Tastefully reviewed by John on Friday, September 25, 2009.
My fiancée is often frustrated by my lack of adventure when it comes to trying new restaurants in New Jersey, especially BYOBs. My theory (and justification) is that when we find one that we love, we should stick with it. And we have a handful of places that are in our regular rotation, but getting me to try a new restaurant is often a chore. After stomping my feet for a bit, I obliged and agreed that we needed to try something new. We chose Basilico in Millburn.
We arrived a few minutes late (I am about to give in on buying a GPS, as well) and were seated promptly. I noticed that there was a bar area – I had never seen one in a BYOB before. Given a wobbly and slanted table along the wall, we were a bit cramped, but I thought it would be manageable. Our location in the restaurant was indeed manageable, but dinner was another story.
After checking his cell phone for new text messages or Facebook updates, our server made his way over and read us the specials. Upon ordering, bread appeared at the table with three accoutrements – chickpea puree, butter and a sundried tomato concoction that had a wonderful spicy component to it. Three different types of bread – some warm, some cold and some from the day before were offered.
Before I could finish a few pieces of bread and some wine, our first courses were quickly delivered to us – the Bella Elana salad ($10.95) and mushroom soup ($7). The salad was very nice as it was tossed with mixed greens, baked pecans, pears and caciocavallo cheese. The mushroom soup touted as ‘Basilico’s famous cream of wild mushroom soup,’ marvelously replicated the Campbells Cream of Mushroom version that was all too famous in my household as a child. Our shared course, the farro salad ($9.95), was similar to the Bella Elana salad, except chilled farro was heaped atop the bed of greens. It was our fault for ordering the dish, we had misread the menu hoping for a little side dish of farro, but instead we wound up having two salads. Perhaps less texting by our waiter and more explanation of the menu would have helped us navigate our way out of the garden tabletop dilemma.
Entrees came out in a more deliberate and appropriate pace. Both were made with fresh, home made pasta. The ravioli ai porcini al sugo ($17.95) was filled with porcini and dressed with what was supposed to be a walnut and white truffle sauce. Missing was white truffles or even a hint of white truffle oil. The L’Ossobucco ($28.95), another ‘Basilico House Specialty,’ was very tender and was presented over a bed of homemade fettuccini. The fettuccini was satisfying, but the veal lacked any flavor. Both main dishes could have used a bit of salt to bring out the flavors, but thankfully we had diner-style salt shakers at the ready.
As per usual, sauce found its way onto my shirt and an attentive busboy noticed from a distance to bring me a new napkin as I utilized mine in an impromptu laundry session. I would have liked to have given credit to my server, but he had been missing for awhile by this point. Perhaps he was watching the football game on the big screen in the bar area.
I believe in a hard and fast rule in restaurants – if dinner wasn’t up to your expectations, dessert is sure to disappoint as well. Passing on dessert would have both saved me eight bucks and a few calories, but we decided to order the chocolate tasting. Described as ‘decadent chocolate samplers,’ the highlight (or lowlight) of the dessert was a mountain of canned whipped cream wrapped by what can be best described as a thin chocolate wafer-cookie shaped into something that you would find the pope wearing on his head at weekend mass.
And a recommendation – when you hand the check book to a patron, be sure to take out the suggestion card if a prior table used it to write out how they were dividing up and tipping on the bill. Not only is it tacky, but based on the tip that the table before us calculated, poor service and underwhelming food was the norm on this autumn evening.
We arrived a few minutes late (I am about to give in on buying a GPS, as well) and were seated promptly. I noticed that there was a bar area – I had never seen one in a BYOB before. Given a wobbly and slanted table along the wall, we were a bit cramped, but I thought it would be manageable. Our location in the restaurant was indeed manageable, but dinner was another story.
After checking his cell phone for new text messages or Facebook updates, our server made his way over and read us the specials. Upon ordering, bread appeared at the table with three accoutrements – chickpea puree, butter and a sundried tomato concoction that had a wonderful spicy component to it. Three different types of bread – some warm, some cold and some from the day before were offered.
Before I could finish a few pieces of bread and some wine, our first courses were quickly delivered to us – the Bella Elana salad ($10.95) and mushroom soup ($7). The salad was very nice as it was tossed with mixed greens, baked pecans, pears and caciocavallo cheese. The mushroom soup touted as ‘Basilico’s famous cream of wild mushroom soup,’ marvelously replicated the Campbells Cream of Mushroom version that was all too famous in my household as a child. Our shared course, the farro salad ($9.95), was similar to the Bella Elana salad, except chilled farro was heaped atop the bed of greens. It was our fault for ordering the dish, we had misread the menu hoping for a little side dish of farro, but instead we wound up having two salads. Perhaps less texting by our waiter and more explanation of the menu would have helped us navigate our way out of the garden tabletop dilemma.
Entrees came out in a more deliberate and appropriate pace. Both were made with fresh, home made pasta. The ravioli ai porcini al sugo ($17.95) was filled with porcini and dressed with what was supposed to be a walnut and white truffle sauce. Missing was white truffles or even a hint of white truffle oil. The L’Ossobucco ($28.95), another ‘Basilico House Specialty,’ was very tender and was presented over a bed of homemade fettuccini. The fettuccini was satisfying, but the veal lacked any flavor. Both main dishes could have used a bit of salt to bring out the flavors, but thankfully we had diner-style salt shakers at the ready.
As per usual, sauce found its way onto my shirt and an attentive busboy noticed from a distance to bring me a new napkin as I utilized mine in an impromptu laundry session. I would have liked to have given credit to my server, but he had been missing for awhile by this point. Perhaps he was watching the football game on the big screen in the bar area.
I believe in a hard and fast rule in restaurants – if dinner wasn’t up to your expectations, dessert is sure to disappoint as well. Passing on dessert would have both saved me eight bucks and a few calories, but we decided to order the chocolate tasting. Described as ‘decadent chocolate samplers,’ the highlight (or lowlight) of the dessert was a mountain of canned whipped cream wrapped by what can be best described as a thin chocolate wafer-cookie shaped into something that you would find the pope wearing on his head at weekend mass.
And a recommendation – when you hand the check book to a patron, be sure to take out the suggestion card if a prior table used it to write out how they were dividing up and tipping on the bill. Not only is it tacky, but based on the tip that the table before us calculated, poor service and underwhelming food was the norm on this autumn evening.
