P.T. Biggs
Google
If you just want the headline, here it is: I’d return happily, but not enthusiastically.
LaScala’s Fire has 11 locations, from the Philly suburbs down to the Jersey shore (and one in Princeton). We visited the one in University City. The layout and design is to my taste - subway tiles and a bit of a labyrinthine layout that allows tables to be separated to give a bit of privacy. It makes looking for your waiter a bit challenging, but ours was attentive enough so that it wasn’t really an issue.
The restaurant’s own description features its pizza, which we didn’t have. The menu isn’t particularly long, but has the kind of fare you’d expect at an Italian restaurant, with a few surprises.
We started with the Tuscan wings and the Brussels Sprouts. OMG they were fantastic. The wings had a crispy skin and a Parmesan cheese topping that was yummy. The sprouts were some of the best I’ve had. We shoulda stopped there.
I think someone kidnapped the chef and replaced him/her with a culinary arts student who was following an internet cookbook. The chicken piccata was as uninspiring as it gets. I was particularly appalled at the sauce, which has lemon flavoring, but it looks and tastes like a paste thickened by flour or cornstarch. My friend’s gnocchi was like little pasta nuggets covered in a basil marinara. Those suckers would come in useful in a food fight.
The lemoncello cake was a nice desert (but I doubt they make their deserts in-house, though they’ve found a good partner).
The restaurant deserves a second chance. I’ll probably dream about those first course choices for weeks to come. Plus, the layout and design is really clever. Maybe the pizza is the way to go.
