restaurants

Baldoria

There was great anticipation the night we visited Baldoria, the new restaurant from Rao's heir apparent, Frank Pelligrino Jr.  Three of us had been fortunate enough to visit Rao's last year in what is one of my most memorable restaurant experiences.  Unfortunately, our experience at Baldoria pales in comparison with that magical night at Rao's.

Things got off to a bad start when the waiter pressured us to order everything right away because of the crowd in the restaurant.  For some of us, it "felt like buying a car" as we went through the menu with the waiter as quickly as possible so that we could get our order into the kitchen.  It didn't help that the waiter was not Italian and had less knowledge of the cuisine than we did.  We concluded that the waiter "was good for the house".

Our appetizer choices included clams oreganto, cheese & olives, seafood salad, and a variety of Italian meats.  Some of us enjoyed the clams while others felt they were overcooked.  The other appetizers were all relatively enjoyable but with skimpy portions.

The pastas we ordered were Gnocchi Bolognese, Rigatoni Filetto di Pomodoro, and Orichiette with Sausage & Broccoli Rabe.  The consensus on the pastas was the gnocchi and the rigatoni were very good, while the orichiette was lacking.  Again, portions were too small.

Entrees ordered included Lemon Chicken, Shrimp Scampi, and Veal Pizzaiola.  All entrees were considered subpar.  The scampi lacked flavor, the chicken was dry, and the veal seemed like it "came from a pizzeria".  We also ordered one veal chop which wasn't tender.  Desserts are all homemade -- we ordered the cheesecake, gelato, and chocolate pudding.  The cheescake was very good, but the other desserts were "fair".

While the atmosphere was tasteful, the service was poor(we are still waiting for the coffee we ordered) and the background music was much too loud.  There were numerous spills on us and even broken glasses. Of course, the restaurant just opened and it is probably experiencing some start-up snafus.  Nevertheless, our crew felt the problems were simply too overwhelming to warrant a second visit.

Prices were on the high side for family style Italian (appetizers around $12, pastas around $19, and entrees around $25).

The best part about the evening was listening to the Torre family stories about the old days of running their family restaurant.  Despite numerous ridiculous situations over the years, the Torre family restaurant never saw nights as sad as the night we visited Baldoria.  Buyer beware.