Trattoria Di IV - No. 111*
We first noticed this place from a review in the weekly food section of The San Diego Union Tribune and as the location is rather obscure, we'd very likely never have found it ourselves.
They call it Italian Fusion (classic Italian dishes featuring traditional Mexican flavors) as both of the women who own the place are Latin (one is from Ensenada and the other is from Peru, by way of Mexico City) and it looked great in the review, let's go check it out!
We were celebrating the wife's 33rd anniversary so we got reservations as it was Friday night, and one of the few Friday nights she wasn't working in over 30 years of restaurant work (you always work the weekends). It's a good thing we did as it's a small store front in a strip mall but they were stacked out the front door waiting while we just waltzed in and sat down at the best table in the place, right in the front window.
We counted and there are only 20 seats in the place but there's still enough room to add a few more 2 tops and 4 tops, which they will need if the crowd there was from the review in the paper from the day before.
The article mentioned several dishes the wife was dying to try such as their Halibut wrapped in parchment paper and a seafood stew very much resembling cioppino but all of them were specials and none of them were on the menu that night.
For our drinks, the Boy had a Coke, the wife only had water (she rarely drinks with her meal) and I ordered iced tea. What I got was some sort of flavored iced tea and I was told that that is the only iced tea they serve (we'll have THAT discussion the next time we visit).
And I should point out that the refill issue was the only real problem we had with the entire meal; everything else was perfect.
For appetizers we had sautéed wild mushrooms with garlic and topped with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.
They also brought us a small bread basket with thinly sliced French bread and olive bread with some fairly pungent garlic butter. Surprisingly, this was the hit of the meal as the Boy loves his garlic and we went through a second helping in no time flat...
Darla had the Seafood Special with Chipotle, from the Special Board. It had a fair number of shrimp and clams, was served on a base of fettuccine and seasoned with the essence of saffron and fresh basil. She says it was absolutely wonderful.
Her side salad (with red wine truffle vinaigrette, mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, Feta cheese, sliced mushrooms and onions) was very light and we all agreed it was a perfect compliment to the meal.
The Boy ordered the Classic Torpedo with ham, salami and pepperoni and fries on the side. It was served hot and the bun was easily the best we've had since we moved here.
I ordered the classic Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp. The sauce was close to the best, if not the best, that I've ever had, light and creamy and for the first time in years, I ate everything on the plate.
Everything we had was classic Italian, all done very, very well and maybe next time we'll get around to the more esoteric menu offerings...
Of course we all sampled everything and we agree; this is a first rate place despite the location.
Our total was $51 and change, with tip, rounded up to $60 exactly, thank you very much...
We will be back and next time I plan on trying out their pizza (it looked great when the next table's food was delivered).
And I'd like to try a few variations on their sandwich menu.
Some pertinent information:
Trattoria Di IV
8011 Mission Gorge Road
Santee, Ca.
(619) 596-7499
Closed Sunday & Monday
* This is the 111th new place we've eaten at since we moved here.
Carvel - No. 112:
Carvel is an East Coast ice cream chain.
I'd never tried it before and since it's right next door to the recently opened Windy City Beef...
Their original product line was chocolate and vanilla soft serve, and they now also carry at least a dozen different flavors of regular ice cream.
It was $1.99 for a small cone of the vanilla soft serve, we'll try more flavors when we go back to taste test Windy City Beef
A few days later, when we checked out Windy City Beef, I tried their chocolate soft serve as well.
Both are fairly smooth and creamy but I'm not really a soft serve guy...
Windy City Beef - No 113:
See "The Frankfurter Chronicles" for our full report
