DOMANI --take two 6.16.07

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.

Domani Italian Bar and Trattoria -tasting menu

Last Wednesday, I hit Domani with my good friend Aud. I had met the Executive Chef Rene Michelena recently and thought him to be very cool. He actually won Food and Wine Magazines Best New Chef back in 1998 and has worked in our lovely nation's great restaurants including the luxurious Charlie Trotters in Chicago.

Entering the space, it is very cool and slick design. There is even a moped in one wall as part of the design. The open porch area is cool but it did get cooler as the night wore on. I decided to opt for the 4 course chef tasting menu. After inquiring with our waiter, I found out that it was actually five including the dessert. I wanted to say hello to Rene but he was not in and had the day off. I know how having a day off from work is SOOOO valuable! You treasure your time off from work! It is so important!

Anyways, we had a nice meal and the chef tastings menu was a deal at $50 for four courses (then the waiter shares it is actually five including the dessert). Our main waiter was very good who came over a few times and asked if we wanted to the door closed. See there are big open area and it was a cool night. We opted for it to stay open but it was nice to have great attention. There was one point, the host started moving our table then in the middle of moving our table asked if it was ok to do so. (Aud was not amused and thought it not well done of him). Otherwise, I had no problems with service.

Since I got the tasting menu, my friend would get her pasta dish after I had the first three courses of mine. (Usually not sold if not everyone is at the table getting it, but we were conducting a meeting so we were not in a rush.).

I was remiss in taking a pic of my caprese salad which was delicious! Cheese from Italy and the tomatoe and balsamic vineger etc were lovely. Following it, I got the ravoili with cheese truffle (very decadent) which was delicious! The texture of the pasta you can tell it is homemade! I am reminiscing the flavors the textures of the food I ate in Italy. YUMMY ! Next course, I had the indian spices rubbed salmon (not dry) but the fresh peas with roe accents were nice. The meat dish is the pork medallion over zucchini.

Dessert was the rhubarb shortcake. The fresh strawberries and cream were lapped up by moi. Unfortunately the rhubarb shortcake though lovely in taste was a bit on the "hard" side. I ended up not finishing it was TOO TOUGH!

I give the meal a 7 forks out of 10 forks because of the service (moving the table without informing us and the toughness of the rhubarb shortcake!).