Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Piccola Venezia Restaurant


Excellent northern Italian food, my favorite Italian place in Astoria.  Someone at my table said, in an affectionate way "They have not changed the menu in 25 years".  The meal was just like i expected it to be, fresh food, great service, expensive, busy for a Tuesday night.  When we walked in they had about 5 cooked dished to view which was a nice touch, and did influence our choice in entree.  The roast veal looked amazing, although we did not end up ordering it.  Nice decor, simple and effective.  A warm place.  I've eaten here many times, this review is based on the first experience there.

The meal started with warm bread, always a plus.  Butter, which being northern Italian cuisine I guess i should have expected that , but i was hoping for olive oil.  We were also given a complementary plate of small pieces on cheese, a cured meat and some olives.  Nice touch, good starters.

For appetizers i had the Fussi alla Grappa (bowtie shaped pasta with mushrooms, grappa and parmigiana. This was alright.  The pasta (which i was informed is made fresh daily) was not great, it was not a bowtie at all and more like thin flat pasta rolled over itself, not a great texture.  The sauce was good, again not great. Very heavy on the garlic, which I love but it might turn some people off.   We also had the crab cocktail. That is an item I order ofter, this one was excellent.  Very large portion (which it should be for $16.50), large pieces of moderately sweat crab, lemon and cocktail sauce.  Standard but excellent.

For the entrees I had Salmon with a white wine, garlic, lemon type of sauce.  Huge portion of fresh salmon, nothing else on the plate but the salmon and its fantastic oily sauce.  They removed the skin and the gray part which I appreciate.  Strange presentation for sure.  The side plate had spinach (excellent, sauteed, standard ) and potatoes gratin (on the cold side but full of flavor).  Both were excellent, but it would have been nice to have it on the plate with the salmon, so the sauce would flavor both.  Overall this was an excellent dish i would order again, the salmon was bursting with flavor.  My table also ordered the Arrosto d'Anatra (Roasted LI duck in Gran Marnier Sauce), which is another dish we have shared many times in other restaurants.  The sauce was fantastic, not the usual orange sauce i'm used to, it was thicker and richer.  The duck however was on the small side.  I love a crispy Long Island duck, but they can run on the small side. Once you have had a very large 1/2 duck with the fat between the skin and meat trimmed off by say La Primavera on Long Island, its hard to enjoy this duck.  Aside from on the small side, it was way to fatty.  Still the taste of the meat and the sauce was excellent.  While not every dish was totally satisfying, the food overall was very good.  Quite expensive, but worth it for the right occasion.

After multiple visits it keeps getting better and better.  The Buccoloni is amazing and very unique, fresh sheets of pasta wrapped around Osso Bucco in a light tomato cream sauce i believe.  One of my favorite dishes in all of Astoria.  Order it for an appetizer, then get fish for your main.  The Oysters are always excellent, so you could also start with those then finish with the buccoloni.  Almost everything I've had here is great and the service is attentive and friendly.  Every time I go here its packed, every single time.  Its worth a wait.  Highly recommended.