Jess S.
Yelp
This was my first time coming here on my own after attending on two different occasions with yelp - both of which were fantastic. I'm not sure if I was visiting on an off night (they also had some event going on in the main dining room) but will update this review the next time I go back. I came in with some high expectations but it just didn't quite meet them for how much I ended up paying.
Fattoria E Mar embraces the seasonality of different ingredients, so I was really excited to try the seasonal pumpkin menu (even though I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin lol). The seasonal menu was a four course meal for $85. It came with an appetizer, a pasta, a main, and a dessert. Normally, if something had the word burrata in it, I'd be on it in a heartbeat. But they recommended the pumpkin soup. It was alright - a pretty good tasting soup, though part of me wishes I got the burrata instead. The second course I got the papparadelle - that was super delicious. The first half of my meal went fine.
It was the second half where things started to go not great. I got the osso bucco - which was supposed to come with butternut squash gratin, pumpkin chips, and lemon. However, I didn't realize this until after I left the restaurant and was posting to Instagram and saw my picture of the menu. They gave me an osso bucco with just potatoes on it. I got it and was like "is there supposed to be pumpkin in this??" I should have said something to the waitress when she checked in on me but I thought maybe I just couldn't taste the pumpkin or something. The day after, I ended up calling the restaurant to ask and they said that they brought out the regular version of the dish by mistake. It was still tasty but I wish someone would have noticed or I would have spoken up. They had taken the menu so I wasn't able to re-reference it in the meantime.
Then the dessert came and I dunno, I think the kitchen was having a very off day. I got the butternut squash creme brulee. I wasn't the biggest fan of the flavor itself. But if that was it, I think I'd probably go with a 4 star rating. What knocks it down to three for me is that the sugar managed to be both burnt and incredibly undercooked. Like, you could see the sugar granules still on the top, giving the creme brulee a super grainy texture which wasn't that pleasant. And that part that did solidify tasted burnt. To be fair, the waitress did stop by and asked me how I liked it, and I didn't say anything. I just told her that I was super full (which was also true). But I didn't want them to try and remake something I wasn't planning on eating more of regardless, and I wanted to get on the road back home. Creme brulee with a top that poorly torched shouldn't have left the kitchen though.
To the restaurant's credit, when I called to ask the next day if there was a menu change or they ran out of the butternut risotto or something, they said the kitchen made an error and invited me back with the promise of being taken care of. I look forward to taking them up on that eventually and updating this review! I really appreciated the gesture.
It was, however, a very leisurely meal - not the kind of place to eat in if you're in a rush. Part of the reason I didn't call the same day was because the restaurant had already closed by the time I finished dessert. It was just me, but the whole meal took like, two hours at least.