Lunch at L'Orcio -- Friday Only & Yummy!

Address: 806 State St, New Haven, CT 06511
Website: http://www.lorcio.com/

I have always wanted to try this place, but I keep remembering Sahr told me that she did not like this place at all during her visit last year for a RW lunch. So I'm always a but reluctant to step in this place, but in the same time, I would really like to try since I also heard so good thing about it from some of my Italian-American friends. Finally, I asked Yen & Angela to come here together and gladly both of them said yes immediately! Plus we got a bonus Ted, who invited himself to this girl's lunch but was suffering from allergy terribly during the day at lunch.

Here goes the lunch menu. L'Orcio only offer lunch on Fridays, although selections are very limited, but the price is very affordable. There's also every Friday lunch 3 courses Prex-fix menu for $19. ( there's also sorbet in addition to Lemon Tart for the dessert course.)

Although I came for the prix-fix menu, but I read had no interest in their dessert options and also just felt okay towards their entree course. Thus, I seek for their regular lunch menu.

So...Yen & Angela ended up ordering prix-fix menu, Ted and I decided to order an Appetizer plus an Entree.

Just like any other Italian restaurants, we started with a small bread basket:

The bread was very soft on the inside and crusty on the outside. BUT I'd like to complain about the not-so-spreadable butter. What was that? I think a good quality EVOO with balsamic vinegar should be better here that the sad looking butter triangle. Anyway, since we were so hungry, we (well...I) asked for a second basket of it.
 
1st Course:
Angela's: Barley & pine nuts salad with tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella! DELICIOUS!!!!! I was going to order this one if I went for the prix-menu. But too bad that they don't offer this in their regular menu. I tried some of it and it was really good! My #1 among today's 1st course!

Mine: Grinned Eggplant, green and yellow squash with EVOO. -- $4.00 (!!!) It was pretty cheep and was served with a nice healthy appetizer amount! My #2 for today's course! I had this with some bread and it proofed that the bread goes better with EVOO than the sad butter.

Yen's: In house roasted peppers with olives, capers and garlic served with toasted bread. Although this one wasn't bad, it was anything too special at all. I think the bread was a bit too burnt around the edges and the peppers had some nice smoky flavor. But it felt like a dipping additions that could come with the bread basket in the beginning, not a good choice of appetizer. If you really finished all the bread, you don't need to eat the rest of your meal.you will be full by then. Yen was sharing this, but there was a lot of bread!!!

Ted's:Insalada de Spinaci. -- $7.00 (!!!) so expensive!!!! Blus it's just some baby spinach (not even a lot) with lots of salty Pecorino Cheese + counld't really find the walnut + already tossed = super salty and cost $7.00!!! He kept trying to finish it but kept saying it was too salty...and we girls all tried and agreed that it was sodium overload! For the sake of our kidneys, no one wanted to help Ted to finish it and he gave up eventually.

2nd course:

Mine: Mussels with linguine pasta in white wine and garlic sauce! $12.00 (another !!!) YUMMY and so affordable. I loved the flavor (so does everyone else) and the mussels were fresh and delicious! (I love shell fish!) The only thing I'd like to complain is the pasta portion! It seemed like they used enough to feed three (or at least two). The same observation was also seen in red lobster couple days ago...come on restaurants! Portion control, please! I'd rather they give me 10 more mussels and reduce more than half of the pasta! Then I am confident that I can clear the plate! Anyway, this dish was today's #1 for me (perhaps also for everyone!)

Ted's: Veal Scaloppini in lemon white wince sauce with potato & sauteed spinach (what! hahaha!!! more spinach for Ted!). -- $16. AHHH!!! So sour!!!! The meat may be tender, but I could not remember since it was so sour. All I thought about was "OMG! So sour and it cost $16.00!!! Thank god that I didn't order this!" Poor Ted also complained that it was too sour and I think Yen and Angela felt the same. He ended up boxed it up since we had no interest in helping him finish it up. And maybe he can pry that some strange chemical reaction may happen after a day or two and this dish may become less sour. (but I doubt that will ever happen.)  I think the girls did help with the sauteed spinach though!

Angela's: Chicken legs & thighs in some sort of tomato sauce. She said that there were 3 large pieces of meat.I tried it and though it was well seasoned with nice flavors. But it can be a bit boring after you finish your first piece...then the second piece...then the 3rd piece....Also, if you are not used to eat a large plate of meat, you may not be able to enjoy this dish until the end (like Angela). It gets a bit too much BUT was very yummy to start with.

Yen's: Salmon with cauliflower puree! Good example of portion control! I did not try the salmon (not a big fan) but I tried the cauliflower puree! I loved it! Light and creamy in the same time (what?)! And it was absolutely manageable to clear the plat!

It was very interesting that we all ordered different things, unlike our last eat out in Union League Cafe....

3rd course:

Beside lemon tart or sorbet from the prex-fix menu, they also offer more:

However, nothing caught my eye. So I decided not to order anything here and seek for dessert from some other places.

But here is a picture of Yens & Angela's sorbet, it was blood orange flavor. (Not sure if they change that daily or weekly or monthly or ever.) Nothing too worth mentioning but a scoop of sorbet and it's pink.

Overall, we (not sure about Ted) liked our lunch a lot! The price was reasonable and the food was generally good! I will definitely come back for more Friday lunch here! Let me know if you are going!!! Bring me please!!!




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