We love restaurants that pay true homage to the vegetable, particularly when the vegetables are…read morelocal and seasonal, so we knew we had to try Pietramala. The menu reads like something you've never seen before, with nearly every dish bragging some mind-blowingly sophisticated element, such as fermented chili aioli, kombu oil, vegan xo sauce, and noyaux (peach pits). Overall, the food was delicious, but these unique touches didn't come through in the dishes. Here is a rundown of everything we tried:
- Sourdough focaccia with tomato xo: great focaccia that would have been excellent enough without all the adornment (abundant sesame and poppyseeds, kind of evoking an "everything bagel" vibe plus super salty "tomato xo" sauce that was a lot like sun-dried tomato paste).
- Gem lettuces salad with smoked olives: the smokes olive bits were the best part. The dressing tasted a lot like blue cheese and was a little overly creamy but very tasty.
- Golden beet salad with fermented chili aioli, young chard, and crispy sunchokes: the dressing was a lot closer to straight up mayonnaise than anything resembling fermented chili. Overly creamy, with leftover tuna salad vibes. The chard and sunchokes were fun additions, but overall this dish was underwhelming for what seems to be one of their specialties.
- Cantaloupe with habanada and fermented husk cherry vinaigrette: we were expecting this dish to blow our minds, but it wound up tasting like cantaloupe sprinkled with chipotle veganaise. And it was very difficult to eat out of the flat bowl.
- Heirloom tomatoes with roasted tomato jus, kombu oil, and basils: the tomatoes were delicious but it was insanely salty, and the kombu flavor didn't really come through.
- Grilled escarole braised with heirloom lima beans, roasted garlic, and sage: I adored the two colors of heirloom lima bean that were perfectly cooked. The creamy sauce made with puréed lima beans was rich and felt like worthwhile decadence. My husband was the only one at our table to dislike this dish for being overly creamy and not having enough sage or escarole flavor.
- Durum tagliatelle with datterini tomato sauce with braised lobster mushrooms: tasty but unremarkable.
- Rosa bianca eggplant smoked and served with nardello pepper harissa, cashew labneh, and fennel pollen roasted walnuts: the harissa was so salty that it dominated all the other flavors. This might have been better as a dip served on crostini.
- Black pearl mushroom slowly grilled over coals and served with roasted corn, spinach, and chanterelle miso glaze: the mushroom was tasty, but the corn was downright confusing. It was extremely sweet, and so creamy it evoked canned cream of corn soup.
- Peanut mousse bar: like an elevated Snickers, but without the crunch. We loved it.
- Peach pit white chocolate semifreddo: we did not know what to expect from this dish, but we were disappointed that we couldn't identify any white chocolate. It was like a soy milk popsicle with almondy flavor. Would not get this again.
In summary, we had a blast trying everything on the menu, but we felt that most dishes fell short of their potential, based on the premium local produce and the novel flavors and cooking techniques. Without a doubt, they are using high-quality, hyperlocal ingredients on their entire menu. Unfortunately, they are not letting those products speak for themselves, but instead are drowning them in too much salt and excessively creamy sauces. I'm not sure if this was an attempt to appeal to people who aren't big fans of vegetables/macrobiotic foods.
Also, a word on the setup of the menu. The "tasting menu" really just means share plates of each dish, intended to be for a party of two. If you have a larger party, it makes more sense to get a full-sized dish of each item à la carte, although some of the dishes are not the easiest to share, such as the escarole and lima bean stew and the eggplant dish. Everything is extremely seasonal, changing from week to week, so it would be fun to return and try a whole new lineup of dishes.