Mami-Eggroll: Dine out Boston Summer 2016: Tuscan Kitchen Burlington

Boston's "Restaurant Week" or "Dine out Boston" is currently being featured at many Boston restaurants along with dining establishments in the suburbs. I love that Burlington offers great places to eat so we don't have to go into the city every time we want a decent meal.

To kick off restaurant week and to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary, the Mo and I headed to Tuscan Kitchen in the newly renovated "District" area (where my company did most of the site lighting!!) I love it there. Tuscan Kitchen hosted our holiday party, many of our business lunch and dinners and I've attended a few of their special events in addition.

Their restaurant week menu featured an appetizer, entree and dessert for $38.00 per person:

Appetizers:

House Burrata ( to die for, BUT I always eat it when I'm there with work events)
House ricotta - same as above
Duck confit salad
Truffle Sachiette
Braised Pork Belly
Zuppa Di Mais

Entree

Flat iron steak
Fresh parpadelle
Organic chicken under a brick
grilled swordfish
Roasted pork loin
Roasted Nantucket flue

Dessert

Double chocolate bread pudding
Hibiscus Panna cotta (they were out of this so they offered us lemon sponge cake)

When we sat, we were overloaded with menus. We got the regular menu, the restaurant week menu, drink menus and a wine list. There was a lot of browsing to be done. We both opted for the restaurant week menu and ordered drinks.

A basket full of hot Italian bread was brought to the table. I couldn't resist the thick crusty bread and olive oil dip. (There goes all my weight watcher points)

I wanted to be semi healthy so I went with the Crescent Farms duck confit salad. The salad was described on the menu as "local greens, figs, goat cheese and marcona almonds." The salad was typical with small pieces of duck meat. It was underwhelming. My favorite part was the contrasting sweet fig and the creamy goat cheese. It was a popular starter as there were a bunch lined up on the kitchen counter to be served.

Tuscan Kitchen Burlington Duck Confit Salad

As soon as the Mo's appetizer arrived, I already regretted my selection. He went with the braised pork belly with roasted tomato marmalta, toasted garlic and cavolo nero (whatever that is!) Actually, I just googled it and cavolo nero= a type of kale used in Italian dishes

Tuscan Kitchen Dine out Week Braised Pork belly

Since we are married, I'm entitled to half of everything so I utilized my rights and asked for a piece. The pork melted in my mouth. It was such a guilty pleasure knowing I was eating pure fat with tiny traces of meat.

For dinner, I went with the roasted pork loin with fingerling and horseradish salad, pancetta and green beans. Again, I regretted my decision. The pork was a bit on the dry side and for some reason, I didnt' interpret the "fingerling and horseradish salad" as a fancy phrase for creamy potato salad. I took a few bites and gave the rest to the Mo, The fatty pancetta was the best part. it was like a chunky long thick slice of bacon.

Roasted Pork Loin with potato salad

I was losing to the Mo. He also chose a better entree than me. So much for being Mami-Eggroll, wannabe foodie! The Mo went with the wood grilled flat iron steak with baby gem lettuce, gorgonzola, cibatta vin cotto. He gave me a thick piece to try and it was good and cooked just to the right temperature of medium. I loved the toasted slice of ciabatta bread that it was served on. Makes for great presentation!

Wood Grilled Flat Iron Steak

We didn't have room for dessert but since the special came with it, we asked for it to be packed. I went with lemon sponge cake and it was still delicious 3 days after. The Mo went with the bread pudding and they packed the vanilla gelato separately so it wouldn't melt. That was a nice gesture.

Lemon sponge cake

Overall, my meal was "meh"! but Mo's meal was great. I guess these restaurant week is intended for diners to be able to try different restaurants at a good price. Just because I picked the wrong thing doesn't make it a bad experience.

Despite the "special" price being $38.00 per person, our meal was closer to $200.00 after drinks, tip and taxes were added. I am so bummed I forgot to take pics of my fun cocktails!

Tuscan Kitchen is a great restaurant. Joe Farvo, the owner is a super nice guy as well as the entire staff. There is also a loyalty program that you can rack points if you go there enough.

Sometimes, there is even a Billy Costa sighting!