Osteria Da Clara

It was our second wedding anniversary yesterday. We went out for dinner at one of our favourite places, Osteria Da Clara. Anyone who is seeking home style Italian food and most importantly well prepared pasta should check this place out.

For some reason the photos turned out to be really bad. I will remove them later probably.

Above are the eggplant rolls with ricotta.

The crostini. Husband loves the one with liver paté, he says that it's the best paté he ever ate. It's not one of those French style fancy stuff, it's just staight forward liver with a few pieces of onion.

Husband's Scaloppine dello chef . The menu says that it's prepared according to the chef's fantasy. This time his fantasy made him use some tomatoe sauce, cream, bacon and some blue cheese.

My Fettine di maiale con albicocche e noci.

The food is superb, as always. The chef has a thing for a sweet taste in savoury dishes and it works very well. See how they serve their famous sauteed carrots with every main? The carrots are to die for! Husband does not eat any cooked vegetables, except in soup, but happily munches away on these carrots.

I now know that 9p.m. on a monday is probably the only time when the restaurant is not fully occupied. It was though when we came at 19.30. Sometimes it's impossible to get a table there unless you make a reservation several days ahead and the place is sometimes fully booked even for lunch. Da Clara is not a fancy restaurant, it's a small, homey place so don't expect silver forks and crystal stemware.

We're very happy eaters but still couldn't finish our mains, next time we will not order 2 starters but only one to share, it's simply way too much food. The waitress will happily pack the leftovers in a "doggy bag" for you however! The portions they serve at lunchtime are smaller than those served for dinner. The service may appear a bit slow but it's very attentive, smiley and most importantly personal. I give 5 out of 5 for the service in Da Clara.

I always wonder why good service poses to be such a huge issue in restaurants. All we customers need is a bit of attention, some info and a smile! I guess I'm asking too much though.