Giadas at Cromwell

I thought that I would start a new thread on this.
Now that it has been opened for some time, is there anything on the menu that should not be missed or, forgetaboutit.
To get a prime time reservation,,,, its more than a month in advance...or longer.

 

Business must be good!

I called last week for a 6:00 pm midweek (Tuesday or Thursday) dinner reservation for two the week of October 12th and the earliest that they had was 7:30 or 9:30.

It also took over ten minutes to arrange the reservation as they kept putting me on hold as they answered other calls. I called at 3:00 in the afternoon purposely to avoid what I thought would be their busy times.

 

The Polenta frites were good, however overall its a forgetaboutit based on my experience... Ruined an entire night in my favorite vacation spot!

Slow and Poor service across the board, the only thing that was quick was being seated (which is sometime a bit of a wait!). It was a very bad experience; if you do visit I hope yours is better! I can imagine that place actually being quite good if we had a different host, runner, and server. The manager was a big help in the end, so I fault him 0% aside from his poor staff .

 

From my trip report posted last week....

Giada’s was amazing. I really enjoyed the open atmosphere and we had a great table with an amazing strip view. Fflowers made the reservation time to coincide with sunset, just because she thinks of everything! We ordered (4) of the small plates – Bacon wrapped dates, prosciutto, gorgonzola cheese with wild pear honey, and marinated olives. I’m not an olive fan so I can’t comment, but the bacon wrapped dates (stuffed with Italian sausage) were hands down the best thing I’ve ever tasted. If you dipped your fork in the wild pear honey, speared some cheese, then added the prosciutto, it was to-die-for.
For the pasta course, we ordered Spaghetti with shrimp, lemon, and basil (very good), rigatoni with vegetable Bolognese (very good), and lobster ravioli (ok, too lemony). For main courses, I ordered the filet (excellent, especially the steak butter!) and she ordered the Branzino (she said it was very good). Classic moment here – When Fflowers told the waiter to wait while she looked at the list of sides he said “Ladies, it’s my job to up-sell. BUT you have already ordered too much food!” LOL! Nothing like being cut off at a high end restaurant! She did insist on the corn with Italian sausage and it was very good. We did leave some food, but not too much as we were both starving! I can’t forget to mention the little pot of rosemary bread, it arrived hot and covered with EVOO and was sublime.
We noticed the waiters took a huge dessert cart to every other table, but not ours. They were probably all talking about us in the kitchen!
The service was excellent, but a little intrusive, only because there were so many who came by. Several managers, the waiters, and multiple others.
I want to return, I need to return. When I do, I will only be ordering the small plates and lots of them.

 

I loved the Hannibal cocktail, and the dates were outstanding! All pastas were satisfying and the Tuscan ribeye is impressive, paired with the smashed potatoes; it's hard to go wrong.