Pomegranates seem everywhere now. They are like sundried tomatoes were in the 90s. Iain and I went to a new-ish neighborhood restaurant called Melograno ("pomegranate" in Italian) last night. I walk by the place everyday on my way to work and decided to give it a whirl.
The room is lovely! Totally faded-old-Hollywood look. You want a place like this in your neighborhood. One slight problem: beautiful patio butts up against a horrific Mexican bar playing Ashlee Simpson at top volume (yes, I'm mortified I could identify the song) so sitting on the patio is not as wonderful as it could be. Service friendly and seems knowledgeable. Great menu. Want to love this place. Iain starts with the asparagus soup and I start with pasta appetizer of barolo braised hare with pomegranate reduction on angel hair. The soup is dreadful. Iain, who would eat styrofoam if it had redeeming nutritional value, says it lacks "seasoning". Yeah, no shit. The angel hair is an explosion of flavor, but I'm not sure I like it. Actually, I dont dislike it, but its pretty odd - almost Asian-y. I opt for the Salmon special main - the fish is lovely, but the braised japanese eggplant served with it..yep there's that pomegranate again. They sure like the sweet/savory thing here. Iain has the nettle gnocchi. He doesnt like it - it is too distinctive tasting. I like the gnocchi, but I cant imagine eating a whole plate of them. Probably would have been better to mix them with normal gnocchi to soften it a bit. Dessert: vanilla hazelnut panna cotta which I love, Iain is lukewarm.
I really wanted to like this place, but not sure. It is probably a little too expensive to become our neighborhood place we go to on a Friday night. We will definitely try it again because our shabby little neighborhood needs more warm restaurants like this where the servers wear clothes and the clientele isnt off their face on 3 different kinds of intoxicants.
Intoxicants like my world-famous pomegranate punch....
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