Café Carmellini

[Wilfrid]

Very good, I thought. The space is not only spectacular with a toweringly high ceiling, but fun -- buzzy without being noisy. Service was enthusiastic. The only mediocre part of the meal was the cheese service which is clearly not their focus: they would much rather serve you a sticky toffee pudding flamed at the table.

More details to come.

[Wilfrid]

Ridiculously tall grissini in keeping with the height of the ceiling and a warm sourdough loaf.

Red snapper "meuniere" -- not sure about the name, although there was parsley and lemon involved. Red snapper carpaccio would have fitted better.

Outstanding dish: shrimp colonatta. Very good shrimp, lightly topped with lardo, some Tuscan bean action. The Domaine Sigalas Santorini Assyrtiko (Greek white) was made for this dish.

Rabbit primavera. A big bowl of food. I'd say half a rabbit, but I think there's was more loin than that, as well as braised leg and neat little rabbit ravioli.

The cheese thing was odd. There's no printed list. I had some rather non-specific descriptions from my server. He wondered if I wanted five cheeses. I did not. I ended up with a Selles-sur-Cher, some kind of blue, both of which were okay, and a third which was anonymous and not very good.

Comp: I ordered a glass of recent vintage Domaine Huet with the cheese and my server brought me a much older and more expensive vintage to compare. Thank you.

Including tax and tip, we were up around $300, but that is four courses, champagne, three glasses of wine, espresso (with rosemary cookies) and I have to admit that it seemed a fair price.

ETA: Odd angle on some of these photos, not because I was slumped over, but if I took them straight my phone cast a big, dark shadow.