Mondays at Sardinia
Every monday, starting today, they are featuring a different region of Italy.
Tonight was the region where bologna is (forgot the actual name of the region)
App - Cold cuts inside of flatbread with a sharp cheese and ruccola. Think of a really really good quesidilla.
Served with a dark sweet champagne
Primi - Lasagna bolognese. This was awesome. I don't eat lasagna relatively often but have had many and it is amongst the best I had.
Served with a Sauvignon from the region.
Secundi - Meats, veggies served with mustard with something else in the mustard on the side. This too was awesome. My meats were shortribs, tongue, rabbit quarter, oxtail and bull's leg sausage.
Served with a merlot from the region.
Dessert was a pound cake drenched in cream and I believe gran marnier. Named something inglese. It was very good.
The whole bill for this comes to $45 per peson+tax and tip. If you did not have dinner yet, run don't walk there. It is a huge bargain.
I was told the region would be different every monday but the pricing structure would be the same while this is going on (I am assuming it is throughout the summer).
Folks, this is a lot of great food for not a lot of money. There is a good chance I will be there every monday until this special ends.
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re: lax2mia
It was...
Polenta with sausage
small spinach dumplings with mushrooms and cream sauce
porkchop and roasted potatoesAll were dishes were great and very filling. Desert was apple strudle with a vanilla ice cream and it was very good.
Note that the reginoal menu says 45+drinks but that is an english error on the part of the owners and I asked them if the drinks were included in the 45 more than once and they said yes - I suggested they change the wording but they have not done so as of yet. Tax and tip are indeed extra. Like I said, don't walk, run to sardinia on mondays.
Like AG said, next monday is Sicilia. Can't wait. Finally something to look forward to on mondays :).
Also, the leftovers for the regional menu are often amongst the specials on the menu during the week. They are not nearly as good priced then but you can get an idea of what you were missing...
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re: tpigeon
lax2mia
May 20, 2008 06:27 AM
I went around 8:30 to 10:30 and had no problem getting a table. That menu was horrid though, especially when it's 95 degrees outside. Polenta followed by spaetzle! By the time the pork (with potatoes) came out I was stuffed. It was a carbfest to the extreme. We decided to just split a dessert (which was the best part of the meal) rather than waste food. Our waiter was hurried and brought our wine pairing about 5 minutes after we received each dish. This was a bomb. The polenta was as light as it could be, but it came out with a film as if it'd been sitting under a heat lamp. The spaetzle was light as well, but there was too much of the cream sauce and even though there was prosciutto in the dish, the dish needed salt. The pork shank (at least mine was, tp you got a chop?) was good, but not great and the accompanying potatoes were rather greasy. Best part was dessert by far. Apple streudel with pine nuts and vanilla ice cream.
I like the concept, but I think this menu was better suited for a cold January day vs. the last week of May. Hopefully Sicily will be a little lighter.
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re: lax2mia
Mine was better than yours. I liked everything. I agree that the second dish was creamy, but I happen to like cream alot and I had a extra grated parm put on it too so that added enough salt for me (I am a sucker for cream and cheese what can I say). But I can see where your are coming from on that end.
I also agree about the potatoes now that you bring it up but mine were not as bad as yours, but they weren't as awesome as they usually do potatoes. I think it was the sauce that added a bit of grease to them...
My Porkchop was rock solid and I really enjoyed it.
I actually enjoyed the dessert the least of the bunch ironically. I was also inside where it was 70 degrees.
When you consider the amount of food, the quality of the food and drinks for the price, I have a tough time figuring out a better value in miami.
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re: tpigeon
advisor_Girl
May 20, 2008 02:12 PM
TP>
You are indeed a man after my own (clogged) heart. Thanks for such a great find. Next week - Sicilia!
Ciao~
AG
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re: miamisage
They had ep for a special a few times where they did not bake or fry the ep and it had no breadding. It also had somewhat less cheese than I had it before. It was pretty delicious btw. The eggplant taste really came through.
I wonder if this one will be the same as before, or will they go the traditional route (at least in the US) that I am more used to?
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re: miamisage
Porthos
May 26, 2008 11:36 PM
Just got back from the Sicily dinner. I thought it was a knock out performance.
-Rice croquette- generous fist-sized ball of rice that's fried so it's crispy on the outside (kinda like a yaki onigiri but fried and not grilled obviously) and served on a very flavorful pool of red sauce. Paired with a nero d' avola.
-Bucatini pasta tossed with sardines, garlic, and parsley served with a side of sardines. A wonderful, pungent (in a good way) and rustic dish. Not for the faint of heart but very good. Forget the name of the paired white wine.
