date: 7/22/03
location: minneapolis
grade: b

this is one of the places i always think i should like better than i actually do, based on it's rep. but i've never tasted anything i thought out of this world, and i've had a few things that could have been a lot better.

here i had the side caesar salad, and a bowl of minestrone. the salad was pretty darn good, and not dressing laden, with nice curls of parmesan instead of the shreds you get in a lot of places. the soup was good, but it was a bit oily. the bread was good, not great.

the desserts i tasted (one of them some kind of tiramisu cheesecake, heavy on the espresso in the ladyfingers, the other a creme caramel) were good. the mushroom stuffed ravioli, ditto. but again, based on the fact that many people adore this place, i feel a bit... bereft. oddly, the take-out store across the way (broder's cucina italian, or something like that, there's a few tables there, too), i enjoy a lot more, even though it's the same rep. strange, that.