Another evening, another wonderful multi-course surprise menu. But what happens when you don’t like a few of the courses? Well, that happened to us at Alberte, a well-regarded and innovative restaurant that we enjoyed but didn’t totally jive with that night’s menu. But I fully recommend the place- I’m sure we would be completely wowed on another night.
I started with an orange wine, a Grinton VB from Northern Italy. It was quite acidic and refreshing, like a slightly underripe nectarine. The amousé bouche was a watermelon gazpacho and cracker with creamed Roquefort cheese. These were quite tasty.
The next course was a mackerel with a melon-jalapeño granita. This was excellent. I’ve been a big fan of the mackerel this trip. All of it has been fresh, not pickled and the flavor a little more mellow than most mackerel dishes I’ve had.
Then we had a pasta dish, with a perfectly cooked lasagna noodle folded over itself with tomato, butter bean, and a delicious sauce that I soaked up with the delicious crusty bread that had been offered earlier.
Seafood was next in the form of mussels in a miso broth. These were good.
We had ordered a supplement of “trout salmon,” which was a lightly smoked trout dish in really nice olive oil. It was plain, but I thought it was great. SMS was a little more leery of raw-ish fish on a hot day which led us to the dish of trepidation…
The main meat course was sliced pork that had been cooked for “a long time” on the barbecue. Yet, it was really pink and soft but tough at the same time. It came with chard and a plum compote that were amazing, but both of us would have been more comfortable if the meat was more well done. But hey, if we want to be chefs, we should open our own restaurant!
Finally, we had our dessert course which was spectacular- sheets of merengue over ice cream, mascarpone, and blackberries.
Overall, I really liked the restaurant but didn’t favor the menu as much as our other special meals. But since this changes all the time, I wouldn’t let this stop me or anyone else from going in the future!