-Grilled swordfish steak with garlic, olive oil, rosemary. Spectacular. I thought it easily beat out the version at Michael's. The smokiness from the grill permeated the steak and the rich fatty swordfish was cooked medium rare. A masterpiece in its simplicity, execution, and quality. Paired with a wonderful, fragrant sauvignon blanc redolent with citrus and nectarine.
-Cannoli. Good but I was too full to finish.
I noticed that no additional dinners are listed for the following Mondays. I really hope they replay or add new ones.
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re: Porthos
Port -FYI they have meals planned out from a different region through the end of june. I saw what they had on paper, but I don't remember what was served when because it was a lot of info...
As far as the meal goes, I don't like sardines and swordfish much but I still thought everything was very good.
If you like sardines, you would have found the pasta amazing because you could really taste the freshness of the sardines. I still really liked the dish.
I would say my favorite thing was the croquetta which I loved (right up my alley). However I thought the best prepared dish was the pasta. I liked the croquetta better only because I am not a fan of sardines. If you are, the pasta would have blown the croquetta out of the water.
I thought the cannoli did not have enough flavor to it and was the lowlight of the meal.
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re: tpigeon
Porthos
May 27, 2008 12:46 PM
T. It's not posted on the website which meals are next. Which paper did you get it off of?
The swordfish was stellar.
Like you said, the pasta was so well made that even if you didn't like sardines, you had to respect how well made the dish was.
Again, thanks for the find.
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re: Porthos
All I know right now is the region is Campania. They will have the menu tomorrow afternoon. No one knew what the menu was when I was there a few minutes ago.
Sorry I did not keep better track of the menu when it was read to me last week - but I kind of like not knowing what it is beforehand (he also read at least 4 other menus for future weeks to me as well which made it hard to remember at my advanced age). Nonetheless, I will post tomorrow afternoon what it is.
What I do remember is I liked the sound of all of them and here is the big shock - they will serve burratta during the puglia region. I know, who'd a suspected that :).
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re: Porthos
Ok, the person I talked to had a very heavy italian accent so here is the best I could gather for Today's menu ( I called btw).
App- described as a mozzarella french toast with anchovies - sounds like spidini to me...
Pasta - gnocci (not sure with what- said buffala mozzerella but may have still been referring to the app)
Secundi - I believe lamb wrapped in pancetta.
Dessert - babba which was described to me as a sponge cake.
I am there like guenivere.
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re: jessierandall
That's exactly what it was.
This week.
The app was as I said but in my opinion did not have enough cheese and sardines but was solid nonetheless. If they doubled the amount of cheese and sardines it would have been awesome.
The gnocci was homemade and you could tell the difference but because the cheese and sauce was almost the same as the app it kind of took away from the whole excitement of the thing. I would rather they had done something unrelated to the first dish. The sauce and the cheese were too similar. Nonetheless as a standalone dish it was very good.
The lamb, thoght not the same quality as the lamb chops (a special they have every once in a while) were very well flavored and the potatoes were awesome (no grease lax :) ) and it was my favorite part of the meal.
I liked the babas too, it was very new and interesting to me - never had them before. Much lighter than I expected.
Overall I liked the meal but thought it was the weakest one they served so far. Last week they servied items that were not to my taste but were compelling, this week they served items that were but fell short of the other preperations in my opinion. I blame it mostly on the lack of distinction between the first two courses. Still a great bargain. I will continue to go.
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re: tpigeon
Porthos
Jun 2, 2008 10:01 PM
I agree. Definitely one of the weakest meals I've ever had at Sardinia. The appetizer was nice. Different. The gnocchi was a bit heavy, dense, and not well made at all. Batali's ricotta gnocchi this was not. I found myself longing for the sardine pasta from last Monday. Every other pasta dish I've had at Sardinia has been better than this gnocchi dish.
The lamb was decent. Good flavor but again, the weakest meat dish I've had at Sardinia to date. The suckling pig, oxtail, braised rabbit, and lamb shanks were all significantly better. The potatoes are awesome but I've had those roasted potatoes with the suckling pig on the regular menu before.
The dinner was definitely a bit of a let down. Campania could have been so good. I may take a little hiatus until the Puglia dinner...or maybe not depending on what's scheduled for next week.
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re: Porthos
I thought the gnocci itself was very well made but the sauce really was nothing special especially since it was so similar to the previous course. The ingredients were all fresh and good but there was no synergy that you get in the really great dishes.
It just felt like I was eating great gnocci with fresh cheese and sauce but they did not combine to make the whole thing better.
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re: tpigeon
Blind Mind
Jun 8, 2008 02:43 PM
I finally checked this place out on Friday night. Dinner was great. I got the bacalao with the salt crust (phenomenal!!!) and the quail for the app (quail was pretty good, broccoli rabe was not so good). Waitstaff was top notch which blew me away because this is a SoBe restaurant we're talking about. Im looking forward to giving the Monday night thing a try for sure.
