Restorante Tosca

Growing up I probably ate pasta for at least one meal a day, without exception. I wouldn't eat meat and my mother eventually threw up her hands and told me that she was no longer going to make me special meals. So I learned how to make a whole variety of pasta and sauces.

Fast forward 10-15 years and pasta is still by far my favorite things to eat. So when there was an excuse to have a decadent dinner last week, I choose Restaurante Tosca.

About 4 years ago a co-worker and I tried Tosca during restaurant week and adored every minute of the meal. We barely spoke but plenty of "mmm's" were overheard I'm sure. So when my foodie oriented ex came to town to visit I decided i had to return. One of the reasons we did so well together was because food was a shared priority. Money was not an issue when it came to food. We both traveled for our jobs and spent most of our relationship in hotel rooms around the country (and the world) and everywhere we went we were very well fed. I literally remember the places we visited by my favorite dishes ... deep fried goat cheese mac 'n cheese in Memphis (i am STILL trying to track down this recipe 3 years later), spiced shrimp in Little Rock, spaghetti with meat sauce in Beijing (not even kidding). Anyways, together we always ate well and spared no expense when it came to food and wine.

So to Tosca we went. I don't think even we have spent that much money and eaten so much food as we did last week. We ended up having two very nice bottles of wine and definitely too much food... but every bite and sip was fantastic. We both insisted that we couldn't share the goat cheese and arugula salad so we both had that ... and it was worth getting our own! We then decided to order a feast ... he would get the lamb shank and a side pasta while I would get the tasting menu featuring a veal ravioli and a rib eye steak. It was a disturbing amount of food. The veal ravioli was fantastic - much lighter than i expected for a creamy dish. The smoky tones from the prosciutto added a really wonderful warm feeling. The rib eye was good - i usually order a fillet or something more girly than the big slab of meat that I got. I finished about half of it before I had to cry uncle. The steak wasn't something i would order again but the lamb fell right off the bone and the sauce was rich and so savory ... I can't even remember what pasta he ordered but all of their pastas are to die for. The best part is that you can order any pasta as an appetizer for a pared down portion and a pared down price.

If you have a few hundred dollars to throw at a restaurant - I highly recommend Tosca. I have heard they also have a $35 pre-theater menu and you could probably pretty easily get away with ordering about half the food we did (and maybe half the wine... although really, who are we kidding).