Restaurant Review: Siena
For valentine’s day, the girlie and I went to Siena for dinner. This was the first time we had gone out to eat for Valentine’s day. In prior years I made big dinners and we stayed at home. I have this aversion to doing things how everyone else does them. I hate being cliche. However, honestly, I didn’t feel like making dinner this year, so we went out to eat.
We made reservations for 8, got there at 8 and got seated promptly, which I was jazzed about. I had heard horror stories about going out to eat on v-day and having to wait hours. The service was a bit slow, but nothing really bad. It was to be expected. For the evening they had a limited menu. We both got 1 thing from each course:
| Course | Girlie | Me |
|---|---|---|
| Antipasta (appetizer) | Thinly sliced raw Kobe beef with white truffle aioli, baby arugula and Parmigiano Reggiano | Pan roasted crabcake with sun dried tomato, basil beurre blanc and Piemontese salsa verde |
| Primi Piatti (First Entree) | Carrabaccia Tuscan predecessor of French onion soup served over grilled bruschetta with pecorino Toscano |
Ravioli di Astice Fresh pasta stuffed with poached lobster and leeks in a roasted fennel, fresh orange, saffron beurre blanc |
| Secondi Piatti (Second Entree) | Controfiletto di Manzo Wood grilled 12 oz. New York Strip with crisp fried onions, port wine reduction and black truffle, chive mashed potatoes |
Scaloppina di Vitello alla Nettuno Sauteed Veal scallopini with lump crabmeat, shrimp and scallops in a cracked black pepper, brandy cream sauce |
| Dolci (Dessert) | Cuore di Cioccolata Rich chocolate heart with Chambord |
Tiramisu Liqueur soaked genoise layered with mascarpone, chocolate and almonds |
Now, the food was good. It really was very good. However it was not great. The problem is, with the price is that with a few glasses of wine, the bill was $165 (not including tip) for the 2 of us. That’s a bit pricey. Now, I don’t mind paying that, and it wouldn’t be the first time. Two places I have been to that come to mind in that price range are K-Paul’s (Paul Prudhomme) and Blue Ginger (Ming Tsai). Both of these places were exquisite. Everything I ate just melted in my mouth. Everything covered my taste palette and had my buds screaming for more (even when my body couldn’t hold it). Things just weren’t as good here. The crab wasn’t as fresh as I would have liked it to be, the veal was a bit tough and vegetable medley that came with it was bland.
Siena was good. It was very good, but I just don’t feel it justified the price compared to those other places. However, it was good enough that we want to go back and try it on a non-special menu occassion to get a better feel for it. So I tenatively give it a B+ or so.
February 16th, 2006 at 5:32 am
Damn…it must be nice to be rich.