A Tavola : A Journey Through The Year

“It must be Monday. It’s cold, it’s dreary, it’s raining, even inside the house.” (*)

Sound of heavy rain splashing through my foggy-damp window office that afternoon, picturing complete moaning Monday. Few days back, we made appointment to meet this day after his two weeks business trip but still arguing for comfy place to talk, laugh and serve good food for sure. I was not craving for something like i used to, so i throw the sizzling ball to him. On surge, he reminds that we have not tried any Italian food recently. I quickly search my database trying to zoom any worth Italian restaurant nearby.

This small restaurant has draw our curiosity lately for their almost invisible existence over years. Fonts on billboard somehow gave the impression of cozy interior shop rather than Italian restaurant and gourmet. We did some ‘googling’ and fortunately found dedicated website of their own. The products list seems quite promising : they sell particular cold cuts, pasta, cheese and spices. However the menu likely to be more simple and sounds homey : from spinach ravioli to salami and cheese, from Lavazza espresso to limoncello. Few comments and review mentioned of soothing ambience and great taste, but we also find one review explaining the food was not as great as expected. Well, in the end noone will get hurts either if we decide to try, so there we off to that evening.


The narrow space won’t fit many tables as they have to share room with cold display cabinet and cashier. Except for hanging LED on clear glass panel and front door, lighting was so intensely warm with lesser downlights and candles on every table. The ambience reflects of homey bistro, added with brown square pattern tablecloth. Seems only two persons available to serve and explained while we discussed the menu, but their attentive service should received compliment. I ordered Dolce Vita platter for small bites as prosciutto had raised my appetite, while he chose mushroom soup and gnocchi with cheese cream. I was torn between another pasta or grilled side for main course and finally made my decision to Saltimbocca, meaty veal served with zucchini, pasta and carrot.


Cracked wooden chopping board looks appealing with sliced of dried red meat with white fat layer upper and diced grana pradano cheese served with green olive and balsamic dip. I haven’t taste prosciutto previously, no relate comments would available but the texture was too dry and off putting, i thought. Not to mention annoying lingering salty taste even after few bites of foccacia bread. Grainy grana padano cheese tastes almost similar, only left itchy trace around my tongue like i used to have when taken pineapple too much. Is it the real taste as it should or there were something improper with their storage? I should answer the question next with another trial, i guess.

Another dishes still far from expectation : Zuppa al Funghi, the mushroom soup, somehow tastes heavy. Blended mushroom and cream were stand alone and resemble slight uncomfortable earthy tone. It was not that terrible, but compare to another we found nothing special with this soup. Now we started to lower our expectation for upcoming course. My grilled veal cutlets has brown spots and well done tone color on surface, i sighed aloud inside my brain and prepare for the less. Minimalist taste were translated precisely : lost of juicy texture, absence of flavor and seasoning between salty and meaty, definitely one turn off main course.

His gnocchi was better, at least. Creamy gorgonzola sauce act nicer with home made gnocchi in three colors and potatoes but gnocchi texture were overcooked it feels so mushy. Our favorite restaurant did better execution on this kind of pasta. Taking pictures and enjoy the ambience brings another amusement to the ‘minimalist’ food session. He still offering dessert, but considering the previous session I’d better thought of moving somewhere else. I still feel sorry for this place, not because of my high expectation but this kind of restaurant should develop better taste, and they can work it out if they willing to. Everything mostly in proper, except the oppressive taste. And perhaps they forgot this is the important one.

We continued the night by having martini and margarita here. Only to have small celebration this year, smiling and greeting each other in the end of the night by saying, “Happy Anniversary”

Feb 2009, (*) quote from Garfield

A Tavola
Jl. Kemang Selatan Raya no.125
Jakarta Selatan
Ph & Fax: +62 21 71793580