Tasca: Good, but not better than AOC

[Porthos]

Went to Tasca last night. Service was excellent. The valet informed me that they were out of parking spots. I called the restaurant and the issue was quickly resolved by the manager.

The wine list skews towards the domestic and you can definitely find several interesting selections in there, but it is not on the same level of AOC. We had a nice 2005 St. Emillion for $65.

We ordered:

Arancini with truffled cream. Delicious, very well made. I'm a bit tired of "truffled" preps but this was very good.

Burrata Salad with watercress and heirloom tomatoes and serrano ham. The ham was excellent. The burrata delicious as always. Not as sweet and fresh as the burrata at P. Mozza but good. The out of season heirloom tomatoes were decent.

Fried salt cod fritter. The bacalao was good but a bit cool in the middle.

Braised short rib with spinach and 4 cheese agnolotti. A comfortable and tasty dish.

Boudin Noir. A shame. the sausage had so much flavor but the dish was utterly ruined by being severely over salted. Really a shame since the boudin was so tasty.

In summary, a very good restaurant with excellent ambiance that's relatively easy to get into. However, the wine selection and food is clearly a step behind AOC. While the dishes were good, they didn't approach the level of cooking that produces the brioche with prosciutto, gruyere and egg dish at AOC.

[mstinawu]

Maybe not as interesting, but how would you compare the quality of ingredients?

[Porthos]

I think quality, prep, and skill goes to AOC in terms of the dishes. Again, not that Tasca is not good, but I find that AOC is better.