Trattoria San Nicola

I always regret not writing a review within two days of either seeing a movie or dining at a restaurant. Not only is the very nature of blogging timeliness, but once the moment has passed, taste buds fade, judgment is faulty, scenes blend into one over all hue without distinctions or nuances.

Such could be the case with reviewing Trattoria San Nicola (4 Manor Road, Paoli PA) seeing as my dining experience took place on February 28th, but alas I need not rely on my own recollection. I was dining with 3 out of normally 4 fabulous ladies- better known as the Juicettes!

I met these fine, Philly females at a communications forum last March and we’ve been meeting once a month for dinner ever since. Last month, I choose the restaurant and was smart enough to bring along my digital voice recorder. So I interviewed each person after their meal. Most of the girl talk that takes place during our outings would not be fit for family blogging, but the comments below are strictly concerning our voracious appetite for food (well, mostly):

DD- Did you just whip out a recording device?

LF – You’re gonna have to pay us for this, are you putting my name on it?

LL– Not your full name.

LF – Okay, well, I had the ravioli and the presentation was lovely, very pretty, but the sauce was lacking in flavor and too oily.

LL- An oily Alfredo sauce?

LF – No, it was a demi-glaze, but I still didn’t expect it to be that oily. In fact, I’m worried about my stomach and two of you have to ride home with me.

LL- I call the back seat.

DM- I decided to go with the special, an ink Ravioli, which was a good contrast for the table since we had both black and white raviolis. There was fresh, tender, not over cooked lobster on the top. It was so tender, even the claw.

DD- She’s ready for this, she grabbed that recorder and started talking about contrast.

DM- You don’t know, I could do this for a living. I watch the cooking shows. I would be so big.

DD- As a food critic?

DM- No, big as a house, but I could exercise all day and be a food critic at night. Okay, Okay, so, I must say the decor of the place is nice. It’s off the beaten path, so it’s a little treasure in the nook. The service is good and speedy. The bartender was excellent. My door was open for me when I came in. My Pinot Grigio is delicious. Oh wait, let’s go back to my appetizer – fresh clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp and calamari, really fresh, not rubbery. Dripping in a light oil with basil and parsley. The kind of oil that should have come with the rolls. Thumbs down on the olive oil on the table. We had to ask for butter for our rolls. And we shared… Oh, you tell what you ate.

DD- It’s alright. You’re on it. You go ahead.

DM – She had the prawns and… No. Here I’m passing the mic.

DD- I don’t even know the name of what I had some kind of “Pasaducci”, my Italian is bad, the meal was good, but it didn’t improve my Italian. But it was Angel hair pasta and beautiful, beautiful shrimp- sorry, prawns to be specific. They were very tasty. Even better with the fresh ground pepper and grated cheese.

LL – Hold on a minute. Are we ordering coffee?

DD- Yes, I like my coffee like I like my men, black with a tidbit of sugar. Of course my husband is fair. Oh, I forgot to mention, I had an excellent roasted pepper for my appetizer with breaded eggplant and asparagus.

LL- Ours was similar and really good. Sort of an egg roll with asparagus and eggplant and spinach and nice thick provolone cheese.

DD- We’re having our desserts now, cheesecake, cannoli and DM got a Godiva Liqueur and Vanilla Ice Cream. And our server, What’s your name again?

Server – Maria.

DD- Maria was excellent. Maria, now you’re going to be on a blog.

LF- She doesn’t want to hear it, she wants to see it in a tip.

DD- light and fluffy. And a little dollop of cream on the side.

LL- Is it a good graham cracker crust?

DD- Let me tell you something, actually. It’s a very light cakey kind, which is a little different, but in this case it’s okay. Nice after flavor.

LF- Cannoli is good, very crisp outer shell. And the chocolate sauce is a nice compliment. It’s like a baker’s chocolate. Light filling. I do find the chocolate chips a little overwhelming.

DM- I’m getting tipsy from my dessert.

LF- Take your time, you know we’re going to close the place. We have to do RS proud, since she couldn’t be with us this time. She gets a kick out of us always being thrown out at closing.