Raeven
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2015
Little Italy
aka Bencotto/Salt & Straw
So at about 8:30 pm we headed to Bencotto in Little Italy. Little Italy was pretty close to our hotel room, but it was raining so we called a Lyft. This would turn out to be a bad decision because if you can see from the picture below the streets were all blocked. It turns out they had a farmer's market that morning down several streets and the people hadn't arrived yet to take down all the stalls so our driver could only drop us off like 2 streets away.
There were so many restaurants in Little Italy and I wanted to pick a good one. Bencotto had a lot of different pasta options and had gluten free pasta on the menu so that's the one we picked. Online it seemed like it was kind of a nice place so I was worried our clothes weren’t dressy enough because it was pretty chilly, and not the right temp for the dressier shirt and sweater I had brought. However I guess I was wrong about it being a dressy place because it seemed pretty casual and everyone there was wearing jeans/tshirts etc.
I don't see my meal on the menu so I think it was a special, but I got:
Spinach and ricotta ravioli
with summer sauce
sun-dried tomatoes,EVOO, basil, garlic
It was good, and I did like the summer sauce a lot (I wasn't sure if it would go with whatever I picked because you could pick from a lot of different pastas). I've only ever had frozen spinach and ricotta ravioli and never handmade ones (I think all the pastas were made there), but It was alright, but not very memorable.
Josh got the:
BOLOGNESE
traditional meat tomato sauce (GF pasta) & he added chicken
He liked this, but he always does like Bolognese. He did say however that it in no way compared to the Bolognese he had at Bice (which he now compares all Italian food to ).
Overall I was disappointed in our choice because the meal and service weren't fantastic (we saw our waiter so little I can't even remember any details about him). There's so many restaurants in Little Italy, and I felt like we could've gone to a much better one. Josh said his meal was fine, and I guess I agree with that because it wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything special. I know I mentioned Bice above, and I definitely didn't think this meal would be on par with that when I was picking a place, but I kind of hoped I'd find a restaurant that could come close or even be as good as a more casual Italian chain like Vivo.
On the way back we decided to stop at Salt & Straw for dessert.
I got:
Roasted Strawberry Coconut
Roasting strawberries does something truly magical. While our favorite Hood strawberries are already amazing in their natural state, roasting them caramelizes their sugars and makes them irresistible. We simply blend the roasted berries with coconut cream and churn in our ice cream makers.
I also read that flavor is vegan too so that's pretty cool. I thought it tasted like a Starbucks Pink Drink (which I already think tastes a bit like ice cream) and that makes sense because they both have similar components.
I did like this, and would go to a Salt & Straw again in the future. However I'm a little more basic about my ice cream flavors (chocolate or cake batter ones are usually what I go for) so I for that I prefer places like Cold Stone or Ample Hills.
aka Bencotto/Salt & Straw
So at about 8:30 pm we headed to Bencotto in Little Italy. Little Italy was pretty close to our hotel room, but it was raining so we called a Lyft. This would turn out to be a bad decision because if you can see from the picture below the streets were all blocked. It turns out they had a farmer's market that morning down several streets and the people hadn't arrived yet to take down all the stalls so our driver could only drop us off like 2 streets away.
There were so many restaurants in Little Italy and I wanted to pick a good one. Bencotto had a lot of different pasta options and had gluten free pasta on the menu so that's the one we picked. Online it seemed like it was kind of a nice place so I was worried our clothes weren’t dressy enough because it was pretty chilly, and not the right temp for the dressier shirt and sweater I had brought. However I guess I was wrong about it being a dressy place because it seemed pretty casual and everyone there was wearing jeans/tshirts etc.
I don't see my meal on the menu so I think it was a special, but I got:
Spinach and ricotta ravioli
with summer sauce
sun-dried tomatoes,EVOO, basil, garlic
It was good, and I did like the summer sauce a lot (I wasn't sure if it would go with whatever I picked because you could pick from a lot of different pastas). I've only ever had frozen spinach and ricotta ravioli and never handmade ones (I think all the pastas were made there), but It was alright, but not very memorable.
Josh got the:
BOLOGNESE
traditional meat tomato sauce (GF pasta) & he added chicken
He liked this, but he always does like Bolognese. He did say however that it in no way compared to the Bolognese he had at Bice (which he now compares all Italian food to ).
Overall I was disappointed in our choice because the meal and service weren't fantastic (we saw our waiter so little I can't even remember any details about him). There's so many restaurants in Little Italy, and I felt like we could've gone to a much better one. Josh said his meal was fine, and I guess I agree with that because it wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything special. I know I mentioned Bice above, and I definitely didn't think this meal would be on par with that when I was picking a place, but I kind of hoped I'd find a restaurant that could come close or even be as good as a more casual Italian chain like Vivo.
On the way back we decided to stop at Salt & Straw for dessert.
I got:
Roasted Strawberry Coconut
Roasting strawberries does something truly magical. While our favorite Hood strawberries are already amazing in their natural state, roasting them caramelizes their sugars and makes them irresistible. We simply blend the roasted berries with coconut cream and churn in our ice cream makers.
I also read that flavor is vegan too so that's pretty cool. I thought it tasted like a Starbucks Pink Drink (which I already think tastes a bit like ice cream) and that makes sense because they both have similar components.
I did like this, and would go to a Salt & Straw again in the future. However I'm a little more basic about my ice cream flavors (chocolate or cake batter ones are usually what I go for) so I for that I prefer places like Cold Stone or Ample Hills.
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