Magical MissTari Tour: RW lunch #3

I have walked past Esca restaurant on the west side many many times over the years. Why I haven't stopped by is a mystery. Well, not a huge mystery, but still. It's a Mario Batali restaurant and it features seafood and recipes from southern Italy. I like Mario. I like seafood. I like southern Italy. But I finally made a stop there yesterday, thanks to a work chum who also wanted to check Esca out for Restaurant Week.

Esca doesn't provide a RW menu in advance, they just tell you the menu will be whatever seafood is fresh that day. I'm such a creature of habit, I like to have an idea of what I'm going to order before I get there (it also saves time; ask my work chum, I tend to vaccilate), so I felt a teensy bit out of control without knowing what my choices might be. I shouldn't have worried, there were quite a few dishes on the menu I wanted to try and it took a few minutes to make my choices...

When you arrive, you receive an amuse bouche of white beans and mackerel on crostini, alongside some olives that are marinating in spicy olive oil. My work chum immediately grabbed his amuse bouche before I got a photo (darn him!), so that's why the plate looks kind of skimpy. But the flavor wasn't skimpy at all - the crostini was delicious, rich and creamy. It was also a bit briny from the fish, so thumbs up on that. Too bad they don't bring more. The olives were quite nice, too. I admit that I never ate olives before I went to Italy in '07; all I knew from olives were the canned variety my family would use on garnish platters. Ew. Once I had fresh olives (well, black olives, at least, I'm still not quite on board with the green ones), I was hooked. So salty and satisfying. Anyway, these olives were quite nice and the slightly spicy oil was a nice contrast with the saltiness.

For my appetizer, I went back and forth and finally decided on the zuppe de pesce amalfitana (fish soup in the style of Amalfi). I loved being in the Amali Coast when we were in Italy, so that's what sealed the deal of my choosing this dish. And my goodness, it was delicious. So many layers of flavor - the brininess from the fish, the acidity from the tomato, a hint of heat from the tomato and chili pesto on a crostini in the soup. It was yum yum yummy. I admit to a giggle at the look at my work chum's face when his crudo arrived - it did look rather paltry compared to my soup. But he said it was really delicious, so I guess he got over it. And I shared a bit of the fish from my soup as well...

I couldn't decide which entrée I wanted - first I thought I wanted the pasta in spicy octopus sauce, then I thought I wanted the whole bluefish, then I thought I wanted the other fish choice, squalo alla siciliano. Which mean: SHARK. Yes, shark. I've never had shark. I decided to get that because I didn't want to fool with a whole fish and I thought the pasta might taste too much like my soup. So I ordered shark. I can hardly believe it myself. Boy, was it good! It was charred on the grill, so it had a very smoky, crispy exterior and the flesh was just meltingly soft. I don't know, I thought shark might have a firmer texture. But it didn't. It was very light and delicate. The fish was served simply because, really, with that perfect char, it didn't need a sauce or anything. The dish was served with an accompaniment of tomatoes, roasted squash and oil-cured olives. The accompaniment was served room temperature, which was seemed a little off to me, I felt it should've been either hot or cold, not in between. But it was tasty, especially those olives, which were even saltier and brinier than the ones at the start of the meal. They were a perfect counterpoint to that very soft, dainty fish. My work chum got the pasta and at first, he wasn't impressed, but he said the sauce grew on him as he continued to eat it. I tried it and found it tasty, though a little too spicy for me, so I'm happy I got the shark. Shark. I ATE SHARK. I have to admit, I'm having a little post-shark queasiness. Oh well.

Dessert was really delicious; I got the torta caprese, which turned out to be a flourless dark chocolate cake (when he put it in front of me, I thought, wait, I ordered chocolate?!), on top of an amazing crème anglaise and toasted almonds, alongside a wonderful whipped cream with just a hint of sea salt. It was terrific - the cake was rich and dense and was perfect alongside the rich vanilla-y crème. The touch of sea salt just raised everything to another level and the crunchiness of the almonds, yay. I thought it was great.

I would love to go back to Esca again and try other things on their entire menu, which is enormous. It is a bit pricey, however, which is why it made the RW cut. I couldn't really afford to go there for a regular dinner. Maybe for an unknown future special occasion I can go back and try something else, like the spaghetti with clams (the very drunk businessmen next to us got the spaghetti and it looked amazing). Looking forward to at least one more RW lunch - fingers crossed they have everything on the menu that they posted today! I have my eye on a particular dish... :)