Corso
None of the secondi struck our fancy, but we did order a substantial number of dishes. So substantial that instead of ordering by the names, I curled my index finger and thumb into a square bracket and pointed on the menu “we’ll take these four and these four, and the potato, and the asparagus please.”
That was 10 out of 25 “dishes” on the menu, if olives and salads could count as dishes at all.
Three years ago, I had a bite of pork belly sandwich from Corso. I remember nothing of it, except that it was memorably good. I vowed to come back, but my cravings are always either rice noodle or pancakes (although every time I get pancakes, their texture is gravely disappointing), so for these three years, the vow stayed as a vow and didn’t happen. I kept hearing from multiple sources near and far about how good Corso was, though, so my confidence for this Italian restaurant increased. When I picked Corso for dinner last Friday, I didn’t expect the restaurant to wow us, but I felt confident that the meal would be solid and comforting, that we would be well fed by the end.
The high note: the server replaced our plates and utensils after each course, yay for a clean platform to taste new dishes.
The low note: how low would you like to hear?
In general, this Asian does not have paramount hope for Italian food (to me, Italian food is pasta and cheese, both of which I find to be comforting yet boring), but there’s a reason Italian food is comfort food: assuming that you start from boiling dried pasta and that you have any sense of taste at all, it’s easy to cook an edible plate of pasta. Not perfect, but edible. Guess what, the tagliatelle al sugo at Corso was NOT even edible: it was pungent, muddy and in dire need of more tomato sauce and minced carrots. Each of us took one single bite, then a drink of water and that was it. The plate looked untouched when the server later cleaned up the table.
As far as bad restaurant experiences go, Corso had set a new record the moment they managed to screw up pasta and ground meat.
Were we well fed by the end? Well, we were fed up for sure. Why am I not trying to be nice with this review? Because I decided on this restaurant for dinner. I feel responsible when my friends couldn’t enjoy the meal, thus a positive review would be akin to lame excuses to sugar coat my poor decision. In fact, Corso left such a disappointing taste that it doesn’t even deserve a longer title in this post.
Bonus story: the table next to us ordered the butter-roasted chicken. The lady, who appeared to be in her 70s, looked over when our pastas had just arrived and said to her husband, who was signing the bill, “Look, they got the tagliatelle and the cavatelli. It looks good”. So I turned around, smiled with her and asked how was her chicken. She said it was laden with so much butter and cooked perfectly. I replied “It looked ah-may-zing.” (Chicken breasts never excite me, but I figured the situation called for a diplomatic comment.) In hindsight, did we just order the wrong dishes? Nah, it’s much harder to make white meat succulent than to make pasta edible. But I’m glad that at least one customer was happy with her meal.
The APPETIZERS (antipasti)
Marinated carrots – $5
Tasty level: banal (in any decent banh mi can you find equivalent carrots, with less oil)
Tuscan chicken liver pate – $8 – with sage, anchovy and capers.
Tasty level: Mud (I blame it on the overtone of anchovy)
Crostini – $8 – mussel ragu on toast
Tasty level: Good.
Why is it yellow? Beat me.
Grilled shrimp – $11 – in chili oil and parsley
Tasty level: Horrid.
The shrimps taste metallic. Was it overgrilled on open gas flames?
Salumi – $14 – spicy coppa, sweet coppa, toscano, ciccioli on toast, finocchiona.
Tasty level: Meh.
There’s no difference between the spicy coppa and the sweet coppa, or anything on that plate for that matter.
The SIDES (contorni)
Asparagus – $6
Tasty level: banal
I like the asparagus and I would have ranked it higher, but the sauce… They call it “fontina-tartufo fonduta”, which sounds like a chant to me, is so pungent because of the truffle.
Fries – $6 – One of the few edible items.
The first MAIN COURSES (primi)
Cavatelli – $14 – pasta with garlic pork sausage, kale, olives and parmigiano
Tasty level: Good
It’s not all that different from your homemade macaroni and cheese, but we could eat it happily.
