Italy without the Italians
Restauracja Casa Patio
Ul. Odrzanska 2
Wroclaw
Tel. (71) 341-7101
Hours: 1:00 p.m.-last guest
Reservations and credit cards accepted
From the outside, with my cold nose pressed up against the glass window, Casa Patio looked sublimely enticing: beautifully set tables with plenty of white china, silver cutlery and flickering candles.
Inside, it had the feel of a diorama from a local museum, with Italianate artifacts and paraphernalia crowding every spare nook and cranny.
Opened in August, Casa Patio is an ambitious effort, with a large wine list and more seafood on the menu than you'll probably find in the whole of Wroclaw. The servings are big enough to feed a hungry Roman gladiator, with plate decoration that can only be described as ... exuberant. But maybe I would have enjoyed my meal more if they focused on the basics rather than the superfluous.
The weirdest thing is that for a Mediterranean restaurant, it has a dearth of Italian food. There was a smattering of French, a "Menu of the Month" that featured Spanish cuisine, and even some Hungarian goulash, but not much Italian, and disappointingly, just one very lonely pasta dish: vegetarian cannelloni.
High point: The casolettes I ordered. I'm still not sure what casolettes are. At first I thought it might be the French classic, casoulet a rich bean and sausage stew but it turned out to be cod fillets wrapped in grape leaves and poached in stock. It was served on a bed of herb tagliatelle and topped with two very large prawns and an artistic sprinkling of dried dill. The pasta was the best I've tasted in a long time and the fish was great, if a little rubbery as cod can sometimes be.
The French onion soup was also rather special nice and light, and not too pungent with a touch of paprika and herbs. And it went well with the bottle of Greek Nemea Boutari (zl. 55) we ordered a red so cheap and cheerful, it almost sang for its supper, although the zl. 1,320 bottle of 1989 Krug Champagne was tempting.
On the dessert front, the fruit tart served with a small scoop of honey ice cream was a winner. The pastry was light, the custard rich and the apple soft and sweet. And special marks to the chef, who had so much fun with the squeeze-on chocolate sauce and flaked almonds.
Low point: Apart from the lack of Italian dishes, the menu was in Polish and none of the waiters spoke English. I know I'm a visitor in this country, but a restaurant pitching itself at the upper end of the range could surely have a translated version. It made it a bit confusing as to whether the salmon really was served with snail mousse or what they meant when they said ragout. I thought I'd be getting a rich meat and vegetable stew for my entree. But what arrived instead was a large crisp crepe basket filled with a blob of some basciaola type concoction all cream and mushrooms. Not bad, but not what I thought I'd ordered.
Service: Spotless just like the starched white aprons the waiters wore. They were attentive and worked hard with my dining companion's Polish inadequacies when it came to explaining some of the basic points of their cuisine.
Prices: With such a wide selection to choose from, you can get something to suit just about every budget, but some of the seafood specials were rather expensive. For example, grilled shrimp with aromatic lavender and green salad a kind of seafood/backyard fusion dish was zl. 165.
When to go: At lunchtime, it's the Wroclaw business set ... and by evening, well, some of the business set are still there, chugging away on their Australian chardonnay and rubbing shoulders with young couples and friends.
From the menu:
French onion soup zl.14
Ragout of fish and mushrooms in an herb crepe
zl.28
Grilled prawns with saffron rice and green salad
zl.45
Boiled cod wrapped in grape leaves on a bed of herb tagliatellezl.48
Lemon sole with lime saucezl.90
Baked Dorado with almond butter, asparagus and potatoes
zl.70
Fruit tart of the house
zl.12
Tiramisuzl.18
