Restaurant Bricco

Tonight was the first night of West Hartford Restaurant Week. So I went to one of the three restaurants that I most wanted to visit and the only one of the three I hadn’t been to before – Restaurant Bricco. On it’s website, just under its name it boasts “Voted ‘Best Overall’ – Harford Magazine” The quote leaves it at that and I am hoping there is a loophole in this quote somewhere. I mean it doesn’t say best what. Because if they mean best restaurant or even best Italian Restaurant and they don’t have a further caveat like “best restaurant at 78 Lasalle Road West Hartford” than I may have to turn in my review badge. And I just created it yesterday too, with a crayon and construction paper. Anyways at the risk of being thrown out of the mythical review guild here is my review of Bricco.

I got to Bricco’s tonight around 4:45 with the intent of trying their happy hour specials and then the Prix fixe West Hartford Restaurant week deal. So I went into the bar which was filled along the bar, but had plenty of seating along the window, and I sat down and waited and waited, and waited. I tried to make eye contact with the bartender and the occasional waitress that went by, but apparently I had taken my invisibility pills, which worked exceptionally well on a guy my size. Eventually they wore off and the waitress asked if I wanted something. I was tempted to say “no, I just came in to see how long I could put up with being ignored by the bartender before I posted it on Instagram. For your information it was 22 minutes.” But I was much nicer than that, I just asked for a drink and a menu. (She could read instagram later). So I got a White Sangria, a happy hour appetizer of calamari and one of meatballs.

The white wine sangria was good, but no where near as good as Zoharas. The calamari was fried and very tender. It was served on a bed of lettuce, with dipping sauce of “lemon capers aioli”, that tasted an awful lot like every day tarter sauce, and “spicy tomato sauce,” which tasted like pretty bland and definitely not spicy marinara sauce. The calamari as I said was tender and was fried well, but I find calamari needs something more to make it interesting. Neither of these sauces did that, so it was very bland. There were two big meatballs in another boring sauce. I have to be fair here. I have a problem with most meatballs. My wife ruined me for restaurant meatballs as hers were mostly meat,with just enough breadcrumbs and spices to hold them together. I know that isn’t how you are “supposed” to make meatballs. I don’t care. They were way the hell better than these bread concoctions. But this one isn’t Bricco’s fault, it is every restaurants fault. Ok maybe the boring sauce was.

After giving up on happy hour, I went and got a table for dinner. One thing. if you are planning on a private romantic dinner, bring another couple. Because the tables for two are lined up so close together you can reach out and share your neighbors meal. At least I didn’t dine alone, even though I was by myself. There was more privacy at the bigger tables which were spread out from each other. Now I make certain assumptions about the prix fixed specials for Restaurant Weeks. 1. the portions aren’t going to be huge, and probably not reflective of their normal meals. 2. they aren’t going to be the very top items, which would be more expensive. 3. Since the idea is to generate new customers, they aren’t going to give us swill just to turn a quick buck (if you work for a restaurant and I am wrong on this assumption please let me know, maybe I owe Bricco kind of an apology).

They started off with some bread (you hear that Buon Appetito?) The bread was good crusty italian bread mixed in with foccacia. Olive oil was on the table and the bread was served with a sweat potato spread, which was ok, but I would have preferred butter or a good dipping oil.

For my appetizer I ordered the smoked ricotta ravioli. At this point things started looking up. This was delicious the smokiness of the ricotta was the most flavorful thing I had all night.

Next came the main course Linguine Al fruitti Di Mare – shrimp, calamari, octopus over linguine in a fra diavolo sauce. Now this is a meal that I would often order special or not. I verified that it was a fra diavolo sauce and let my waiter know that the spicier the better. I think this was a mistake, because it think the spice they thought would make it spicier and better was salt. This dish came out very dry. I don’t know if the sauce had been applied to a big bowl of pasta and was left to set until it was ready to serve, but there was not a drop of sauce to be see that wasn’t painted on the noodles or seafood. The shrimp were large and looked like the kind of shrimp that I could dream of, especially covered in a spicy fra diavolo sauce that could kick that dream into higher gear. But when I bit into it I got a hit of salt. No sweat juicy shrimp, no spicy hot kick, just salt. That is not the kind of dream I was expecting or wanting.This had to be the most disappointing dish of the night.

Finally for dessert I had cannoli. They were fine cannoli. Not great, but not bad, just fine. I have had better at Italian deli’s, which was kind of a fitting ending to the night. Personally for all the high praise that Bricco’s has received, I think I would rather go to Buon Appetito in Canton, although I might have to pick up a good loaf of Italian bread to bring with me. Now where do I turn in this badge?