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re: Blind Mind
Sardinia made a big comeback this week. This may have been the strongest week yet.
Codfish and Polenta - great
Risotto with radishes - great
Liver with onions and some kind of sauce (hey I'm not Frodnesor) - great, very little liver aftertaste - I generally dislike the liver aftertaste btw which makes liver not one of my favorites. The grilled bread and the sauce went perfect with it.Dessert. Zabagione with pretzel shaped cookies also great.
No weak points this week. Was very happy. Next week is puglia.
Burratta (I think with pepepperoni?)
Garganelli with Broccoli Rabe and Olive Oil
Forgot the third dish and they did not tell me dessert.-
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re: dlgc
I go every monday. This monday happened to be exceptional. Much better than the last 3 I went to.
Higlights was the codfish main, with seafood, peas and a light red sauce. It was delicious with tobasco sauce and bread.
Lowlight - dessert was ok but nothing special. Cream sauce with 2 pieces of cake with powdered sugar to soak up the cream sauce.
App was great but a little strange because it was spinach in a thin pastry sandwich with hardboiled egg. It was very good but I would not expect to eat that for dinner - great concept for a brunch though. I really enjoyed it.
Pasta was gnocci in pesto sauce with peas and potatoes. One of my potatoes was undercooked but the rest of the dish was very good. The gnocci was cooked to perfection for my al dente preference.
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re: tpigeon
Blind Mind
Jul 8, 2008 08:48 AM
I used to be one who said something like the app you had would be only for breakfast but Ive really been liking eggs in lunch/dinner dishes lately. Hardboiled would be rough though, I can agree there. Some of my fave egg dishes are the double yolk egg at MGFD and Spris makes a pizza with prosciutto and egg that is phenomenal.
As for Mondays @ Sardinia, I went on a date there on 6/23 but we both passed on the fixed menu. The region they were featuring (forget the name) had very hearty food and we just weren't up for being weighed down. I did, however, have the scallops which were surprisingly awesome. I didnt expect them to be as good as they were and it was hard to leave 1 on the plate. Only reason for that was due to me consuming most of the meat/cheese plate we ordered. Taleggio was incredibly good as was the prosciutto and salami-like meat (forget the damn name of this too... I kinda have a short term memory problem haha)
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Porthos
May 14, 2008 05:27 PM
T. Is there any way to find out the menu in advance? Great heads up. That secondi sounds seriously good.
Just to clarify, it's 3 courses including wine pairing for $45/pp AFTER tax and tip? That would be an unbelievable deal.
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re: Porthos
advisor_Girl
May 15, 2008 07:28 AM
Great Idea!
This could be our Second Annual Unofficial South Florida Hound Round Up. I think everyone went to last year's Johnny V Pig Roast (and BBQ Beach After Party). This year's event sounds a whole lot more promising! God let's hope so...
Thanks T!
AG
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re: advisor_Girl
Blind Mind
May 15, 2008 12:50 PM
I plan to be there Monday as well as I will already be at the convention center that day for a show. Is something really being planned? I planned to eat at the bar (provided that they have one - Ive never been haha)
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re: Blind Mind
advisor_Girl
May 15, 2008 02:12 PM
BM>
Sweet little bar at the NE corner - pix and event info here>
http://www.sardinia-ristorante.com/
Also noticed there is a wine seminar event at 3pm this Saturday 17 May. Regions of Friuli, Venezia, Giulia & Tuscany @$20pp. Wondering if TP is gonna hit that?
AG
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re: tpigeon
advisor_Girl
May 19, 2008 07:46 AM
TeePs>
Did you hit the wine event Saturday? Spaghetti omelette and a nice red? I logged in this morning looking for a report...
AG
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re: advisor_Girl
Blind Mind
May 16, 2008 06:52 AM
Good stuff AG, thanks. Is anyone planning to go Monday? Perhaps I will see u there? $45pp + tax/tip is pretty damn good, especially for SoBe. Probably will run you about $60 on a 20% tip. I dropped $85 at Michael's Genuine Wednesday night haha. Couldve got outta there for much less but the guy is making his own BACON! That led to more bourbons and the nice bar tab haha.
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re: Porthos
No, unfortunately, she wrote "plus tax and tip," but it still sounds like a good deal. And thanks, tpigeon for saying that it is in Miami Beach. I live in the Tampa/Sarasota area, and I am often lost as to where these east coast restaurants are. It is helpful and saves time when posters state the general location.
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re: tpigeon
advisor_Girl
May 16, 2008 03:54 AM
P>
The website does not post the Monday menus but says May 19 is Regions of Trentino Alto Adige and May 26 is Region of Sicilia...
mmmmmm!
AG
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Blind Mind
May 12, 2008 07:32 PM
Great post. I now have dinner plans for Monday - Where is good parking around there?
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