Modo Mio
April 18, 2009
Theme: Italian
From the outside you could easily be fooled and mistake the restaurant for a pizza parlor. However, when walking inside, we felt like it was rich with tradition and culture. It made us think that we were in Italy. The design was simple and nice. Our waiter was very accommodating, and since this place is BYOB, make sure the wine you get is dry and and goes well with Italian food.
The waiter gave us a very small sample of split pea cake with ricotta cheese and roasted pepper. The split pea cake is nice and moist, and the pungency of the ricotta cheese compliments it nicely. This sampler gave us an idea of how small the in serving the courses would be. We asked for the $32 “menu turista.” Which has 1 antipasti dish, 1 pasta dish, 1 secondo (entree) dish, and 1 dessert dish.
The bread came with an olive oil with ricotta cheese dip. The bread by itself is not bad, but the flavor of the cheese disperses well with the bread. We believe the hard crust in the bread allows for a rustic feeling, but we didn’t find it that favorable.
Our first appetizer was what they call a “sandwich.” It was a crispy napoleon cornmeal with smoked mozzarella, and green tomato mastarda. This appetizer by far had a “wow” factor, as it was so robust and juicy. It was like a pancake, with cheese and capers, and the pancake soaked in so much flavor. The vegetables compliment it perfectly. Our second appetizer was a called a contechino, which was a rich sausage with balsamic poached egg. While the flavor was nice and wholesome, the pistachio made it slightly too sweet.
Our first pasta dish was cavatelli. We wouldn’t want to spoul the surprise, but we highly recommend you ask your waiter what a “gavadeal” is. The pasta was al dente, if not slightly undercooked. However this dish felt like we could have gotten it in a take-out Italian restaurant. It was nothing special, and it was slightly too salty, though if you ask for pepper, it will drown out the saltiness. Our second pasta dish was agnolotti, which is rabbit and veal ravioli. This was a bit dry, but there was definitely a wow factor in the flavor. We feel that adding something to make it less dry would have ruined the flavor.
Our first entree was a bistecca silicana, which is a ribeye steak with aged provolone, fried egg, soppresetta, and anchovy caper butter. The waiter warned us that this would be salty. By our tastes the flavor was on the spot, and was another dish that had the “wow” factor. The steak was perfectly juicy and complimented the soppresetta (the salty part) very nicely. Our second entree was the agnello, which was a seared lamb sirloin with fingering potato, gorgonzola, walnuts, and green olive. We were disappointed in its flavor. It was also relatively dry, but that’s expected of lamb.
Overall, this place has wow factor, but lacks another important factor… consistency. The food is delicious, but you have to make sure you know the food there or you could end up ordering an above average dish instead of something with the “wow” factor. That’s why we can’t give this place 4 forks. We’d love to give it 3 1/2 forks, but such a rating does not exist.
Our score:
Great
Entry Filed under: Restaurant Reviews. Tags: Italian, Modo Mio, Restaurants in Philadelphia.
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