Day 18 Dinner at Abbodanza's in Everett...not a good night

Pomegranate Martini

Cantaloupe Martini

Braciolette Di Pollo (chicken stuffed with parma cotto and mozzarella baked with a butter wine sauce) served with ziti in tomato sauce.

Well this is a first for Boyled Dinner, this is my first genuinely bad review. 

This was a night out with some friends (faculty of Malden High School "Go Golden Tornados") and we had a reservation for 7 people at 7:00. Well they kept us waiting upstairs for 10-15 minutes even though i believe our table was waiting for us downstairs since we arrived. They had no host or hostess that seemed like they were taking care of people, and in fact when we went downstairs we had to seat ourselves. They dropped off 1 basket of bread for 7 people, and by the time person number 4 took a piece there was essentialy just some large crumbs left. We had to ask for more ourselves.  Then after waiting for about 20 minutes, our waiter who was at a different table, shouted over he would be right with us (and he overused the word Ok, which annoyed me..ok, ok ,ok).  We were wondering what type of cocktails they offered, so i had to go up to the bar to get a drink menu as they had none on the tables. By the time the waiter finally came to us for a drink order, we had been sitting there for 45 minutes, with just the basket of bread and some water. We asked if we could put in both the dinner and drink menu together, since we didn;t want to wait too much longer to order food.

WELL, our waiter decided at this time to have a bit of a breakdown.  NO ! I cannot take your dinner order , i don't have time. I will take your drinks now, THEN i must go take the order of the table next to you, THEN i must bring out the food for the people behind you, and i have to bring that table their check. I cannot take your order! Its a madhouse i am just 1 man !  Ummmm hun, in the time it took you to give us your life story, you actually could have written down our order.  

So he said, i will get someone who can take both from you, and then he stormed away. 

We did bond with the table of 4 next to us after his outburst, so that was fun.

So a few minutes later a nice young woman showed up and gave us the dinner specials, and took our drink and dinner order. Not quite sure what magical gift she had that our other first waiter couldn't quite master. 

I had 2 cocktails, a cantaloupe martini (fabulous) and later a pomegranate martini (STRONG).

For my entree i had the Braciolette Di Pollo. I must say i had quite high hopes for this meal, but i feel like it was ready long before i received it and when i got it, the cheese which should have been softer, was stringy and warm. The butter sauce had no flavor, and the ziti was luke warm.  For $16.99 i expect better.  But i feel 3 of my dining companions got the worse deal in terms of value of a meal. They paid $27 for a butternut squash rizzoto with 3!! scallops...3!!!   That to me was outrageous. But i believe they did enjoy the flavor of the meal. 

There was no apology (at least not a legitimate one from management), they did bring us a plate of some Italian cookies (these were as dry as anything i have ever eaten, more of an insult than an apology).

Normally i don't give up on an establishment after one bad meal, but this just had nothing redeeming to make me want to go back and risk getting more of this kind of service.

So for my money, there are better eating establishments to try for great Italian food.

Have a good night and a better meal than what i had.

Kevin M.Boyle

  http://www.abbondanzaristorante.com/dinein.html

Day 17 Dinner at Venezia's

Chicken with mozzarella,proscuito, in a wine and garlic sauce with red peppers and scallions. Served with Red Pepper gnocchi $21

Shellfish fra diavlo (linguini, in a spicy red sauce, with scallops, shrimp, cockles and mussels)  $24

Scrod Bianco - Baked with fresh bread crumbs, parsley, lemon and garlic $17

 

California Creme Brûlée (with berries under the custard) $6

Boston cream pie $6

So this was a special night, my parents had their 40th wedding anniversary. They didn't want a party or any big hoopla, but this was a big event so i wanted to go to a place that was classy and that i knew we all loved. So naturally i chose the Venezia in Dorchester. Its a beautiful restaurant , that holds some very special memories for me i have attended wedding receptions (shout out to Nancy & Dave) and even had a few 1st dates there. But what really stands out in my memory for Venezia is that it was the place that introduced me to Fettucini Alfredo, one of the greatest culinary creations since Mr. Thomas invented his fork split English muffins. 

The Venezia is located right on the waterfront in Dorchester, amazing view of boston and also a nice romantic balcony during a sunset. The staff was very friendly and eager to offer any suggestions if you are stuck on what to order. The prices are high, but not outrageous. Three people with 1 appetizer, 2 desserts, 3 entrees and a few cocktails came to around $112.   Its a little more that we would normally spend but this was a special occasion.

I had a fantastic Cesar salad to start, with anchovies (insert your ewwww's here) but my mom loves them , so we shared the salad. Then i had the chicken with proscuito and mozzerella with red peppers gnocchis and it was sublime. The chicken was cooked perfectly, verrrrry tender. The gnocchi was a very nice surprise, i wasn't sure if i would like it but i can't wait to have some again. Very flavorful with a nice texture.  Dad had the seafood fra diavlo which he seemed to enjoy but it had a spicy kick he didn't expect.  But the seafood was plentiful and tasted great in the spicy red sauce.  mom had her normal fish (not sure why , but my mom would go into a steak house and ask them how fresh their salmon was) meal, the baked scrod. I have to say it was cooked nicely, and i like the flavor of the fish. 

After a beautiful dinner, and our favorite hobby judging all the people in the tables surrounding us( Oh and some of those people, were a little....you know, cray cray)

Normally we're not big dessert people, but again a special evening so mom and dad split the california creme brulee, with berries at the bottom of the custard before being scorched with the torch. It was heavenly, so flavorful with raspberries and blackberries.  I had the Boston Cream pie,  not as good as others i have had but it was still pretty good. My only complaint is i like my chocolate sauce on top to be soft and warm in some occasions, this was a ganache and similar to a piece of fudge. It tasted quite nice, but its a preference thing for me.   I have a slight sweet tooth, so when i decide to have a dessert i have high expectations.

Overall this was a 4 star evening, great food , amazing view, and the atmosphere was quite comfortable. I would highly recommend Venezia to anyone looking for a high class meal in the South Shore.

Thats all for now, have a good night and a good meal.

XOXO

Kevin M. Boyle

http://www.venezia-onthewater.com