Bologna: a couple of restaurant reviews

[jducoeur]

I'm mostly keeping this impressionistic instead of diaristic, but dinner the past couple of nights has been good enough that it's worth a couple of briefs reviews and kudos.

On the one hand, last night we went to Parlor. This one focuses on atmosphere and attitude -- looking at their homepage, it projects sophisticated casual, and that was definitely accurate: moderately high-end but not at all stuffy.

The food was innovative to the point of startling, though. Both of our Primi were great -- Kate's pasta was in a light crema, with salmon and roe, and mine was a fusilloni in a ragu of octopus and 'nduja (flavorful with a great bite from the 'nduja). After that, I was fairly sure the Secondo that we split would be relatively boring, but it was anything but: it was venison with endive and, no shit, an onion granita. (Imagine a powerfully onion-flavored sherbet and you're getting into the ballpark.) It was weird as hell, but paired beautifully with the meat, and might turn out to be the standout dish of the entire vacation.

Slight ding for the fact that our waitress' English wasn't great (I think she was also newer, and slightly scattered), which made things slightly challenging here and there, but that's a small detail.

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Tonight was a rather different feel. Ristorante Benso is more traditionally white tablecloth; we sat outside (the weather is lovely), so didn't experience the full luxe experience, but the vibe is classically high-end, with service to match.

The food isn't quite as wild as that at Parlor, but still excellent. We started with Kate getting a couple of shrimp (just to compare the red and purple shrimp that they offered), while I got a plate of beautifully-prepared grilled octopus. For mains, I got the Spoja Lorda, tiny riccota/anchovy ravioli in a turnip green pesto (absolutely delish) and tiny baby squid, while she went for the classic Tagliatella al Ragu. Everything was a delight: a sophisticated city dinner in a quiet little Bologna alley.

I'm slightly concerned that it wasn't very busy, which I think is because of location -- it's in the middle of the old Jewish ghetto, and there is nothing on that block: you have to know to turn down this street to find it. (I discovered it by accident our first afternoon in Bologna, when I was wandering somewhat aimlessly and the menu caught my eye.) It's near the student quarter, but this is very much not a student restaurant, and it's impossible to drive within a few blocks of it. (Part of the motivation for this post is to link to it and help build wordfame: folks need to be looking for it.)

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Anyway, both places get a big thumbs-up from me. If you find yourself in Bologna, I highly recommend checking them out!