We went to Bar Prima back in the spring and I forgot to post about it. The interior is beautiful, particularly the burnished copper of the ceiling. The pastas are quite good. The food tends towards the rich side, without much counterbalance. For these prices, we expected a bit more impressiveness.
They had a good selection of wines by-the-glass. We tried:
- Frecciarossa Pinot Nero ‘Sillery’, Lombardia, 2023 - interesting with ripe peach and bruised apple, more intense aroma with overripeness in the nose not palate.
- La Giustinana - Gavi di Gavi ‘Lugarara’, Piedmont, 2023 - mainly lemon, didn’t get a lot of complexity.
- Gianni Gagliardo - DaBatie Langhe Nebbiolo, Piemonte, 2021 - lovely, sour cherry and iron.
The complimentary pane Pugliese is amazing, cut into four, steamy on the inside and crisp on the outside.
The chicken liver & caviar maritozzi was marvellous, a super smooth wedge of chicken liver paté in the top of a bun. Perhaps the best dish of the evening.
Zeppole cacio e pepe sounded like a great idea, but it was more sweet than it needed to be, taking away from the cacio e pepe flavours.
Scallops rockefeller (on the shell) were nicely roasted, with garlicky crumbs, and lots of butter.
Lobster fra diavola featured 6 beautifully poached lobster pieces, mascarpone and tomato sauce, with a touch of chili, and lovely fresh pasta.
Tagliatelle milanese with osso bucco and salsa verde was also very enjoyable, with fall-apart meat and just done pasta.
For dessert, the millefoglie had pistachio, dulce de leche, and creme anglaise poured over. It was good, the better of the two desserts.
Crostata di mela was basically a too-sweet apple pie with goat cheese and a very buttery crust.
We washed this down with a glass of Vinsanto, Chianti Classico, Marchese Antinori, 2019.
