new(?) Italian restaurant

[cellio]

Tonight Dani and I tried out a new-to-us Italian restaurant, La Cucina Flagrea in Squirrel Hill (Murray between Hobart and Phillips). I hadn't noticed it before, but it's kind of small so that doesn't mean it hasn't been there a while. (I was unable to figure out what store or restaurant it replaced. If I'm on that part of Murray I'm probably heading for either Chaya or Sushi House/Dumpling House and not paying much attention to the stuff in between.)

They had two specials, black sea bass and a gnocchi dish, so we decided to share those. (Each was around $27 -- not something we'll do often. Pasta dishes on the menu were around $15; I didn't look at the meat dishes.) Each special came with a (specified) appetizer, along with the choice of soup or salad that accompanies all their entrees.

I got the minnestrone soup (after confirming that it was vegetarian) and Dani got the mushroom soup. We both thought our soups were quite good. The gnocchi (in a tomato sauce with basil and cheese, though I forget which cheese it was) was tasty. The two appetizers, foccacia with cheese and peppers and red peppers stuffed with cheese and parsley (I think it was parsley) were decent.

The fish special was, err, unfortunate. They brought a whole fish (black sea bass isn't very large, it turns out; I'd be surprised if it had as much as 6oz of meat on it), which left us with the bones problem. I don't recall how they described the flavoring (they certainly claimed some), but what we got was very bland. It was supposed to come with asparagus but they ran out, so we got green beans instead; I thought they were ok and Dani thought they were decent for green beans (which he isn't generally fond of).

All portions were on the small side for the prices being charged. Overall, we've gotten better food, in better portions, at slightly lower prices, from Il Viletto in Oakland. And that's still in the space of "fancy enough that you'd take guests there", rather than some of the lower-end tasty places around.

Service was somewhat inattentive and clueless. Each entree came on a huge platter (inefficiently used, and they weren't making that up in presentation); there was no room on the table for both platters and anything else. (Our waiter moved the bread, the flower vase, and a couple other things onto an adjacent surface.) We'd said we would be sharing (the menu suggests this), but they didn't bring plates for us to use on the first pass. The fish and beans were part of the same special, but more than five minutes elapsed between getting the fish and getting the beans. (I started to eat the fish so it wouldn't get cold; Dani waited for the complete meal.) It took somewhere between five and ten minutes for Dani to get the hot water to go with the teabag they brought him right away. The gnocchi came without any utensils. We were offered "mineral water" when we sat down (presumably this had a price), but we were not offered just plain tap water. It took a while to get the check. Overall, while I didn't especially feel badly served, I did feel ineptly served. (Also slowly, but some of that appeared to be a kitchen problem rather than a waiter problem.)

The restaurant is smoke-free, which is a pleasant surprise. (It's small; they're definitely under the threshold where they're required to provide a non-smoking section.) The decor was inoffensive (which is all I ask for). One thing I don't usually notice, though: I sat in the most uncomfortable chair I've experienced recently. (And we were there for about an hour and a quarter, alas.)

I wonder how long they'll survive. Squirrel Hill isn't cheap, though I gather that commercial rent for the first year is deeply discounted.

Comments

[geekosaur]

LCF has been there for a while. Apparently they're quite good weekdays, but I'm told one should avoid them on weekends for the reasons you discovered; they tend to go for quantity over quality (and then split it into smaller portions) because they're much busier.

[cellio]

Thanks. I hadn't thought about weekday/weekend distinctions. (We were actually trying to go to Chaya, but they were closed and we walked past this place on the way back to the car.)