Delicious Ottimo Italian Restaurant (2004-12-03)
KL and I walked past an Italian restaurant in Shinjuku (
)
which looked very stylish and seemed to be serving delicious
food. We decided to give it a try and went inside. The restauant is on the top floor of a three-story building.
Long flights of stairs bring diners to the restaurant where waiters in
crisp white uniforms and long black aprons welcome them. Since we
didn't want to be seated in one of the tables squeezed among many in a
small section designated for non-smokers, we took our chance and chose
one facing the window overlooking Takashimaya (
) Department Store and the
street in the smoking section. Fortunately for us, not one person
in the tables surrounding ours smoked that night.
As soon as we were seated, a waitress showed us the drink menu and
placed a blackboard on which that day's special dishes were written on
our table. We both ordered from it and forwent the set dinner
menu. I ordered smoked duck breast and apple salad and roasted
game hen with porcini mushrooms sauce while KL had fresh oysters and
sea urchin pasta. I didn't taste his food but mine was so very
delicious.
The salad was accented with minuscule dried currants whose slight tartness provided the perfect balance to the rich and fragrant smoked duck meat which was concealed under a bed of baby leaves and crunchy apples dressed with extra virgin olive oil. It was one of the best salad I have eaten. My main course was also fabulous. The boneless breast meats were soft and juicy and the earthy porcini mushrooms complemented the slightly robust flavor of the game hen perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. I think KL was a little jealous of my food actually.
After dinner we went across the street to Takashimaya's 12th floor to get ice-cream at Donetella's for dessert. The gelato and sorbet were yummy and the flaky wafer which came with the ice-cream was even better. That wafer alone is worth going back for a second cup of ice-cream.
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