Read about Italian Osteria X (#01-09, 463 Crawford Lane) and the quality food they serve at good prices. Allegedly. We were curious and wanted to find out.
Eatery's a one man show.
Ordered some salumi. Prosciutto, salami and coppa I think.
Not bad cold cuts. Pretty good eating with their bread Don't know what the dry crumbly hard cheese was though. Did not taste exactly like Parmigiano Reggiano. Proprietor doesn't know what cheese it was as well.
I don't know exactly what bread it was they did. It was served piping hot with pretty soft chewy innards. Tasted half baked. I liked it. But there wasn't enough to go around. Even after we asked for more.
Risotto Milanese has a few main flavours from their ingredients that's prominent. Saffron is the most obvious. Secondary to that is cheese/butter which provides the richness and salt in the stock for the rice. Following that is diced onions. Kinda easy to tell if any of those are inadequate.
This one tasted like a saffron porridge, not so much risotto. Stock lacked robustness and salt. Not enough cheese or cream so it was also a little thin. Thinking about how much more enjoyable places like
La Nonna,
No Menu or the defunct
Ristorante da Valentino makes theirs when I'm eating this one is symptomatic of how unsatisfied I am with the current, no?
Spaghetti Bolognese looked good. Flavour was livery which made me wonder if there was actual minced liver. What it lacked was salt from cheese. We asked about having more cheese and the proprietor mentioned something about cutting cost. Which is fair and fine and his right to do so. I would have preferred that he charged more and made it delicious than to scrimp over his most effective flavour agent used in cooking.
