Porsena

Occasion: Winnie's birthday!
Location: Porsena on E 7th between 2nd and 3rd
Edibles: pea risotto and baby octopus starters to share; various pasta mains (more detail below)

Musings: There's a lot to like about this restaurant. It's a cute, cozy space. The staff couldn't have been nicer to us. The food gave me the impression that the chef really has a strong food philosophy, and cares about good ingredients.

That said, I'd give it an average score of B+. There was a something about almost every dish that was just a little bit off. With a few small tweaks, it could be amazing. (Or at least amazing to me. It's entirely possible that the chef and I just don't have the same palate, whereas you might find the flavors perfect as they are now. Porsena is kind of place where you tend to give the chef the benefit of the doubt.)

The pea risotto, for example. The perfect spring dish, it was competently prepared. I did find it oversalted, and texturally it needed to be a bit looser. (You can tell by the way it's mounded up in the picture that it's too stiff. A perfect risotto would slowly ooze into shallow puddle.)

The octopus was great. No problems there.

I also ordered the beef tongue appetizer, more out of curiousity than anything. I liked the concept of the dish; I think the pickled vegetables were absolutely the right side to serve with the meat. The tongue itself was a little mealy. Maybe it should have been served cold instead of room temp? I'd skip this dish, at any rate.

For my main, I got the pasta with spicy lamb sausage. The pasta was very interesting, a wide tube shape with ridges on the inside. It was cooked perfectly al dente. The lamb sausage had a great flavor - unfortunately, I could only enjoy the complexities of the flavor for a few bites before the aggressive spiciness numbed my mouth.

I also tasted of Winnie's uni pasta and Gabrielle's pasta curls with many cheeses. The sea urchin sauce was too rich and too fishy for my taste. I don't think I could have finished a whole dish of it. Winnie loved it, though. The cheese sauce was likewise too rich, though I loved the whimsical pasta shape.

I give this place at least one more try. Start with the octopus and maybe try another pasta.