Despite quirks, fledgling Italian eatery looks promising
La Stradauul. Klopotowskiego 23/25WarsawHours: Noon - MidnightTelephone 670 0527Reservations and credit cards accepted
Once upon a time, on holiday in Mexico with my sister, we shared a linguistic moment.
It happened over breakfast. In broken Spanish, my sister was endeavoring to order an omelette with ham, toast and apple juice. It was going well until she made a fundamental mistake she tried to change her order. I was confused, my sister was confused, but more importantly, the waitress was confused. As the waitress hurried away to the kitchen, my sister turned to me and said, "You don't think she thought I was asking for apple in my omelette, do you?"
"No," I replied, dismissing her silly question with a wave of my hand. Suffice it to say, 15 minutes later our delicious breakfast arrived with perfectly cut rings of apple sitting in my sister's fluffy omelette.
The lesson ordering in a foreign language can often be a complex and disastrous affair. I have just had one such experience at La Strada, a new Italian restaurant O.T.B. (Over the Bridge) in the middle of Praga.
On that icy Monday night, our taxi delivered Roseanne and me to a cute restaurant covered in fairy lights with a wonderful adjoining park. La Strada opened in mid-December in what was formerly a gymnasium, but you'd never know it. As we entered, we walked over a little indoor cobblestoned bridge, with a bubbling fountain and pond. We checked our coats and entered the restaurant proper a great big Italianate reproduction movie set. If Sophia Loren had been dining on the upstairs balcony, or if I'd spied Gina Lollobrigida and Victor Mature in the corner, I would not have been surprised. I don't know what it is about Warsaw Italian restaurants at the moment, but the trend appears to be "go faux."
We were the only customers in the restaurant and chose a table on a big enclosed veranda with ceiling-to-floor windows that looked onto the park. I'm sure it would be wonderful in summer.
The menu was huge pages of starters, pasta dishes, and main dishes beef, veal and seafood. Desserts were there too, plus salads and extras such as potatoes and vegetables. Each entry came with a long and detailed explanation either in Polish or Italian. And therein lies the rub: My restaurant Italian is basic, but my Polish is even worse. Roseanne's linguistic capabilities are about the same, so suddenly ordering our dinner turned into a bit of a challenge.
Another challenge was ordering the wine. There was none! What about a beer? Nope. None of that either. La Strada's liquor license is still being processed, but (fingers crossed) I'm told it will be arriving soon.
So, after the crushing blow that there would be no red wine with dinner, I turned again to the menu. After much ruminating, Roseanne chose the risotto di funghi. Her grandparents were Italian and she was hoping to get something like her Nona used to make, but instead this risotto was more soup than the plump, moist, clingy grains of aborio rice you'd expect.
"I think I need to eat it with a spoon," she quipped.
I chose the vitello tonnato. Well, I actually wanted it for my main meal, but there was some confusion and it came first. Vitello tonnato is one of those dishes I always look at on a menu, and never order. It is cold poached veal, topped with a tuna mayonnaise. The tonnato sauce was good rich with tuna flavor and a few capers scattered on top. The veal, I suspect, was actually bought sliced from the deli rather than freshly cooked. I was a little disappointed.
I also attempted to order a green salad. The waiter suggested the insalata Astoria. The moment I saw it apple, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise I realized it was Waldorf salad. By now, I felt like I was drowning in a puddle of mayonnaise. It was a nice salad, but not after my vitello tonnato.
We were brought a basket of crisp bread rolls, and my bucatin allatriciana quickly followed. Thick pasta with a rich tomato sauce, it is supposed to be spicy, but like most Polish-Italian fare, it was lacking in the pepper department.
Roseanne had a bit of a problem with her main too. She ordered the fegato di vitello alla venezia con polenta, which I told her is "probably veal." What she got was chopped liver. It was good tender and in a rich sauce with rings of onions doused in very hot paprika. It came with polenta squares that were a little too fluffy and bland for Roseanne's taste.
Dessert was a bit of a squeeze. Their house specialty, tiramisu, was off, so Roseanne chose the panna cotta literally set cream. It was smooth and rich, but a little too firm. It came with a dark berry sauce that turned her teeth blue.
My dessert was my final boo-boo. I chose the sorbetto di frutta con gelato al limone thinking it would be a bowl of refreshing icy gelatos. Instead, it was a fruit whip that I drank from a glass. It was fine just a little surprising.
All in all, I have to say my dining experience here was a bit of a disaster I suspect because of my poor choices. I'd definitely go back to La Strada, but I'd take someone with me to help me navigate through the vast menu because I know there must be some goodies lurking in there. And I'd ring first to find out whether wine is being served yet. Dinner for two, including non-alcoholic drinks, came to zl. 179 ($45).
On the menu:
Vitello tonnatozl.25Risotto di funghizl.22Bucantin allatricianazl.21Fegao di Vitello alla venezia con polentazl.32Sobetto di Frutta con gelato al limonezl.14Panna Cottazl.7Cappuccinozl.7Campara apperitifzl.10
