Thursday, April 2, 2009

Out to dinner

On Saturday night we went to my Father-in-Law's birthday. We went to the restaurant we usually go to.

It is extremely tasty, the service is fabulous and (oddly enough) very child friendly.

This restaurant is Tanino Restaurant in Westwood (this is near UCLA, in Los Angeles). They serve home style, refined Italian food. The chef is Tanino Drago, of the famous Drago brothers. They have restaurants all over LA, and this restaurant is a very good representation of why.

Their soup and appetizers are to die for. The Pappa al pomodoro (Thick tomato and bread soup) is one of the best soups I've ever tasted. I have never been able to re-create this either. The Burrata caprese (Buttery mozzarella cheese with organic heirloom tomatoes,roasted bell peppers basil and olive oil) is phenomenal. The rest of the appetizers are just as good.

Moving on the entrees, a couple of my favorites are the Tortelloni di zucca e salvia (Tortellini stuffed with pumpkin and ricotta in a cream and sage sauce), Stinco d’agnello (Ossobuco style lamb shank served with saffron risotto) and the Risotto ai funghi misti di bosco e mascarpone (Arborio rice with mixed wild mushrooms and mascarpone cheese). No matter how many times we go, and how many people in our party, people always order these dishes!

For dessert, we constantly get samplers of pretty much any thing the chef wants to make us. Wow!! I can't choose a favorite.

For parties (at least 12 people) we get the upstairs room, where we are usually the only party. The service is impeccable. The kids are treated like honored guests. It is a very nice restaurant, but you can easily tell that the wait staff, the management and even the chef (when we are lucky enough to have him come out) truly loves children.

I would recommend this restaurant for a romantic dinner out, a girls night night, dinner with friends AND dinner with the family.

Here are some pictures the big monkey took at the restaurant:








And last, but not least, a picture of my mom and I after dinner (my dress looks so much better in person):

6 comments:

Opus #6 said...

You look lovely. That is a big group. Glad you had fun.

Sass said...

Make us a reservation. ;)

kel said...

Looks like a great time!!!

I am Harriet said...

YUM!
Wish I could have been there!

LL said...

You always regale us with tales of fine dining. HOWEVER, not once have I received a doggy bag in the mail with your left-overs in it. What is that all about, Julia? Is it all about you? (haha)

Your posting made me hungry. Where's that crust of bread I was gnawing on?

Lucy said...

I love the way you describe food. You must love to cook and you seem to enjoy trying out different foods.
I'm from Italian descent and it is my favorite food, everything you described made my mouth water. The picture of the tira misu, oh, my gosh, I just love tira misu and I have not had it in awhile, now I need to go get some.

You look just like your mom. What a great picture. I thought the dress looked really pretty in the picture, so I can only imagine it 'live'!