So dinner in Bologna…. overrated… except for a spectacular Risotto Marinara

2008, Bologna, Italy 2008 Add comments

May 312008

Well so dinner in Bologna was ummmm… how do I say this?? Uninspired and boring and pretty much overrated! Now of course, I would hoping in the land of Bologna, we would just find some great Bolognese sauce etc, but the Tagliatelle alla Bolognese we had was pretty insipid.

Mind you, we did find a good restaurant with the white glove service and bow ties. By the way, service here…. overall in Italy, except for St Eustachio (family always gets good service), was pretty shit overall!

So the overall menu for each person:
Rishi : Risotto Marinara ( I asked for no dairy, and it came first with tons of butter… I had to send it back – oh yeah, I specifically asked for no dairy, no butter or cheese…the waiter agreed, says yes and yet it comes with butter… sigh!).

I had the Tagliatelle Alla Marinara, but this was an insipidly cooked Tagliatelle, with no Tomato or so little of it, I would have to search three plates of this stuff to find the Tomato. And the Beef, well let’s not speak of it.

Beth: read the comments about the Tagliatelle, and they should apply, but then again I can’t speak for her….but she was not impressed either.

Amanda: She had the canonelli, no wait… she had the umm I forgot.. it was stuffed pasta.

Overall… food experience was meh…but as usual, good experience getting there. As for my love affair with Eurotrains…. It’s over with Trenitalia…..then again it never started when I have to pay supplements for the Eurostar trains…. in Italy.

As the pictures show, it wasn’t a very interesting time in Bologna….

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rishiray

Rishi Sankar is a PeopleSoft HRMS Project Manager and Oracle Solution Architect. Over the past 10+ years, he has managed to combine his overwhelming wanderlust with a desire to stay employed, resulting in continuing stints with 2 major consulting firms. He documents his adventures around the world on "Ah Trini Travelogue" with pictures and stories from the road/tuk-tuk/camel/rickshaw. You can follow him on Twitter at @Rishiray and on Facebook. He doesn't like Chicken Curry but loves Curry Chicken and is always trying to find the perfect Trinidadian roti on the road. He also doesn't like cheese and kittens ... and definitely not together. E-mail from his blog is appreciated like a 35 yr old Balvenie at rishi@rishiray.com

Posted by rishiray at 5:12 am

czerio

I’m an american living in Bologna (just got here 3 days ago) and I completely disagree with pretty much all you said. Bologna is gorgeous (we’re talkin about one of the original medieval cities of Europe, here) the food is amazing… if you’re still here, try the tortellini, which is what bologna is famous for.
As far a service goes, its amazing. Italians have a different style of eating than americans. If the server comes over to you after serving you the food, Italians feel that they are being rushed to leave the restaurant, which is the LAST thing they want. Servers are trained to get your order, bring your food, then wait until you call them over, which you are supposed to do. If you wait for them instead of calling them, you’re gonna be waiting at least 3 hours.
You should check out my blog if you want to see some Bologna stuff.
Cheers!
-Cici

Dinner time… so we're going to have Spaghetti Bolognese…. On our way to Venezia with some thoughts, musings and a Guest appearance by A. Di Loreto!!