Orderinny

black tagliatelle
Originally uploaded by hong.ruoxi.

It puked rain yesterday, all day long, so XH, Gerrie and my plans to visit Basta Pasta was shot... But we were still determined to eat pasta (well, I was), so we decided to just pick an italian restaurant as close as possible and hope for the best.
I made some searches on menupages and based on the reviews picked Roberto Passon. Hey! less than half a block away! 4 stars! ok.. that settled it...
Anyway, the food was fresh and decent but really nothing that special. They don't let you go hungry though, and the plates pretty much overflowed with food. My black tagliatelle with mussels and clams was ok. After the transcendatial arroz negro in Barcelona, I have yet to find another black squid ink stained dish that tasted as great, but tt's really not their fault. The arroz negro was really good =) XH had a very filling plate of spaghetti carbonara, while Gerrie took the prize for best dish of the night with rabbit on baked polenta. The polenta in particular was crunchy outside and creamy inside. Like a good piece of fried 萝卜糕
Alton Brown's little blurb about "polenta, grits, its the same thing" made gerrie and i very interested in getting our hands on some grits soon too =)
The three of us split a large warm banana tart for dessert, and while good, tasted too much like breakfast (banana nut loaf) for me to order it again.
Overall, the restaurant is a nice neighborhood place with some interesting things on the menu (black pasta, portuguese octopus, chicken liver), but given all things, I still prefer Maria Pia just a block further from home, because its more spacious and the servers were just a tad friendlier.

Roberto Passon
741 9th Ave (50th St)