Cafe Firenze - No Scallops Here
So I am an avid watcher of Bravo's Top Chef. One of the chefs this season who has been quite entertaining to me was Fabio Vivani. Sadly, he was told to pack up his knives and go last week. My friends and I decided that we needed a Fabio sighting to get us through the Top Chef finale (which will air this Wednesday). Yesterday, we drove to his restaurant, Cafe Firenze, in Moorpark to get a meal by one of the most consistent contestants this season. The verdict? Based on the food we got versus what we saw on tv, either Fabio didn't have a hand in our dishes or Tom and Padma are way too easy on the chefs.
We started off with calamari for our appetizer ($10.95). I've never been the biggest calamari fan. I'll eat it, but it must be absolutely fantastic in order for me to like it. So let's start with the positives about the calamari. First of all, you get a huge bowl of it. There are large pieces that are mixed with a few pillow-like fried zucchinis. Now I will say I made a little, tiny mistake. As I was squeezing the lemon over the calamari, I was waiting for my friends to say when. Since they didn't stop me, I went crazy with the lemon. As a result, it was really hard to taste the flavor of the calamari because the citrus was just overwhelming, but again, this was mea culpa. What was within the control of Cafe Firenze was the seasoning. I had a couple bites that were a little bland, but there were a couple bites that were too salty. The seasoning just was not well mixed. Also, I felt a little disappointed with the fried zucchini. I usually prefer thicker slices of fried zucchini, but despite the large cushion shape of the zucchni, I found very thin slices inside the batter.
While I was unimpressed with the appetizer, I had much higher hopes for the entrees. Now I knew I was definitely going to order a pasta dish because Top Chef watchers know that Fabio makes a point making fresh pasta. I figured that if I ordered a pasta dish, if nothing else, it would be fresh. I wound up ordering the Tortellacci di Zucca ($13.95), which was basically butternut squash ravioli. I was really surprised that what arrived at my table looked more like wontons than ravioli. I did like that the "ravioli" wrapper tasted fresh and wasn't heavy and doughy. The filling was supposed to be just a butternut squash and ricotta mixture, but I wonder if there was anything else mixed in. This was the sweetest butternut squash filling I've ever tasted. I couldn't help but wonder if sugar had been added. One of my friends tasted it and thought this dish could almost pass as dessert. (You just have to serve it with something other than the cream sauce and parmigiano cheese.) While it was sweeter than what I prefer, I did enjoy the butternut squash tortellacci. The flavor of the butternut squash was more potent than many others I've had, which I appreciated.
My friends ordered the lasagna ($12.95) and shrimp salad ($15.95). The lasagna used fresh, thin layers of pasta, which I really liked. Aside from that, this lasagna did not stand out. Don't get me wrong - the lasagna was good, it just wasn't extraordinary. The shrimp salad was also very plain. I thought the shrimps would be larger, but they were just your average size shrimp. In addition, since the shrimps were seared, I didn't feel that every single one of them were completely cooked through. I should mention that I think the staff was rushing with my friend's salad. They took her order down incorrectly and brought her a salmon salad first, and it seemed to take less than 5 minutes before the correct one came back to our table.
For dessert, I couldn't resist the call of the homemade cannolis ($6.95), while one of my friends chose the panna cotta ($6.95). Cannolis, for those who are unfamiliar with this dessert or have never watched The Godfather, are wafer-like pastries rolled into a tube, filled with ricotta cheese and topped with pisatchios. Cafe Firenze added one twist to this by mixing chocolate chips into the ricotta filling. I'm a sucker for good homemade cannolis, so this was an easy sell for me. The panna cotta is a completely different story. The panna cotta itself was incredibly plain, both in taste and presentation. Served in a wine goblet, the panna cotta was topped with a reduced balsamic vinegar and some strawberries. There was just too much tartness and acidity in this dish. This is probably one of the worst panna cotta I've ever had.
So I'm left with a mixed impression of Cafe Firenze. The restaurant is beautiful, with great ambiance. You just have to really like Jason Mraz, because they had his album on repeat, and we heard each song at least four or five times. (I'm a huge Jason fan, have been for about 10 years now, but that doesn't mean I want to hear the same songs by him repeatedly over the course of one meal.) Some of the food was good, while others left much to be desired. Cafe Firenze is really difficult for me to describe because of these polar extremes. I think one of my friends put it best when she said it is a typical suburban Italian restaurant.
Miscellaneous Notes:
We did get a Fabio sighting. He came out to the dining area twice, but he did not stop to talk to any of the customers. He seemed like he was quite busy.
You need reservations, especially after Fabio's appearance on Top Chef. We didn't make reservations, thinking that there would be tables available at 2pm. Nope. We ate at a table at the bar area, which was surprisingly lovely and comfortable. Without reservations at that time, the wait for a table was still going to be over 30 minutes. I heard that during the regular lunch and dinner rush, wait time without reservations could take at least an hour.
There's happy hour Tuesdays through Sunday starting at 4pm where you can get select martinis for $4.95.
There are no scallop dishes on the menu.
Cafe Firenze
563 West Los Angeles Avenue
Moorpark, CA 93021
Phone: (805) 532-0048
Hours: Tues-Sun - 11am-12am, Fri-Sat - 11am-1am; note - these are just operation hours, not necessarily kitchen hours. It is a restaurant and bar, with live music on weekends.