Bottega Bistro
Midlothian, VA 23113-1193
Phone: (804) 379-9899
06/11/2008 Posted by hungrydrummer
Long story short, my wife and I head out to Bottega to have our first real meal out with our ten month old son. Couple glasses of wine, a basket of really chewy bread but fairly good service. Had the Calamari to start....huge portion, average quality. She orders the stuffed chicken off the regular menu and I decide on the $28 pork plate off the "Chef's Specials" page.....gotta be good right, the chef personally recommends it. So it turns out the pork is pieces of pork butt, AKA pork shoulder. The same cut people use to make pulled pork BBQ. A very tough, very fatty and very cheap cut if not the cheapest cut on the pig. There was more fat on the plate then meat and it was incredibly under seasoned. The dish was accompanied by a mound of again average mashed potatoes and a cluster of overcooked vegetables. Now I'm no chef but I have spent many a weekend slow smoking countless pork butts with much, much better results. My gripe.....if you're gonna charge people $28 for a pork dish either serve them a better cut of meat or tell them up front they're gonna get a plate of fat with cafeteria quality sides. On the way out we noticed everyone else was eating pizza. Maybe they'd tried the pork before as well?
Pros: Cool vibe. Layed back but still upscale
Cons: The pork special really , really sucked
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