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2011-03-03
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If I had written about the dinner I had here last year, I would have given it a crying face. But since it was so substandard, I didn't even bother to write about it. This time, a foodie friend said the food there is really nice and she got to know the chef, so we wanted to give it another try. Nicholini's has been here forever and isn't a restaurant anyone can get excited about especially when there are newer places like Domani and more serious places like Da Domenico around. Anyway, here we wer
The bread selection was good. I tried a small cheese croissant, an olive bread and part of a squid ink brioche. They serve bread with truffle butter which made the warm bread taste even better, so a very good start. Bread says a lot about restaurants.
Our starter was scallops done in 3 ways. One was with a piece of fried fois gras on top
A second was with an avocado mousse topped with a piece of shaved truffle
The third is wrapped in bacon and on top of a pumpkin puree and a slice of courgette
All 3 were delicious and totally different. The scallops was well cooked inside and still firm and sweetSecond course was a small portion of penne cooked in Gorgonzola cheese with morel mushroom and walnuts. This was perfect and the blue cheese sauce was not too rich or oily. The portion was just right. I was too happy and forgot to take a photo.
Third course was thick bouillabaisse with a large prawn or langoustine in the middle. The soup was thick and full of tomato flavour. Of all the courses that evening, this was the least special
Then came a green apple and celery sherbet. I am not a fan of celery but since this was a free palate cleanser, I didn't ask to have it changed. And it was a very clever combination of flavours that completely did its job of refreshing the palate letting us look forward to the main course.
This course was originally roast pigeon in a liquorice reduction sauce but since 4 of us did not like the idea of liquorice, we asked the chef to change it to a more ordinary sauce, like red wine or what he would normally serve roast meats with. The pigeon was beautiful, tender and full of game flavour. Our sauce was deiicious but the 2 friends who stayed with the liquorice sauce said their sauce were really delicious with no horrible taste of liquorice. Never mind, we were all happy with our decisions.By now, none of us needed dessert or coffee but since we opted for the full menu, we bravely ate on. Instead of Tiramisu which the chef suggested, we wanted a change and the head waiter suggested we have a dessert platter where Tiramisu is one of the desserts. So that made everyone happy as some of us like tiramisu but I don't. I was wrong and the tiramisu here was not like the regular type. It was creamy, rich in chocolate and had very nice cake in between. There was also a small triangle of cassata, a frozen ice cream like dessert, a chocolate fondant and the white cube which resembled a Lamington was a half mousse half marshmallow like coconut dessert. It tasted much better than its ordinary look. Have to say, apart from the cassata which was not special, the other 3 were outstanding.
We had all grossly overeaten but couldn't stop complementing on the food and the chef. A good coffee was what we just needed to end the perfect meal. Sad to say that knowing the chef made a world of difference. Next time you want to have dinner at Nicholini's, call ahead to ask the head waiter Duncan to ask the chef to design a menu for you.Post
