Emily D.
Yelp
I'm truly on the fence about La Contea, but Italian food is my absolute favorite, so I do tend to be pretty picky. The smell coming into the restaurant is full of garlic and butter (delicious!), so that was a good start. The restaurant itself is cute inside, classy, but not stuffy with a surprising number of tables. You could equally get dressed up or wear jeans. During our dinner there was live music, which is always a plus.
Our waitress was super nice at very attentive when we arrived, making sure we got water and drinks right away. I ordered their elderflower French 75, which was a bit overpowering with the elderflower; it needed more Prosecco to balance out the floral flavor. I don't think I've ever had a bad French 75 in Baton Rouge, so this was a little disappointing.
As far as food is concerned - it was hit or miss (thus the 3 rating - I wish I could do 3.5!). The table bread is a basket of garlic roles topped with Parmesan cheese; I absolutely loved these because they were very garlicky (which might not be a winner for everyone). We ordered the fried cheese as an appetizer (because who doesn't like fried mozzerella?!). This was a bit of a disappointment. For the price, I don't think there was enough cheese (I think 5 small slices) and the marinara sauce that it came with has a strange aftertaste to it (almost like a jarred sauce). The cheese itself was nice and gooey with crispy outer friend goodness, but not the best I've ever had. For an entree, I ordered the Lobster La Contea. The sauce on this was amazing (again very garlicky, which I enjoyed) and truly was the star of the dish. For the price, though, I expected more lobster meat. There were only a couple of small pieces, which were slightly overcooked. The ravioli did not taste homemade as the online story suggests is true of their pastas. The pasta was pretty thick and the filling was not super flavorful. My husband ordered the lasagne and was really disappointed. The pasta noodles were cooked unevenly and the filling was heavy on sauce and not enough beef. The sauce seemed similar to the one served in the appetizer, so it didn't seem home made.
While in many cases I would say that fast service is a plus, it was almost too fast in this case. I'm the kind of person that doesn't want to feel rushed to eat, but I did feel that way during this particular experience. I'm certainly interested in going back, but maybe order something else.