Fine Dining Friday

In light of our last semester at Cornell, my friends and I have begun what we call Fine Dining Friday. Until the end of the semester, we will be trying a different restaurant each Friday that we have yet to go. (Hopefully, we will have the time and money to do this till the end.)

This Friday we went to Zaza's Cucina, an Italian restaurant. I had heard many great things about Zaza's and was excited to finally try it out.

Between the five of us, we ordered a bottle of German Riesling and three appetizers to share. The appetizers we ordered were a crunchy walnut-crusted scallops with a light endive salad, savory wild mushrooms with polenta, and a large portion of mussels steamed in a white wine, herbs, and garlic. They were equally flavorful and good. The broth from the mussels was so good that I had to ask it to be boxed up. I made a good a pasta sauce the next day with it.

For the entree, I ordered raviolis stuffed with pumpkin puree in sage butter. Although the dish was a bit too sweet, it was still very good and a nice contrast to all the savory dishes we had earlier. My friend ordered a lobster and shrimp risotto that I would definitely recommend. Zaza's was a great start to our Fine Dining Friday. The food was delicious and the ambiance was nice. The evening turned out to be a great success and I can't wait till next week!