March 18th 2014: Dinner at Sorellina, Boston

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner to go to at Sorellina, an upscale Italian restaurant in downtown Boston. When I arrived in the area, I was a little early, so I decided to the Prudential Center to check out the Crumbs Bake Shop there,

sampling one of their St. Patrick's Day mini-cupcakes, the Lucky One (chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling and white fondant icing edged with shamrock shaped sprinkles), which was pretty good, then convincing myself to get their Kid's Favorites Taste Pack, consisting of 12 mini-cupcakes, namely the Brownie (Chocolate cake filled and frosted with chocolate fudge, drizzled with chocolate and topped with chunks of brownie), Squiggle (Chocolate cake filled with vanilla buttercream and covered in chocolate ganache icing with a buttercream squiggle on top), Vanilla Puff, Chocoloco (Chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting covered with chocolate nonpareils candy), Cookies and Cream (Chocolate cake topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting with crushed sandwich cookies mixed in and a whole cookie on top), Cotton Candy (Vanilla cake with cotton candy flavored cream cheese and rolled in cotton candy crunch), Devil’s Food (Chocolate cake filled and frosted with vanilla buttercream, sprinkled with chocolate crumbs and mini chocolate chips), Pink (Pink colored vanilla cake filled with vanilla or chocolate cream cheese frosting topped with light pink vanilla fondant with a mix of pink and white sprinkles around the edge), Vanilla/Chocolate Sprinkle (Vanilla cake covered with chocolate cream cheese frosting and edged with rainbow sprinkles), Cookie Dough (Vanilla cake with chocolate fudge filling covered in vanilla cream cheese frosting mixed with soft chocolate chip cookie pieces and topped with a chocolate chip cookie), S'Mores (Chocolate cake filled with vanilla cream cheese frosting, topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting covered with chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham cracker pieces) and Candy (Vanilla cake w/ classic vanilla buttercream filling & frosting w/ candies covering the top).

As I had dinner later, I had to resist trying the cupcakes, and headed to the restaurant. I have to say, this place is pretty nice,

especially the table settings,

so much so that I felt guilty every single time I had to use flash to take pictures of the well presented food for the rest of the night. Going with the Dining Out Boston 2014 menu, I decided to get the Cavatelli (Shy Brothers’ farm cloumage, lamb neck, English peas, mint) for appetizers,

the Salmon (Faroe island, organic carrot puree, fennel-winter citrus salad) for the main course,

and the Limone (Fallen lemon souffle, mascarpone, pomegranate) for dessert,

while my friends got the Salmon Tartare (light smoke, creme fraiche, quail egg, fennel pollen crostini)

and the Endive (Gorgonzola crema, winter citrus, candied walnuts, blood orange vinaigrette) appetizers,

the Fettucine (Market exotic mushrooms, truffle butter)

and the Ribeye (Foie butter, fingerling potatoes, confit carrots, vin cotto) for main courses,

and the Panna Cotta (Buttermilk, amarene cherries, shortbread) for dessert,

along with a side of Hand-Cut Truffled Fries with Parmigiano.

The salmon tartare went really well with the cream, while the Cavatelli felt more like a decadent soup, especially with the lamb meat. My salmon dish was pretty earthy with the bean sauce, and though a little dry, wasn't too bad at all The steak was cooked really well, and the truffled fries were just the right level of saltiness. The desserts were delicious, the pomegranate pastels being really interesting, while the cherries in the panna cotta gave it an interesting taste.

Overall, definitely a restaurant to check out, although the price might be a bit of a deterrent.