restaurant review: February 2008 Archives
My wife and I sent to Sensi this weekend. It's an Italian Chop House that has little to no advertising. I've seen two reviews of it, and you have to look really hard to find them. Veronica has one over at kitchenmusings, and I found another at citysearch.com. They have a registered URL - www.sensirestaurant.com -- but sadly, there is NOTHING there. It returns dns errors. This is either an oversight, or someone dropped the ball. The url is on their business cards.When I found the restaurant online, we were a little worried. No ads, no press, 2 reviews. We were either going to have a great dinner, or we would be on the next episode of Kitchen Nightmares. When we got there, all fears were left at the coat check. The restaurant has a very urban feel, ambient trance music, bold colors, metal accents, high ceilings, string lights. We were seated immediately. The tables were large, seats were comfortable, and the wait staff was very fast and receptive.
The drinks came out rather quickly, the waiter even checked to see if they had a hard to find wine in the back (they didn't). We decided to give the 7 course tasting menu ($80 a person). I asked if they would be able to do a shellfish free version for me, the waiter didn't even have to go back and check, he said it would be no problem. The table side bread service was fast, but the bread was mediocre. My wife commented on it before I even tried it. It was a lackluster French baguette, bland and unexciting. About halfway through out meal, a warm foccocia was making the rounds, but we were well past the stage of eating bread.
When the first course came out, the waiter brought both of us soup. Someone from the kitchen came out with him and asked which one of us had the shellfish allergy, he then switched the plates and explained to the wait-staff how to serve us from then on (this was quite impressive, usually I have to mention it over and over and over). My first course was a butternut squash soup with cream fraiche, nutmeg, sauteed mushrooms, and panchetta. It was SO good. I think the mushrooms were sauteed with the panchetta. It was nice to have the contrasting saltiness in the otherwise sweet soup. My wife got the lobster bisque, she was going to send t back and ask for a shellfish free meal (for my benefit), but I told her to give it a try. She loved it.Our second course was an appetizer sampler. Proscuitto wrapped melon, rare tuna, and an heirloom tomato with fresh buffalo mozzarella and micro greens. The plate was drizzled with a few condiments: reduced balsamic with wasabi, herbed oil, olive oil, and chives. My wife got a small crabcake instead of the tomato.
Our third course was strikingly different. My wife got seafood risotto. Shrimp, clams, oyster, mussels - very much like a Spanish paella with arborio rice. I got a sausage gnocchi. The wife got to try both, she preferred the risotto. This was surprising, I liked mine, and she typically doesn't eat seafood. I think I missed out on something special there :D
The fourth dish was a seared rockfish in a creamy sauce. The center of mine was wonderful, but the edges were a little overcooked and tough(I prefer rare fish).
The fifth dish was a microgreen salad with passion fruit emulsion, yellow and red beets, and goat cheese.
The main event was a rack of lamb, potatoes doppio, and broccoli rabe. I only have post destruction pics left... The lamb was cleaned well, seared very well, and quite good. The potatoes were excellent, but it was getting hard to eat at this stage. The broccoli had an almost Asian feel to them. Sesame, red pepper flakes, garlic - they were good, but almost felt out of place on the plate.Dessert was amazing. A trio of small desserts to make you feel uncomfortable. If you were able to keep up with the previous six courses, you would be very full by now. And you just had to eat them, they looked and tasted SO good. The 'worst' of the three was the bittersweet chocolate tart - I saw worst because it was out least favorite, not that is was bad, it was quite good. The semifreddo was our second favorite, very creamy and luscious, but the nutty base (hazelnut possibly) was a little hard to eat. We both liked the bodino the most, it was excellent with the fresh fruit and compote.
By the time we left, the place was pretty full, which means that word of mouth has done wonders for Sensi. We were both quite pleased, and will be returning in the future.
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