Someone wrote:
|> I for one am happy that Squirrel Hill FINALLY has a good reasonably-priced
|> Italian restaurant with authentic dishes, comparable in quality to hundreds
|> of small restaurants in larger markets like NYC and San Francisco, where
|> people regularly wait hours to be seated.
My husband and I finally checked out La Flegrea last night after reading
many glowing reviews, and were both disappointed (and mystified at why it's
been getting the reviews it has). The dinner salad was pathetic -- a few mixed
greens and two crunchy tomato wedges in an oily dressing. The soup (chicken
and vegetable) was reportedly "okay, but not amazing". The appetizers (we
had the green beans with garlic and lemon and the fennel/radish(?)/something
else salad) were okay, if not particularly noteworthy -- decently fresh, but
somewhat bland. We both had the day's special of spinach fettucini in a
four-cheese sauce as our entree. The pasta was decent quality (I couldn't tell
whether it was fresh or dried), but was stuck together in spots (and
undercooked in those spots) as if someone was overcrowding the pot while
cooking it. The sauce was uninspired, and a somewhat globby mess. We split a
piece of tiramisu (pleasantly light and cognac-ey, although the plating was
wretched). Dinner came to $54. (The specials were $16 apiece.)
Frankly, their prices are way out of line for the quality (both of food and
presentation), and I didn't think any part of the meal was particularly
spectacular. I haven't been in NYC enough to know the restaurant scene there,
but La Flegrea would sink like a stone in San Francisco. I'd love to see
a fraction of the restaurant culture of SF in Pittsburgh, but it's going to
have to do better than this. We don't plan on going back.
BTW, we arrived around 8:30 and were promptly seated (at a table just inside
the door, under a continually-too-loud speaker). I did notice that some
parties arriving later had to wait for a while for someone to acknowledge
their presence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[email removed] I tell you, we are here on earth to fart around,
and don't let anybody tell you any different.
- Kurt Vonnegut, _Harper's_, 11/95Pittsburgh, PA