Cotoletta - Review - Coconut Grove - Miami - The Infatuation
"Your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that handles decision-making, gets to take the night off at Cotoletta. That’s because the Coconut Grove restaurant has one main dish on the menu: a cotoletta, which comes with two antipasti and two sides. The prix fixe meal feeds two and costs $80. The antipasti are out of your control but you can choose between four sides (we like the salad and fries the most). photo credit: Cotoletta photo credit: Cotoletta To get here, you must summon the courage to pick up the phone and make a reservation. It’s a stressful hurdle for some, but after that, dinner is a seamless series of wine, lemony veal, and dessert. Even though the titular cotoletta isn’t mind-blowing, there’s just something about this place that elicits a smile. Maybe it’s the simultaneous lemon squeezes around the room, the rows of necktie drawings along the pink wall, or the fact that eating here feels like being a member of an oddly specific veal club. And while the menu is designed for an even party, they’ll alter portions if, say, you’re an only child going out to eat with your parents. Food Rundown photo credit: Cotoletta Bruschetta The antipasti you receive are out of your control. And the first is a simple bruschetta that you can’t get mad at because it’s topped with delicious stracciatella. photo credit: Cotoletta Arancini The truffle arancini is part two of the antipasti. The rice is a bit gluey but when you drown it in parmesan sauce, you’ll stop focusing on the sticky rice, and start plotting ways to hijack more of that sauce from the kitchen. photo credit: Cotoletta La Cotoletta Alla Milanese It’s about the size of your forearm, crunchy, but it’s missing salt and maybe an accompanying sauce to make it extraordinary. So squeeze the living hell out of the lemon it comes with. That’s what gives this breaded veal the acidity it yearns for. photo credit: Cotoletta Pasta Al Pomodoro Ask for parmesan to make this OK red sauce pasta a little better than OK. photo credit: Cotoletta Insalata Di Rucola For a meal that will 100% revolve around a huge fried slab of meat, an arugula salad is a smart choice to make for one of your sides. But you should also get the french fries—those are really good too. photo credit: Cotoletta Tiramisu It’s good tiramisu, but we wish it had a more intense coffee flavor to even out the thick squiggle of mascarpone." - Mariana Trabanino
