Review: Dinner at The Trattoria, St. James, NY

http://thetrattoriarestaurant.com/

Picture taken from The Trattoria Restaurant facebook page

On Wednesday night, we were invited by friends to join them to The Trattoria Restaurant, located where I grew up in St. James, NY. I have been to the location before, when it was a previous restaurant ( Kitchen a bistro, same owner). It is a very small restaurant, with only 10 tables. The kitchen is opened up to the tables, which is pretty neat! You can really see the cleanliness and organization of the chef, his sous chef and the servers.

The menu is a decent size and there are a few different ways you could go about ordering. They have a chef tasting for $60.00 per person - and a three course prix fixe for $38.00 per person. If you are not a dessert person, you are able to order two entrees instead, one being a half size portion. My husband, Kevin, and I decided to go for the three course prix fixe. I will apologize now for my poor picture quality, as we only had our phones with us!

Picture taken from The Trattoria restaurant facebook page

We started by opening our BYOB, which we brought a bottle of champagne, and our friends brought a bottle of wine. The restaurant leaves wine openers on every table, and will provide a bucket of ice to keep your bottles cold. For bread, we had butter and olive oil. It was nice, crisp pieces of bread, just as I prefer!

Course 1
For my first course, I ordered the sweet corn and crab risotto. I can't say it enough, how much I love risotto. I was hoping to have a bit creamier, richer texture but still, it was very good. The slices of parmesan cheese added the perfect amount of salt that I was looking for. Some people would think corn doesn't go with the softness of this dish, but I loved the layered texture throughout.

My husband ordered what The Trattoria is known for. Black pasta with calamari in a spicy tomato sauce. When they say spicy, they mean it! Whew! I took one bite of his and started sweating lol. My hubby loves spice, so he was absolutely loving this dish.

Course 2
Here is where I get a little mad at myself. I ordered the roast pork loin with rosemary parmesan potato and broccoli rabe - BUT - I changed my order last minute to Chicken Milanese because I heard the waitress say that it was topped with a citrus salad. Don't get me wrong, these chicken cutlets were the bomb... but our friend Allen (who happens to be a chef!) ordered the pork loin and it looked so darn good! Pork is a scary one, it has to be cooked perfectly and theirs definitely seemed like it was! Wish I could've sneaked a piece from him!
As for my chicken, it was breaded perfectly and the chicken was moist and white inside. The crust was crunchy and flavorful. Add the citrus salad with each bite and it was the perfect combination!

Kevin ordered the bucatini carbonara as his entree. I did have to google bucatini to see what type of pasta it was. A thick spaghetti, yum! Their carbonara sauce was good, but we both agreed that it needed more.. body? It was a bit on the dryer side, instead of the creamier side. We both really did enjoy the flavor, as you could taste the parmesan cheese coming right through and it was not greasy like some carbonara sauces tend to be.

Course 3: Dessert

Everyone's favorite course! You save just enough room to indulge in one of these delicious menu options. Our buddy Allen really wanted to try the blueberry custard, but so did everyone else because there was none left! I had to try the black and white creme brulee - gosh, I really can't stop thinking about this... the bottom layer was chocolate syrup, how brilliant! 

Keeping up with our wedding cake tradition, my husband couldn't pass up the cheesecake dessert. It was a lemon cheese cake drizzled with a raspberry compote. The cheesecake itself was a beautiful consistency, and when you got a bite of that compote, it was so tart and sweet! When eaten together, it was a match made in heaven (kind of like us!! lol) ;) 

We truly look forward to heading back to this restaurant and would highly recommend a stop in if you are in the Long Island area! With great friends, great food and great drinks, life doesn't get any better than that! Thank you Trattoria for the wonderful dining experience!