Funghi e polenta – $15 – wild mushroom and polenta.
Tasty level: Meh
The polenta seriously needs more salt. There’s no taste in this dish at all. (The mushroom was faintly sour actually.)
Trippa alla Florentina – $9 – tripe stew with pancetta, spicy tomato, parmigiano and mint.
Tasty level: Okay. But it is too monotonic with the tomato sauce.
Tagliatelle al sugo – $15 – pasta with braised beef and pork.
Tasty level: Inedible.
What did they braise the meat with? Mud?
The DESSERTS (dolce)
Panna cotta – $6 – vanilla custard with spiced vino Lambrusco and Mission fig sauce.
Tasty level: Meh. (The custard is tasteless. The fig sauce is okay, though, it was neither too sweet nor too tangy)
Affogato – $6 – gelato with espresso
Tasty level: Good
If they had screwed up ice cream too, I don’t know what I would have done.
I like the vertical theme
Kristen studying Corso menu.
Kristen also reviewed Corso on her blog, Put It on Kristen’s Plate. We shared the same meal, and her review shows the same grave disappointment but with more thorough consideration than mine.
She also raised a good point: when the server approaches you with the question “Is everything okay?”, how do you respond when the food, in fact, is not okay? Do you say the common “yes” to just send the server away from the table? Do you explain what tastes bad? Do you ask to speak to the chef?
Address: Trattoria Corso
1788 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 704-8003
Dinner for 4: $172.77
Reservation is advisable. Despite its surprisingly horrible food, Corso continues to thrive in North Berkeley. All tables later than 5:30 pm on Friday were booked.
I like what you guys are up also. Such smart work and reporting! Carry on the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my website :).
1It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this superb blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will share this website with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
2I have learn some excellent stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how so much effort you put to make this sort of wonderful informative web site.
3I think other site proprietors should take this site as an model, very clean and magnificent user friendly style and design, let alone the content. You are an expert in this topic!
4Thanks for helping out, wonderful information.
5Thank you for another fantastic post. Where else could anyone get that type of information in such a perfect way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the look for such information.
6Hmm it appears like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any helpful hints for inexperienced blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.
7Howdy would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using? I’m looking to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique. P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
8When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Many thanks!
9Great write-up, I’m normal visitor of one’s site, maintain up the nice operate, and It’s going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
10excellent issues altogether, you just won a emblem new reader. What would you recommend about your submit that you just made some days in the past? Any sure?
11you’re actually a good webmaster. The site loading pace is incredible. It sort of feels that you’re doing any unique trick. In addition, The contents are masterwork. you have done a wonderful job in this topic!
12Really superb visual appeal on this internet site, I’d rate it 10 10.
13Hello there, I discovered your website by the use of Google even as searching for a related topic, your website got here up, it looks great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
14I real delighted to find this web site on bing, just what I was searching for : D too saved to favorites.
15I have learn a few excellent stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how so much effort you put to create this type of wonderful informative web site.
16I do like the way you have presented this specific difficulty plus it does indeed present us a lot of fodder for consideration. On the other hand, coming from what I have observed, I basically trust when the actual opinions pile on that people today stay on issue and in no way get started on a tirade involving the news du jour. Anyway, thank you for this exceptional piece and although I can not necessarily agree with this in totality, I regard the standpoint.
17I will immediately seize your rss feed as I can not find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me recognize in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
18Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!
19I discovered your blog site on google and check a few of your early posts. Continue to keep up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking forward to reading more from you later on!…
20Hi, Neat post. There is a problem with your site in internet explorer, would test thisK IE still is the market leader and a good element of other people will leave out your fantastic writing due to this problem.
21Simply wish to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity for your put up is simply nice and i can suppose you are a professional in this subject. Well along with your permission let me to grab your feed to stay updated with imminent post. Thanks a million and please carry on the gratifying work.
22