Circo

It's sometimes puzzling to me the recommendations you get from a concierge, but you can never really judge unless you're getting a suggestion for a city you actually know. We had family visiting earlier this summer, and they requested from the concierge an Italian restaurant that was close by the hotel, affordable, casual, and appropriate to bring a toddler. The concierge came back with Osteria del Circo, a restaurant with $20+ pasta dishes and a bit of an upscale vibe. In the end, there were no issues, the food was good, and we didn't get too many weird looks from other people, but it's not exactly what I would have picked given those parameters.

Circo had a pretty great complimentary bread basket. They had lots of options - breadsticks, regular bread (multigrain maybe?), and focaccia. I made a beeline for the focaccia, which was wonderful. I think I ate too much focaccia, but it was so soft and tasty that I couldn't stop.

A's brother ordered some fried zucchini chips for the table ($10), which came with some sort of garlic aioli. (This match-up of zucchini chips and garlic aioli must have stuck in my head when the time came around for our homemade zucchini chips.) The chips were good, thin and crispy, and the aioli had strong garlic flavor, which we liked.

I got the tagliatelle verdi alla bolognesa ($24), which was homemade spinach tagliatelle with a bolognese ragu. I love spinach pasta and the tagliatelle was done well, perfectly al dente. The bolognese sauce was rich and meaty, and just the right amount for the pasta. I was very happy with this pasta dish, although it was a little expensive for pasta bolognese. Of the two pastas, we preferred this one in the end.

A got one of their signature dishes, the garganelli al nero di seppie e frutti di mare ($28), homemade squid ink garganelli with shrimp and calamari ragu, chili, and cherry tomatoes. The pasta wasn't bad at all. A thought that it was, perhaps, not worth the price paid, but with seafood you expect to pay a little more. The cherry tomatoes added a nice bit of sweetness to the dish, and the shrimp and calamari ragu were really tasty. There was no chewiness to the seafood, and it was just the right balance of sweet and salty from the ragu ingredients. The garganelli was a nice pairing too as it had a good amount of bite to match with the bite of the seafood.

In the end, the pastas were excellent, and we enjoyed the zucchini chips and the focaccia, but it was a bit on the expensive side (for us). The pasta prices were more on par with places we go for "nicer" dinners or special occasions, although I guess it was a special occasion in some ways since family was visiting. We had a good experience though, so overall it was a nice night.