Restaurant Review: Tazza Kitchen

The Raleigh restaurant scene has been on point lately, opening a bunch of awesome new restaurants all over town. When I first heard that a place called Tazza Kitchen would be opening in Cameron Village (just one mile from our apartment), I immediately looked up the menu -- and FELL IN LOVE. I'm not exaggerating when I say that literally everything on the menu looked amazing to me. Everything. See for yourself here. Here are pictures of the food and drink menus at our location:

Just realized I left all of the entrees out of the dinner menu picture... oops.

Anyways, I was counting down the days until I got to eat at Tazza. Finally, on Saturday, we decided to walk over for an early dinner. Right away, I noticed the inviting atmosphere of the restaurant: strings of lights, a beautiful outdoor dining area, and a great modern/rustic look with lots of wood and dark metal. It was a lovely day out, so we sat outside. 

First, we ordered drinks. I tried the Vesper first, and Matt got the Mother Earth Weeping Willow Wit (which he really liked). The Vesper was very light - almost flavorless. I was surprised that, seeing as the ingredients were basically all alcohol (gin, vodka, and cocchi americano), I didn't really taste anything! It wasn't my favorite, but I drank it down quickly so I could order another cocktail :) 

My next drink was DELICIOUS! Even though I don't love vodka, I decided to go with the Southern Belle, since all of the other ingredients sounded so tasty (St. Germain, dry vermouth, lavender bitters, expressed lemon). This drink was way more up my alley - tart and refreshing! Very good flavors. It was almost too sweet, but after my near flavorless first cocktail, the sweetness was much appreciated.

Now, onto appetizers! We ordered the Cast Iron Goat Cheese with Marinara and Brick Oven Bread to start our meal. This was SO DANG GOOD. It was a very creamy dip of goat cheese and tomatoes blended together in a cast iron dish. Seems like something that would be quite simple to make at home. It was served with hunks of toasty, crusty bread that BLEW MY MIND. Drizzled with olive oil and sea salt flakes, this bread was soft and hot in the inside, and delectably crunchy on the outside. Perfect for scooping up the dip. MMMM.

For my meal I ordered three small plates, since they all looked so good and I could NOT decide on one thing. Variety! Spoiler alert: I was obsessed with all of them and cleaned each and every plate. Not one crumb of food went uneaten!

1. Brick Oven Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Crumbled Egg, and Maple Vinaigrette

This dish was incredibly good and had an amazing blend of flavors. (As Matt noticed, it was a trio of breakfast flavors -- bacon, egg, maple -- which I didn't even notice until he said so!) The Brussels sprouts were perfectly roasted - nice and browned without being burnt. I usually don't like sweet dressings, but the maple vinaigrette was light and smoky and complemented the other savory flavors very well. The bacon was cut into very small pieces that were all very thick and chewy. And there was a lot of it! YUM. The crumbled up hard boiled egg gave a nice creamy texture to the dish. All in all, delicious. Loved the different textures and flavors. 

2. Spicy Fingerling Potatoes with Crispy Oregano, Jalapeno Cream Sauce, and Lemon

Again - delicious! The potatoes were perfectly cooked - super soft and hot inside, a nice crispy skin, and a good amount of salt. The potatoes came with half a (broiled? roasted?) lemon and were topped with little shreds of lemon zest - so there was plenty of yummy lemon flavor. The only "spiciness" came from a smear of jalapeno sauce on the plate. I wish there was more of the sauce because it was SO good.   

3. Kale and Chiles Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts, Lemon Vinaigrette, and Grana Padano

Mmmm I love lemon dressing lately! So light yet so flavorful. Also, WHY is kale always so much better in a restaurant?! I can never seem to prepare it right at home... it just never tastes as good as when I order it out. Anyways, this salad was HUGE and towering: a mountain of shredded kale with chile flakes, pine nuts, and a ton of grated cheese. Much more lemon flavor than chiles, though Matt said he could taste a bit of a kick. This was super tasty and I had no problem polishing it off, though it did seem daunting at first!

Matt ordered Flat Iron Steak with Peppercorn Potatoes. The steak, which he ordered medium, came out very undercooked - almost raw - so he sent it back to be cooked a bit more. I think because the restaurant just opened, they are on high alert and crazy about customer service, so literally EVERYONE IN THE RESTAURANT came out to apologize for the undercooked steak... several waiters, the manager, the cook (?)... it was pretty hilarious. Poor Matt. When they brought it out the second time, it looked perfectly cooked for him. He really liked the steak, and the potatoes (which were almost identical to my potatoes) were delicious. They ended up knocking a few of my small plates off of the check (almost $13 worth), which I thought was SO unnecessary but much appreciated!

Note: Matt ordered the egg on the side so I could eat it, so I'm not sure how it would have been served otherwise.

Overall, we had a very, very positive experience at Tazza Kitchen. We left feeling pleasantly full - not stuffed at all... it was the perfect amount of food! We ended up stopping at Fresh Market on our walk home to pick up Jenni's salted caramel ice cream and some other treats to eat while we rewatched a few episodes of True Detective :)

I can't wait to be back and try everything else on the menu!