Restaurant review: For those who insist on great pasta check out Cantina di Luigi
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'The menu is simple and to the point,' Yen says. 'There's no smoke and mirrors. Just really good food. Sometimes the best food is the simplest thing done right.' Exactly. It's for those who insist on great pasta. There are four pastas and a risotto on the menu, along with antipasti and small plates.
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The pastas are made in-house and passed my test — I irresistibly finished the whole plate of carbs. Taglioni with shrimp, mussels, calamari, herbs, and lemon, anchovy, caper butter ($31) was oh-so-lightly kissed with sauce. The pasta had a slightly gnarly chew and the seafood did not hold back — there was lots of good quality mussels, squid, and prawns. The butter is house-made and cultured for a boost of acidity.
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Veal, beef and pork rigatoni with a tomato sauce, fried rosemary and shaved pecorino ($32) gave and gave, flavour-wise. The meat was cooked stovetop for three hours until it couldn't hold it together, sighed and fell apart.
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The pasta-making process is intuitive to the experienced. Sometimes it needs more semolina flour, sometimes more durum, depending on humidity and flour behaviour. A Yen trick is to include some of the pasta water to the sauce.
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As for starters, I loved the dish that keeps on giving, the 'ode' to Poirier, who first created it, says Yen. Cured anchovy, boiled egg with jammy yolk, bright salsa verde, salmon roe and chili aioli ($18) converge in a most delightful way. This dish was an apology. I'd ordered a radicchio, frisée, and pickled fennel salad with hazelnuts and gremolata ($15) and it was perfect except it was gritty, seemingly with sand. The server reported it, veteran manager Matthew Morgenstern tasted the greens, agreed, and had sent out this winning replacement.
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Fonduta, with 'nduja (a spicy, spreadable salami), butternut squash, and fontina cheese ($22), is a fondue-like dish, served with crostini for dipping. It's from Northern Italy, where a stick-to-your-ribs dish is just what winters need.
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A couple of other dishes Yen 'absolutely loves' includes the beef cheek risotto with mushroom conserva and cipollini onions ($33). 'The luscious risotto, the slow-braised beef, the Venetian spices, and the brightness of onions — it's a lovely, lovely dish,' he says.
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The other is venison pappardelle ($32) with tomato and red wine sauce and Parmigiano-Reggiano. 'The leg is slow cooked and pulls apart,' he says.
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Sadly, we were too full for dessert (tiramisu, torta Caprese, gelato, or a weekly cake) but they sent out a couple of cookies from the bakery, which we took home for a late-night snack.
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On the drinks list, you'll find a number of classic Italian cocktails — negroni, aperol spritz, etc. — but it's the food-friendly wines that really stand out. They're all Italian and, for the most part, represent good value.
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There's solid selection by the glass, starting at a very reasonable $7.50. Note, however, that the pours are 125 ml, just over four ounces, as opposed to the standard five ounces. Still, it's refreshing to see wine prices so approachable. Things get even more interesting by the bottle, where you can find reasonable markups on many of the wines. Aperitivos and digestives are worth a look too.
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