Scampo Report - October 2009

[beetlebug]

In a word...

FABULOUS!

A friend and I hit Scampo last Saturday night. Usually, we're weeknight diners but that baby lamb special just sang to us.

We were seated promptly in the side room (looks like this room can be shut off for a private party) and immediately served a fresh fava bean puree along with freshly made bread sticks (odd presentation of dumpling the bread sticks directly on the table, but whatever). The puree tasted like spring itself with a strong fava bean flavor and fruity olive oil.

We started with the beef carpaccio with mozzarella, parsnip chips and smoked sea salt. Wow, this was amazingly delicious and a wonderful way to start the meal. The beef was intensely flavorful and just melted into my mouth. Coupled with the mozzarella and the aioli, I could have licked the plate clean. It was that good.

We moved on to the pasta dish - spaghetti with hot peppers and pork cracklins. If I thought the beef was fantastic, the spaghetti was even better. Perfectly cooked al dente and the heat level rose, the more bites I took. And, there were plenty of pork cracklins so that every bite had at least two cracklins per forkful. Talk about being in piggy heaven. If I only had this dish to eat that night, I would have left completely satiated and satisfied.

They forgot to put our bread order in so the bread course came out after the pasta. We had debated between a two different breads but after talking with our waiter, we went with the ciccio. This was a soft pita like bread stuffed with cheesey, truffly goodness. It was tasty, but really, nothing could have topped our two preceding dishes.

Our last dish was the piece de resistance - the baby lamb served 3 ways. There was a rib, the meat and the fatty portions. It was served with baby brussel sprouts and huckleberries. It arrived on a huge platter and it was so succulent. A minor complaint - I was looking forward to the huckleberries even though I'm not a huge fan of fruit with my meat. On the plate were blueberries, which were delicious in their own right, but the waiter should have said so when he gave us the spiel. The lamb was borderline too much food at this point, but it was worth every bite.

We finished dinner with the pavlova which was wonderfully light and crispy. It was served with a lemon cream inside the pavlova and whipped cream and strawberries along side. Again, a quibble, these were billed as native berries which I think were just regular strawberries. Really, local strawberries in October? Regardless, this was the perfect light dessert to end a spectacular meal with.

To drink, we split the never ending pitcher of delicious sangria. This sangria worked well with all the courses and complemented the pavlova beautifully. Fruity and not overly iced or watery.

Total for the above was about $150 without tip. The big ticket items were the lamb and sangria which both came in at $45. Given the quality and service, it was well worth the price.

[beetlebug]

Edited to add: I tried to place link it but wasn't successful. If someone else could link it, that would be great.

[Taralli]

http://www.scampoboston.com/

[yumyum]

Mmmmm. I was the friend and this was easily my best meal of 2009. The lamb al forno was the draw but everything we tasted was divine. We had gotten some recommendations ahead of time from a regular, and pretty much ordered what he said to .. up to and including the sangria which really did pair with everything, and as reported, was a humongous never ending pitcher. I like that. There were a couple of mystifying service touches ... the dumping the grissini on the table, the random side plate that was never needed but repeatedly cleared and replaced, the multiple servers approaching our table when we arrived. But when we got into a groove with our main guy, who was the perfect combination of friendly and not fawny, it all smoothed out. We oohed and ahhed over what we were eating and he kept assuring us the best was yet to come. Thankfully this turned out to be the truth, not hyperbole, and our meal had a cadence that was perfect. You don't see pavlova very often and it can set your teeth on edge if you do, but with the lemon curd and berries it was ideal ... melted into nothing in your mouth, an airy finish to a fabulous meal. The only downside ... and it's not even fair since I knew this was going to be spendy ... is that it's pretty ballsy to charge $45 for an entree anywhere and only list "market price" on the menu. Yes, we could have asked, but we didn't. That was the only real surprise when the bill came, and since the dish is definitely enough to share it was fine.

I can't wait to go back, this time for the suckling pig on Fridays, and it will be mighty hard not to order that spaghetti with cracklins or the carpaccio again. yummy yum.

[MC Slim JB]

That "market price" with a big number hiding behind it is a clip-joint tactic worthy of the worst of the North End (for instance, Dolce Vita is notorious for this practice, pushing unpriced specials well over twice the average cost of the printed-menu entrees). I've learned to ask always, even about dishes I don't intend to order. I want that information aired.

I like Scampo, but I've found the output kind of uneven, the entrees often underwhelming compared to apps and breads.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[T.Clark]

We recently dined at Scampo. The room was pleasant at 6:30 when we arrived and was almost deafening by the time we left. But that didn’t bother me. It almost felt appropriate for the space. The show kitchen in the dining room seems a bit silly. The fake wood burning oven and cheap copper metal work seemed at odds with some of the other high-end touches like the beautiful flywheel slicer I contemplated heisting.

After reading about Scampo I was prepared for the grissini dropping. Eye catching, showy maybe, but kind of weird in an “I hope this tablecloth is as clean and sanitized as a plate might be” kind of way. Of course that didn’t stop me from inhaling my share loving each scoop of fava puree along the way.

A first course of mozzarella and beef carpaccio was really good. The smoked sea salt was a nice touch that added a surprise crunch to every bite. My SO enjoyed her arugula salad. I was too busy enjoying my dish to try it.

For the next course we split the chickpea pasta that was unfortunately terrible. Undercooked flavorless papardelle, an almost raw giant slice of roasted (doubt it) butternut squash, burnt bitter brussle sprout leaves, off tasting roasted chick peas. To her credit the waitress picked up on the lack of love we were showing for the dish and inquired, but we brushed it off as a bad choice. I’m sure she would have taken it back if we complained.

For my entrée I choose the Friday night special of suckling pig. To be honest I assumed it would be slow roasted in the wood oven (I hadn’t noticed it was fake at that point) or something sexy like that. The plate consisted of some belly, skinny loin chop or maybe it was a big spare rib, and another unidentifiable pretty flavorless piece I never touched after the first taste. For me suckling pig is about the technique so I wasn’t expecting crazy flavors, but this dish was rather insipid. The soft polenta was boring, as maybe it was intended to be. My SO had the Kurobuta pork chop with mashed that was good if nothing special with the exception of the sticky sweet smoked bacon slice that we should have removed and saved as our dessert. It was great. Not really integral to the dish and sweet enough to be a dessert, but I would actually order that for dessert. Instead we finished with an excellent lemon Pavlova.

All in all I’d have to say another highly acclaimed, heavily hyped restaurant that I left scratching my head saying “Really?” To me Scampo has lots of show and special effects, pretty people and reasonable prices but in the end the food wasn’t particularly special.

[emilief]

WE had dinner at Scampo last week. WE thought it was excellent as usual. Especially enjoyed the pavlova. But, what is with the bread sticks?? The bring them on a nice plate and dump them onto the table. This is new. Very weird.

[aadesmd]

My dinner at Scampo exceeded all my expectations, especially given the poor food at Blue Sky. We had a great time sitting at the food prep area, getting many samples of what the chef thought was his best stuff. Lydia stood about 15 feet away, so this may explain the excellence of the meal. I have to admit, I did find the bread sticks on the table rather funky.