Awful Food, Cocktails, & Atmosphere
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Each course at Volterra was a disappointment. The bread was underbaked and tasted like a floury paste. It's hard to imagine how you can go wrong with a wild mushroom salad, but it was terrible (Asaggio's is far better). The seared sea scallops themselves were quite good, but the bed of mushrooms and greens were awful. The sauteed prawns were flavorless and the accompanying market vegetables were undercooked and bitter. Part of the wild boar tenderloin was fine, but it was unevenly cooked and it came drenched in a gorgonzola sauce. The sauce was okay, but it was excessive and overpowered the tenderloin. This entree came with the same bitter market vegetables.
We hoped that dessert might redeem Volterra, but the white peaches with cream dessert was underwhelming. The peaches were slightly underripe and the cookie beneath them was so hard it could barely be cut, so we gave up. As for the beverages: The limoncello rosemary drop was sickeningly sweet (and I generally like sweet cocktails), and the stem of the glass was sticky when it arrived. We overheard the waitress mention that all of their drinks are quite sweet. The pinot grigio was good, but not fantastic.
As for atmosphere: Even though the restaurant was largely empty when we arrived, we were seated at a table with direct sun glaring at us through the bank of red and yellow stained glass windows; we asked to be moved. Cobwebs between the alabaster light fixtures dangled over every table -- the place could use a solid dusting. If that weren't enough, we were pestered by fruit flies the entire evening and couldn't wait to leave.
The waitress was pleasant, but didn't seem terribly concerned that our plates were left largely untouched and that we clearly weren't pleased (we were very polite, but did indicate that we didn't enjoy the food). With each course, we hoped that things would improve, but they just never did. We know good Italian food and this is surely not it.
Pros: Service was okay; wine was okay.
Cons: Most of the food & cocktails were mediocre at best; dust, cobwebs, & fruit flies detracted from ambience.