Last night, we took a consultant visiting from South Africa to La Morra, on Route 9 in Brookline Village, for dinner. After how generous and welcoming everyone was to me in Cape Town, I wanted to return the favor at least a little and get the poor guy out of Natick.
Overall, the food was very good. My wife and I split “Halibut Arrostato al Tegame”, pan roasted halibut, sauteed pea tendrils and vegetable polenta. The Halibut was perfectly cooked–moist and not yet flaking in the middle with a beautiful crust on top–the polenta was flavorful, and we both love pea tendrils. A starter of roast asparagus with a poached egg and Parmesan was excellent even though the asparagus seemed more steamed than roasted. Our green salad was disappointing, though–with great mixed greens so easy to find there’s no reason for a plate of whole, untorn, wilting lettuce leaves.
Our favorite part, though, were the “cicchetti” or Italian tapas. We only tried two–fried stuffed olives and arancini (fried risotto balls)–and both were outstanding. The others looked equally good: Fried sage leaves with anchovy, chicken and duck livers with capers and Vin Santo, white anchovies, pickled vegetables, Tuscan meatballs with porcini and proscuitto, and salt cod seasoned with crostini. At between three and four dollars a taste, it would be a fun alternative to beer nuts. In addition, the homemade ricotta served alongside chewy rustic bread was much more fun than butter or olive oil.
Overall, the meal was very tasty. Splitting an entree and sharing appetizers it would have been perfectly reasonable at $20 a head. Adding in drinks, dessert (don’t bother) and a disappointing salad and $40 per person, with tax and tip, seemed a bit too high.
In summary: we wanted Italian, within a business travel budget, not anywhere near the Sox fans waiting to see if their game was rained out, easy for my wife to join us by T, and easy to get in to on a weeknight. My favorites are still Sweet Basil in Needham, Carlo’s Cucina Italiana in Allston, or The Daily Catch in the North End (am I the only one who really likes it?) but this met all our needs.
La Morra
(617) 739-0007
48 Boylston St
Brookline, MA 02445
Google local
No, you’re not the only one who loves The Daily Catch! And I agree with your excellent review of our meal!
By: Carla on May 3, 2006
at 9:29 pm