My wife and I went to La Cucina in Oakville La Cucina last night. andrewf is the sommelier there.
It has a great atmosphere, patio with approx 10 tables, the front of the restaurant is all floor to ceiling windows which makes the tables at the front of the restaurant the best of both worlds, inside but with the light and the breeze of the patio.
The important stuff ... food. Amazing! We had potatoe and leak soup, followed by a single thin crust pizza which was excellent, olives, gorgonzola, spicy salami (forget the name), it was great! I had the crispy duck as the main course (the last one too, thanks Andrew!!) which was unreal. My wife had a seafood risotto in a tomatoe cream sauce. This was Andrews recommendation and it was fanatastic. I'm not a big risotto fan but this was a great dish, not too creamy/paste like which I've found in other restaurants. It was filled with mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari - excellent presentation as the mussels/clams were full shell.
My wife is not a big wine drinker so 375mls is what I was looking for. I went with a 02 Shafer Merlot. My first Shafer and it was great. It was decanted for about 1 - 1.5hrs, lots of fruit and chocolate on the nose, full bodied with a long finish, a bit of heat on the finish. I believe this is 14.9%.
Andrew finished the night off with a Bolla Recioto. Not as sweet or thick as others I've had but very good, lots of sweet cherry on the nose, medium sweet, full bodied. My wife loved this! Thank you Andrew, finally something she enjoys. Looks like I'll be buying some Recioto in the near future.
For those in the GTA and especially the west end, La Cucina is a must. Oakville_Al, you need to check this out!!
Thank you to andrewf who made this a very enjoyable evening for my wife and I.
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