Monday, June 23, 2008

Barolo


Over the weekend my friends and I celebrated my best friend's birthday at Barolo. This is one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle. We celebrated my birthday here last year and we had a great time. The food was great, the wine was great, and the service was excellent. All the same can be said for this visit also. I called a week in advance for a reservation for a group of 13 people. The manager, Eric, was very accommodating. When you have a large group for dinner at Barolo, you can choose to have one of their set-price menus. These menus include an appetizer, salad, entree, and dessert. The set menu prices start at $40 and go up to $100. The higher the price, the more options you have for the entree and other courses. They are also willing to add some items to the set-price menu for an additional cost.



We started our meal with the Antipasto Misto. This was a nice starter that included eggplant, tomato, olives, mozzarella, salami, prosciutto and some red and yellow peppers. Everything on the Antipasto plate was delicious!






For our salad, we were treated with the Cuore di Romana Grigliata (Grilled romaine heart with Caesar dressing & shaved reggiano). This was by far one of the best salads I have had in a long, long time. It was also my first grilled romaine heart salad. I liked the fact that the romaine heart was served whole and not chopped up. The Caesar dressing was excellent. It was not over-powering at all, so it allowed the flavor of the reggiano to shine through.




For my Entree I chose the Pollo Ruspante Imbottito con Spinaci e Provola (Free range natural chicken with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes & provola cheese). The chicken was delicious. The chicken was stuffed with the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and provola cheese. The chicken was very tender and juicy. The chicken was accompanied with carrot, asparagus, a potato and a beet. All of which were just as good as the rest of the meal.










For dessert I chose the Torta di Formaggio al Balsamico Invecchiato (House made cheesecake with aged balsamic). This dessert was a perfect ending to what was a wonderful dinner. The cheesecake was soft and fluffy.






Not only does Barolo offer delicious food, time and time again, but they also offer some of the best service in Seattle. This was my third visit to Barolo and the service was just as stellar as the other visits. Ashley, our main server, was outstanding! She made sure we were all taken care of the entire night. I know that with a group of 13 people it can be quite an undertaking to make sure everyone has the best dinner possible, but Ashley made sure our dinner was relaxed and enjoyable. Each course of our dinner came out in perfect timing, and each of us was served all at once, so we weren't all waiting around for everyone to receive their food.

I highly recommend Barolo for a large group dinner, or for any dinner. I also hear they have a great happy hour menu as well. I will definitely check that out soon!

I give Barolo 5 out of 5 Garlic Cloves.

Barolo Ristorante (Metropolitan Tower) on Urbanspoon