"Straightforward Italian cuisine with few airs and graces, the pasta is out of a packet and a few not very authentic Italian dishes make the menu. Nevertheless the food is of a reasonable standard and the restaurant is often packed.Atmosphere: You don’t come here for the atmosphere – this is in a shopping centre after all – but rather for the relatively quick and decent food that pulls in a lot of affluent-looking business types who don’t fancy some of the neighboring fast-food joints.
Here on the same spot there used to exist an impressive, more gourmet-style Italian restaurant that made its own pasta, but it appears it was a bit too fancy for a shopping centre, albeit a higher-end one as MOM Park is. The design is quite reasonable considering the location and we suspect that even in Italy, it’s not that easy to recreate a genuine trattoria in such a thoroughly modern location.
Whom to take: Good for a sit-down lunch with colleagues or as a simple business lunch venue when you don’t need to go over the top. Similarly suitable for refueling while shopping, as well as dropping into before or after the cinema with friends.
What we ate: We selected a representative cross-section of dishes in test-driving Trattoria Da Lello.
For starters, it is worth asking if they have the off-menu tomato soup. Ripe, creamy and topped off with fresh basil, this was a promising start. The minestrone soup was tasty, consisting solely of vegetables that were cooked just right, but no pluses.
The beef carpaccio tasted of nothing more than raw meat and even after requesting black pepper we failed miserably in our attempts to liven it up. The mixed starter plate Misto della Casa was more like it. This comprised an assortment of cold vegetables that nicely retained their original flavors but were also enhanced by some nice culinary touches. The zucchini was particularly good and none of the vegetables were oily. The vegetarian Pizza Piemontese also got the thumbs-up.
For our main courses, the sea bass (Barnino Griglia) was well grilled and fresh tasting but a clove of garlic could have given it that bit extra. However, the Filetto al Pepe Verde steak was as tough as old boots, despite the request for it to be medium rare, and warranted sending back, while the sauce was drowned out by too much cream.
For dessert, the Tiramisu was too light and uninspiring.
Wine list: Da Lello has a reasonable selection of Italian wines, with only the more simple stuff available by the glass. The Trebbiano we tried (Ft 400/dl) lacked fruitiness but was certainly old-style Italian in character. The no-nonsense Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Ft 400/dl), despite its simplicity, was still too good for the steak.
Service and value: The service is friendly, although we had to ask for the black pepper. While it’s not expensive, it’s priced to target the professional crowd. You get quite a lot for the money while as usual you have to pay a bit for fresh fish.
Starters, soups and pasta
Assorted Italian salami 1700
Minestrone soup 650
Sea food salad 2200
Tagliatelle with fresh tomato and basil 1500
Main courses
Filetto al Pepe Verde 2800
Roast pork with capers, oregano and tomato sauce 1400
Grilled sea bass 3500
Grilled king prawns 4500"
Address: MOM Park
Tel.: 487-5412
Open: Su–Th 11–22,
Fr–Sa 11–23
Credit cards accepted
Source:
BBJ
05.10.2007