When we arrived downstairs, the room was almost empty – only two other tables were occupied. At first it seemed a quiet, lovely respite from the noisy and crowded upper floor. Unfortunately, within a few minutes we started to shiver from the overly aggressive air conditioning. A brief comment to the maître d' was received with grace, and sure enough, someone appeared downstairs to dial some sort of button and told us that it should be less cold shortly. The other two families in the room waved to us and said, “We hope so - we’ve been freezing too!” No such luck, and despite repeated requests for adjustment, we were uncomfortably cold during the entire visit. If you knew me you’d realize just how cold it must have been – I’m the one in the room who is always hot and asking for MORE air conditioning.
But I’m supposed to be writing about the food, no? The rolls, butter and tapenade that arrived with the menus were delicious. The warm rolls were slightly onion flavored and freshly baked, and we relished every bite and asked for more. After scanning the menu carefully, we decided on sharing five appetizers/small plates and one entrée. The wait seemed interminable, but finally two appetizers arrived. The pan-seared scallops served with Enoki mushrooms in a spicy lobster stock and fresh grapefruit sauce were delicious. Just spicy enough to tantalize and wake up the taste buds, with a grapefruit sauce that begged to be soaked up with the chewy rolls. The special appetizer of the day was a similar dish, only this was made with shrimp and a variety of mushrooms. We enjoyed both, though the shrimp was perfectly cooked and particularly tasty paired with the grapefruit sauce.
The next two dishes to arrive – about 40 minutes later - were small portions of fresh pea and prosciutto risotto and fettuccini alfredo. The risotto was so full of parmesan that the cheese was literally all we could taste. It was also stiff and chewy enough to be unpleasant. A few bites into it, and we pushed it aside. The second small plate was the fettuccini alfredo. Anyone who orders this particular pasta dish knows to expect a rich sauce, but it went beyond rich to actually greasy tasting, with streams of oil congealing on the sides of the plate. After a few bites it was also hard to take. The hard, congealed food was partially due to the temperature in the room, which quickly turned anything on our table frosty within minutes. We actually began ordering hot tea to warm up. A teenager sipping hot tea in a restaurant to stay warm is a painful sight.
Our remaining dishes were an intriguing sounding eggplant carpaccio with mixed greens in a spicy vinaigrette, and a New Zealand Lamb Shank, braised with aromatic herbs and red wine and served with risotto milanese. Both dishes were okay. Just okay. At that point we had literally been in the restaurant for two very cold hours and were more than ready to go home. Our appetites had pretty much vanished, our good moods evaporated, and the tea left in our teacups was forming an icy skin. When the two final dishes arrived, the other two tables had left, and we were quite alone in the icy cold basement of Carmelina’s. It felt a little bit like restaurant detention, eerie and weird. Above the stairs, we could hear the piano player and people bustling about, but down below it was just us, a bunch of empty tables, a fish tank and a very powerful air conditioner.
Within minutes the lamb was absolutely cold to the touch. I happen to love roasted lamb – it’s one of my favorite dishes - but this dish was disappointing. The flavor was okay, and it looked pretty enough, but roasted lamb should be so tender it literally falls off the bone. This needed more cooking (or maybe I just wanted it to be hotter?). The risotto that came with it was a slightly different preparation than the small plate we’d eaten an hour earlier, but suffered from the same overly cheesy, stiff texture. I was able to stand a fork up in it . . . literally. It might have been inappropriate to play with my food in that way, but who was there to see it?
We waited another half hour for the server to return, fetch our check, deal with the credit card and return the slip. Our friendly waitress was surprised that we didn’t want the leftovers packed up (just let us out of here!). We exited in relief, thawing in the warm night and drove home exclaiming over our astonishing nearly three-hour meal. It’s not like we had multiple courses – we had told the server to bring the plates together, or as soon as they were ready - nor did we have dessert. It was just a torturously slow night, most likely at least a partial result of the separation between us and the rest of the civilized world.
I think it will be a very long time before we venture back into Carmelina’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment