i like to eat.

A few friends and I went to Trattoria La Siciliana in Berkeley to celebrate Jeff's birthday.

Every time we go there, the waiter makes a schpeel about ordering family style (sharing the dishes) since the tiny kitchen has only four burners and it'd be much quicker. I've only been there two previous times and both times, we did not order family style - everyone ordered their own dish.

With six people and a couple of us ordering similar items, we decided to try family style. We ordered three dishes - gnocchi alla fumatore, ragu d'maiale and risotto alla fumatore. I've had the gnocchi and risotto before (see post), still amazing as I remember it. The ragu was excellent. I swear, Trattoria La Siciliana knows pasta. The dish was house-made pappardelle pasta with braised pork, homemade sausage, ribs and hock in tomato sauce. Soooo good. Sorry for the blurry picture, I had wolves waiting to devour it. :P

How did the family style turn out? Meh.There was not enough to go around, everyone only had a few bites of each pasta. The dishes were suppose to be two orders each and it only looked like one and a half. Definitely not worth to get the family style, everyone order their own dish!

Trattoria La Siciliana definitely knows they're hot sh*t. They can throw that stupid schpeel to persuade you, so it'd be easier for the kitchen and they only take cash (seriously?! so inconvenient for the customers), but they know their food is absolutely amazing and you'll come back for more.

Happy birthday Jeff!

       

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Jeffreys_Birthday_tag_trattori.zip (1026 KB)

Our friend, Jeff, took my boyfriend and I to Trattoria La Siciliana on College in Berkeley a few weeks ago. It was amazing.

Upon seating, bread and an olive oil dip was served to us. The dip was fantastic. I couldn't stop eating it. The mixture was garlic, rosemary, parsley and red pepper flakes infused in olive oil. It was filled with so much garlic - a little too much, but it was so freaking good.

For appetizer, we shared broccoli rabe cooked in olive oil. The rabe was tender and fresh. It had a slight bitterness that was delicious.

Jeff ordered the gnocchi alla fumatore - homemade potato pasta dumplings with cream sauce, pancetta and baby shrimp. Wow. The gnocchi were like clouds, so fluffy and light. It had the best white sauce, hands down. I couldn't get enough of it.

Jason got a dish from the special menu - pappardelle con saucisse Italienne. The pasta was fresh and had just the right amount of red sauce with Italian sausage. There was a dollop of cheese on top (I forgot the name), that was creamy and went really well with the pappardelle.

For my dish, I barely read the menu and asked Jeff what he recommended. I was torn between two risotto dishes - a vegetarian one that's been highly acclaimed by Bon Appetit magazine and a seafood one that he enjoyed on many ocassions.

I ended up with the seafood risotto and I was happy I had made the right choice. I'm sure the vegetarian one would be good too, but I was already satisfied with the abundance of seafood in my perfectly cooked risotto.

I usually order dessert, but we were all stuffed and even had some leftovers to take home.

Trattoria La Siciliana is highly recommended, but I'd lay off the garlic olive oil just a tad. I went a little crazy on it and still had garlic breath the next morning. The food was amazing and the service was great. But remember to bring cash, they unfortunately do not accept credit cards.

       

Click here to download:

New_Favorite_Restaurant_tag_fo.zip (979 KB)