Recently I went to Domani Bar and Trattoria again for their chef tasting menu. It was wonderful and I had met the chef after interviewing him recently. Great guy and wonderful delicious food!
It is a bargain steal at $50 a person (before drink, tax and tip) for four course and the fifth is dessert! I guess we got the royal treatment because we got to savor alot of great tastes. Our waitress was very attentive and everyone else was great. Our water was continually filled and on a Saturday night it seemed to be a quiet night.
We started out with raw oysters with a watermelon mignonette (a great refreshing combo with brine and sweetness). Next we got the seared scallops over two different colored beets (the orange one had a bit more flavor --yummy) and the other dish was dry rubbed salmon over a fresh peas and corn salad. It was great and I loved the fresh peas and corn! The pasta dishes (made fresh daily) were a tagliatelle with mushrooms (fantastic in its simplicity and taste) and asparagus the earthiness of the mushrooms were musky but an excellent accent. The potato gnocchi with tomato cream fresh peas created lovely flavors for me. My dining companion did not care for the raw garlic though.
With surprise, the chef brought out entrees--a lovely lamb chop served with figs (sweetness melded well with the meat) and the duck confit (with an Asian twist Peking duck style). Well the meat was medium rare and lovely with the grilled figy being fantastic! Plus the collard greens with the lamb chops added a very nice slightly bitter accent I enjoyed. My friend BN and I had to put down our forks to savor the duck confit dish. We wanted more and this dish was a home run for the both of us! SCORE!
The finale was a lovely plate of four desserts---mango pudding, chocolate fondue, tiramisu and grandmarnier cheesecake. After having the great food, you can tell the desserts are not the chef's territory. Though pleasant though lacked the punch of the other four courses. The grapefruit segments over the cheesecake cut the richness, the tiramisu was alright, the mango pudding was wonderful and the fondu was a bit cold.
**Food and Wine Magazine had hailed the chef Rene Michelena as Best New Chef in 1998! Since then he has worked at some great places among them Charlie Trotter and Dove.
I give this place a 10 forks out of 10 forks.
