I would give the dishes at Cotogna a 9. This is clearly not your run-of-the-mill Italian restaurant but there’s just something holding it back from being among the best.
(One disclaimer: the complimentary bread is a 10. It arrives to the table warm, a bit wet from olive oil, and with a light sprinkle of sea salt and herbs. A good slice of bread is second-to-none, and Cotogna’s take proves why).
I had a tough time deciding what to order, in large part because I couldn’t translate half the words on the menu. Numbers, however, don’t need translation, and I do think the prices here are among the highest I’ve seen during lunch ($24 for a three-course prix-fixe; most entrée a la carte options are $15 and above. This might not seem outrageous, but the portions aren’t consistent). We finally decided on the Gnocchi with Dungeness crab & peas; pizza with ramps, guanciale, egg & pecorino Romano; and Sunchokes with roasted cipollini onions. Our server was pretty adamant we order more but I wasn’t looking to feast and neither was my mom. In hindsight, three plates was just barely enough – especially if I had my normal appetite with me.
The quality of the pasta was lovely. Their gnocchi is what carb lovers fantasize about – soft, warm, thick, and light. I don’t crave pasta but I could eat those until my face turned blue. My criticism is around the crab part. I saw one lump of crab meat in the entire dish. Being the same size and color as the pasta, I probably wouldn’t have even picked up on it if I wasn’t looking for it. At a $16 price point, there’s got to be a few more chunks of meat. The sauce, while warm and creamy, was also generic; I couldn’t identify a particular flavor. Perhaps this was intentional to leave the focus on the pasta but I guess I prefer something with a little more punch.
The quality of the pizza was great, but again I felt as though the kitchen was being stingy with the toppings. I was tempted to tuck my head into the kitchen and let them know the recession is over. Don’t ask me what “ramps” or “guanciale” are, but one of them is a bacon-like meat. There were about eight pinky finger-nail sized cubes on the entire pizza so I got to try about three of them. There were parts of the pizza that were completely baron – no cheese or anything to cover the bread. Again, maybe simplicity is the intention here, but it left me wanting more (and raiding the snack drawer about two hours later). I enjoyed the sunny-side up egg in the middle but realized it’s hard to share among three people. Gotta call dibs!
We had Sunchokes & cipollini onions on the side. To me, the sunchokes had a similar taste and exture to a roasted potato. This dish is fresh, simple, and small.
The interior of the restaurant nearly took my breath away when I walked in. It’s homey – one small dining room flanked by a bar overlooking the kitchen on one side (note to self) and a wood-burning fire. The wooded décor is upscale without being pretentious. It’s the kind of atmosphere I want to spend several hours in. Based on the fact it took me two weeks to get a LUNCH reservation, I’m filing this under the “last-minute, post-work casual drinks & apps at the bar with a gal pal“ category.
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