It has been a year since I've been to Scarpetta. I remember having wonderful scallops,a pasta bolognese and a pasta with shaved truffles. They were all wonderful and I couldn't wait to go back.
I looked forward to our 6 pm dinner reservation last night. We got to the beautiful Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills early; so we thought perhaps they could take us earlier. No such luck as they didn't open till 6 pm.
At 6:02 pm they escorted us to our choice of tables. We were told that upstairs is more quiet so we opted for the upstairs, besides we figured it would be good to burn a a few more calories.
We were tempted to order the tasting menu but decided to decline as we had certain dishes in the menu we wanted to try. We ordered the beet salad, the creamy polenta and the cod.
While we waited for our order, a small selection of bread was served with olive oil infused w/lemon, a flavored butter (can't remember the flavor) and eggplant w/olive oil that was delicious. Our favorite was the bread that had genoa salami and cheese which was very tasty.
The salad and the polenta arrived at the same time. Our server poured the fricassee of truffled mushrooms over the polenta. It looked divine as you can see in the picture.
Sandi and I simultaneously took a spoonful of it; we were speechless! This is surely an appetizer they would serve in heaven. If I were in death row, I would ask for this as my last meal. The recipe can be found on the internet but it is too long and complicated (at least for me).
The beet salad was just o.k.,after tasting the polenta it did nothing to excite our taste buds.
Chef Conant's spaghetti with tomato and basil is known for its simplicity yet big on flavor. I asked for parmesan cheese and our waiter informed me that it already had parmesan. I think he really meant to say: "It's perfect the way it is and you shouldn't add anything". While he was getting the cheese, I did try it and it did need a little more oomph. After he sprinkled some on my mound of spaghetti, then and only then was it really perfect. It was aldente as should be.
The cod was disappointing. Nothing really wrong with it but once you've had the cod at Nobu, you can't help but compare. Next time, I will try something else.
Our waiter was about to recite the desserts of the evening; he started with the Vanilla Caramel Budino. He described this as a pudding with salted sable crunchy cookies, caramel sauce and home made whipped cream. We both interrupted him and told him we didn't care to hear the rest. We decided to order 1 each. We normally would have ordered 2 different desserts to split but we both are suckers for salted caramel. Wow, I know for sure this is one of the desserts served in heaven.
We could tell that it was loaded with calories.. made with eggs, heavy cream, brown sugar, butter.
Sandi is already planning her next trip to Scarpetta so she can order the polenta and the Budino. I will have to do her a big favor by accompanying her as I'm sure she won't want to eat alone.
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