OK, some of you may remember my unflattering description of a failed attempt to
dine at this Mt. Washington restaurant shortly after it opened, way back about
the end of December. I spoke of unhelpful directions over the phone, lack of
decor, inconvenient non-smoking seating, the no-credit cards (which was to be
remedied the following weekend), the stench of sewage outside the front door,
etc.
I must admit that my description was fueled by my frustration at not eating until
after 10pm that night, after we went home in disgust and picked up a pizza.
Well, in a spirit of fair play and adventure, we decided to try again. We got
there about 8:00 last night (no reservations) and asked right away about credit
cards. They still don't take them; we got the same story about how they were
supposed to have been hooked up with the machine the previous weekend, blah blah
blah. Despite the still-present eau de septique, we walked to the Mac machine, returned, and were seated immediately.
The place is not pretentious at all; vinyl flooring, plastic table cloths,
chipped, mis-matched china. This is not a problem in itself; plenty of places
don't look like much but serve decent food (Big Jim's and Winner's come to mind).
Portobello's menu looks promising (see it at http://portobello.lm.com/),
and the owners/help are very friendly. We heard about Howard Hessman's visit
there the previous week, and got to admire the basket of mushrooms on the counter.
Our selections for the evening (descriptions from their Web page):
Wedding Soup (Large Cup 1.75)
The Portobello (small one, $5.50) A portobello mushroom stuffed with
crabmeat. Pick your mushroom from our basket
Fried Zucchini (4 pieces, 3.25)
Penne alla Puttanesca (7.95) Ziti mixed with hot peppers, anchioves and
capers in a red sauce mixed with homemade hot sausage.
Pasta Carbonara (7.50) Tagliatelle tossed in a creamy white sauce,
imported pancetta (Italian bacon), mushrooms, and a
touch of chablis.
Tiramasu (2.25) Italian cake made of layered lady fingers filled with
cream and flavored with espresso.
Cannoli (1.25) Italian pastry -- a delicate shell filled with a creamy
ricotta filling
First, the soup. I've never had wedding soup that did not have tiny meatballs
in it; in fact, another name that I've heard for it is "Escarole Soup with
Meatballs". Portobello's soup had none. It also seemed to be made with spinach
rather than escarole. The stock was not bad, but this was not wedding soup as
it should be.
Next, the zucchini. This was pretty good. My biggest gripes are that it was
(1) not drained very well after frying, (2) served on a bed of Iceberg lettuce
(promoting sogginess on the bottom pieces), and (3) served without plates other
than the serving dish. It was a bit awkward juggling the hot zucchini, trying to
cut pieces off on the serving dish, etc. The flavor was OK, though, and the
waitress offered to bring us red sauce on the side if we wanted it. We requested
lemon instead, which was brought sliced (?) rather than in wedges.
The Portobello came next. What a disappointment! This is supposedly the
restaurant's trademark, but what we received for our $5.50 was a mushroom cap
only slightly larger than a shi-take, filled with a flavorless mix of imitation
crabmeat and breadcrumbs. There were chunks of something in there that would
like to have been crab, but the neon-red color that one sees sprayed on the
outside of Sea Stix (tm) told the truth. This, too, was served on a bed of
Iceberg lettuce. This was served with lemon wedges.
Salads were uninspired Iceberg standards, with canned black olives and garbanzo
beans. I cannot fault the restaurant for the anemic tomatoes; what else can
you expect for February? My house Italian dressing was oily and tastefree;
my wife had the Cabernet dressing which she enjoyed.
Finally, the entrees. My wife had the carbonara, which looked more like
Mueller's Egg Noodles (tm) than any tagliatelle that I've ever cooked. They
were overcooked to the point of pastiness, the pancetta looked like standard
domestic bacon (not round like all pancetta I've seen).
I had the Penne alla Puttanesca. My pasta was *under*cooked (still crunchy in
the middle), the hot peppers were pickled jalepen~o slices, the capers too
abundant, the red sauce uninteresting, and the hot sausage (1) not hot,
(2) mealy in texture, and (3) undercooked.
The desserts were the best part, simply because they were not bad. My wife tried
to get cappuccino, but they said they were unable to do it. She then ordered
espresso, which the owner had to run to his house to retrieve. She ended up
ordering a cup of coffee with cream.
Our total tab (with tip), $39. We will not ever be returning.
--DalePittsburgh, PA