La Strada -- Palo Alto

Cuisine: "Italian"
Sets you back: $15-20
Where it's at: 335 University Ave, downtown Palo Alto

First, note that this is NOT my favorite place in the world that I had promised to blog about next. I decided that I have to put more thought into that post (it's the least I could do for my favorite meal!) and therefore must postpone it. Instead, I will blog about the somewhat satifsying yet unsatisfying meal I had last night.

My cousin who now lives in London was visiting so the kids decided to go out. We finally decided on Italian, and I found this place on Yelp. I was pretty much sold when I saw this picture, but I'm now convinced after eating here that this picture was mistakenly uploaded to this restaurant.

Strangely enough, I was the only one out of my siblings to enjoy this meal. They both thought the service was terrible and the food mediocre, if not horrible. Actually, my brother's meal was pretty disgusting. Usually pictures don't really do justice to food (I was too self conscious to bust out the SLR) but this picture exactly depicts how gross his entree was.




They called it "Sausage Ravioli" but really is was like a really crappy sausage dumpling. It didn't contain any cheese and was swimming in oil. The only enjoyable part of this plate was the extra crispy bacon bits, but for $15 bucks? No, thank you. It was so bad that my brother was forced to order another pizza at the end, which was pretty good. My sister had ordered the Sicilian Tuna first, which we liked. I wish they had used white albacore tuna, but the carmelized onions outweighed the con.


My cousins order the Gnocci with Boar and Risotto Fruitt di Mare. No complaints there. I had ordered the Risotto with Sonoma Quail. I can't say that I cared too much for the quail stuffed with swiss chard. They basically took out the good stuff and stuffed it with a very bland green. I mean, where did the rest of the quail meat go?? It was cute how they made the quial look like a bull, even though it was a little weird. And I guess props for trying to use fresh peas, but really, who likes peas?


So why did I enjoy this meal exactly? Finally, to the best part :D I had noticed on one of their pizzas that an ingredient was TRUFFLE OIL. Ahhhhhhh, I would DIE for that stuff. Now I never make special requests at dinner (watch Kitchen Confidential to understand why) but I couldn't give up the chance to put truffle oil on my risotto (something I picked up at Risottoria in the West Village). It was A-MAZING. The fresh peas no longer bothered me, and I couldn't have cared less if the quail was stuffed or not or even there - my risotto was now beyond d.licious. And no, they didn't charge me for the sizeable side either! A huge plus.

But other disappointments included their Fried Calamari for $10 and their fresh Mozzarella cheese that we added to our cured meats starter. The Mozzarella tasted like white, solid water - pretty gross (trust).

So there you have it folks. You're better off avoiding this place (there are tons of places to try in downtown Palo Alto) unless you love truffle oil on your risotto. Mmmm.. truffle oil..

Oh and I should add that the night was salvaged because we went to have dessert around the corner... at The Oven. Just saying :)

--fatty regina has signed out of chat