Dinner at Nessa
After hearing there was a new chef behind the kitchen doors at Nessa, I thought it was time to pay a second visit. The first was back in May, 2007.
We started with two bruschetta, brie with artichoke and proscuitto with figs, ricott and red wine. Both were tasty, but I liked the artichoke better. Which is interesting, considering on my last visit I adored the fig.
I tried the crabcake.
It came with a lemon aioli, which was lucky, because the cake was so full of breading that it was very dry. Why offer a crab cake if you’re not going to do it right?
We also tried the grilled octopus salad. The flavors were right: lemon, olive and frisee. The bitter played nicely with the sweet of the octopus.
For entrees, the chicken “under a brick” with spinach, potato puree and “diablo sauce.”
The chicken was well-prepared and the potatoes and spinach were nice, but I didn’t detect anything spicy in the sauce that would make me say, “Diablo!”
I quite liked the linguine con vongole:
The sauce was quite thick and a bit sweet, but the bite of the peppers balanced that out. Some people might wish for a less viscous sauce, but I was a big fan.
We sat at the bar because, at the time, all the tables were full on a Friday night:
Looking at the dining room through the gauzy curtains:
From the back of the dining room looking front:
The back room:
Back at the bar:
The bartenders were quite harried but still found time to chat a bit and recommend wine pairings.
I had a nice meal at Nessa, but it seems to have lost a little of the wow-factor that I found my first time there. Still, I love the idea of the menu: Small bites, little sandwiches, bigger sandwiches, salads, appetizers and entrees. It’s so flexible. If you can’t find something that suits your style here, then I don’t know what to tell you!
Nessa, 325 N. Main (on the other side of the tracks toward Greenwich), Port Chester. 914-939-0119. nessarestaurant.com
Photo Caption: 20080321nessa02.JPG
Curious as to the cost of your meal. I have read more than one rave about Nessa, but the menu on the website seems a little pricey for Italian food and flavors that don’t seem to think out of the box at all. I am not saying that it isn’t good or worth the trip (I haven’t even been there), and I can certainly appreciate traditional Italian food for it’s simplicity and incredible depth of flavor, but for $20+ entrees, they should do more than bolognese sauce and salmon with beans and salsa, no?
Hi CK. The dinner, including tax and tip, was $170. We had two glasses of wine apiece. I feel the same way you do. The $25 chicken did not really sing.