Locanda Verde

Charlie and Kirby with the duck and scallops

I went to Locanda Verde last night with some friends. I'd been dying to go and one of my friends had to give up her reservation so I got to steal it with four of my friends. (It's super popular, so you need to book like a month in advance.) It was great! The food was amazing and the atmosphere is really cool and well designed. Two of us got there first so we went to the bar for a drink. I had the pear sgroppino - it was so tasty. It definitely had some ripe, pureed pear in there and just tasted fresh and like the perfect bite of pear. Not too sweet. When our friends got there, we were escorted back to our table. The atmosphere was fun and lively and the music selection was great, all without being too loud.

To start, we had two orders of burrata. (If you haven't had it, it's basically fresh mozzarella filled with a mix of cream and more mozzarella - amazing.) It was creamy and rich but the richness was offset by the sweet and sour peperonata agrodolce and the bitter dandelion greens and fresh herbs. As you can see, we cleared the plate before I had a chance to snap a picture. It was also served with some really light and fluffy bread with a thin savory layer of melted cheese on top.

For my main, I ordered one of the specials which was a squid ink pasta with garlic, mussels, squid, and shrimp. It was delicious. The garlic and black pasta when together really well and all of the seafood was perfectly cooked and was incredibly tender. It was also topped by what I assume were fried breadcrumbs which added a great crunch and contrast in texture to the dish. Would definitely order it again!

My friend Natalie had the Fonduta Agnolotti (above) and loved it, refusing to let anyone else have any. Kirby has the scallops, and Johnny and Charlie both had the duck. Everyone was happy with their orders.

And for dessert, we split a caramel apple crostata with goat milk gelato and the chocolate torta with hazelnut gelato. They were super good. The crostata was really crispy and went well with the goat milk gelato, and the chocolate was dense and rich and was topped with hot fudge and toasted hazelnuts - yum!

All in all, a really fabulous meal with great people!