Location: 1633 W Snow Ave, Tampa, FL
Date Tasted: 5/12/2022 (Thursday) (Dinner)
Price: $15
Beverage: Jai Alai IPA
Apparently, Tampa, Florida, shares some important similarities with the Netherlands. They both touch an ocean, and they both seem to have carpaccio on every menu. Win for me.
When this plate hit the table you couldn’t help but be impressed with the presentation. For fifteen American dollars I would order this every day. It’s very rare to see crostini at all with this dish, and these ones were beautiful – uncommon and interesting.
Sadly, as you can also see, it’s considerably overdressed. Perhaps this “aioli trend” is something that the Tampa crowd likes but I would rather pass, or only see small dots of it on the plate edge so you can partake if you’re so inclined.
There was a half-hearted smattering of capers, which is a good start, but you should really be able to see them on each piece of meat at a minimum. Little green diamonds, thrown across a pale red blanket…
One does not place grated parmesan on carpaccio. Only slices will do – with a cheese plane. At least it seemed to taste like the right kind of cheese, there was so little of it it’s hard to say for sure.
The temperature was perfect. I know I harp on this a lot, but there seems to be plenty of restaurants that make these dishes well ahead of time and throw them in a way-too-cold cooler. They come out frozen to the bottom of the plate and tasteless, which is not cool. Like nice cheese, carpaccio needs to be closer to room temperature than fridge temperature for the flavors to open up.
Could use a lemon and EVOO drizzle, it was a bit dry. A small twist of salt and pepper was also needed, as tends to be the case.
The taste of the meat was outstanding, perfect consistency, not grainy or too cold!
Value: Excellent value for this large appetizer dish.
Overall Score: 8/10 – If you get this dish, tell them to go easy on (or leave off) the aioli drizzle and heavy on the capers. Sub in balsamic if you please so it’s not dry. There is a lot of potential with this dish, given a few modifications.
