Six of us had dinner at Aperto on Sunday. To start we shared the arancini, mozzarella and pesto, smoked salsa rossa, and an order of the handcrafted burrata, sweet onions, broccoli rabe with grilled bread. The food didn’t seem dumbed-down, just fairly mild, with high-quality ingredients.
I had the seared tuna with chanterelles and fresh shelling beans, dabbed with pesto. It was simple, maybe under-spiced, but fine. The tuna was almost dry, but the beans were great. My son’s pasta special – cider-glazed pork and roasted tomatoes – was more interesting, and my husband’s red wine braised beef short ribs, cipollini and chicories on creamy polenta was delicious, leading me to think that they do long-cooked meat well here. (Unlike at the Rendez-Vous cafe on Solano. The daube I had there recently didn’t seem to have cooked long enough to develop flavor.) Didn’t try the other dishes, but my mom’s mussels looked good.
Olive oil cake was sort of bland, but that’s the style, I suppose. Didn’t taste the other desserts.
Service was excellent. The place was about 2/3 full and not too noisy. (No kids – not that I mind. Just noting.)
Wasn’t a bit like the overly cheesy, salty, creamy food at Cugini on Solano. Talk about Upscale Demographic Syndrome!
