pacing here, is that they brought the first four appetizers out at the same time, and the langoustines just a couple of minutes later. We could have been having an eating contest and not gotten through it all before something started getting cold, much less trying to savor what we were eating, and talking about what we liked/didn't like.
Believe me, we can have at it with a fork, and we are definitely not pretentious foodies having a 20-minute discussion on, well, whatever pretentious foodies have 20-minute discussions on, but I'd rather they brought them out 2 at a time and maybe the langoustines last, since that's one of the special items with that menu.
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Settings are changed here, and fresh, hot plates are brought out for the pasta dishes.
Pasta
- risotto with clams, scallops, lobster, calamari
Perfectly prepared, creamy, and good portions of shellfish such that you get a good combination of flavors in every bite.
- penne with lobster
This is the second difference for this menu...the Menu di Paranza does not have lobster in this dish. If I had to guess, I would say they allot ~2 ounces of lobster per person. The penne and lobster were both cooked well, but the star of this dish is actually the sauce. The sign at the front said no t-shirts, but didn't mention anything about not sopping up this sauce with the bread.
- ricotta ravioli, pecorino, marsala with glaze
Basic (as basic as it gets here) ravioli with two different cheeses. Believe me, it's good, but not "Wow!"
Again, reset the table...
Main course
- whole sea bream
I wasn't sure which sea bream, specifically (there were two on the menu) but a whole roasted fish is disassembled tableside, and presented with a simple dressing of cherry tomatoes, zucchini, olive oil and just a hint of acid (might be a little bit of lemon juice and vinegar both, not sure.)
The meat was very juicy and very slightly sweet, and overall you can definitely tell that the fish was very fresh (there are no cloudy eyes in the cart when they roll it out to show you the fresh seafood before taking orders.)
This was the second minor quibble I had: I wouldn't have minded being able to choose from some different fish, perhaps even to the point of adjusting the price...I dunno, just a thought.
Table cleared, and you are overwhelmed with dessert!
Dessert_s_
- Ligurian lemon and olive oil cake, rosemary gelato
- chocolate almond cake, white chocolate gelato, chocolate sauce
- chocolate gelato, raspberry sorbet, not sure which granite
All I'll say about this is, save room!
The staff were very attentive, and our primary server was helpful in answering questions as well as making a wine selection. There is a dress "suggestion", but it was loosely enforced. If you're at Venetian, it's an easy walk. Definitely expensive, but worth it for a special occasion!
