La Lunetta

Smith Street
Boerum Hill

I miss Taku.

This restaurant would have been perfect if they'd just had a ramen with Berkshire pork on the menu.

My calamari was tasty, but too bready. Genius to thow on top of pomodoro. But I like my calamari crisp. The panzanella salad was a good time - lots of textures and contrasts in flavor. The bolognese should please meat lovers - you'll find chunks of it surrounded my miles of bucatini.

I don't think I've ever actually ordered a plate of linguine with clams - I've been stealing bites from people's plate for years. But the linguine with clams that I got in my bowl was not the same stuff that I'd been twirling on my fork from other people's plates. This was an eggy linguine, in a salty and garlicky clam broth, with glimmering, beautifully cooked clams and bites of escarole. Delicious, but no hot oil, no heat from red pepper.

I'm debating whether I need to go back. Like Taku, this food is too intelligent. Taku was no ordinary Japanese restaurant - it was high-end ramen, complex chicken wings. Neither ramen nor wings are supposed to be complicated like this. This Italian food is a meticulously prepared thinking Man's food, which, I'm not sure I want or need.

All I wanted was a carbo-load on the first cold wintery day, and I got thoughful Italian food.