Tummy Prosperity: Authentic Italian Cuisines at Trattoria

Started 12 years ago in Seminyak Bali, Trattoria has now been available in several cities in Indonesia; including Medan, Lombok, and our beloved capital city Jakarta. Even, in Bali and Jakarta this home style Italian restaurant has had several outlets. It’s been quite long since the first time I was attracted to visit Trattoria. I was highly excited to try their dishes knowing that they sold authentic Italian cuisines, since I was a big fan of these foods.

Finally, last weekend my friend asked me to have a meet up in a restaurant selling Italian food. Trattoria then suddenly popped up in my mind so here I was, bringing my starving tummy. Located at the ground floor of The East at Lingkar Mega Kuningan, the venue was really spacious yet really crowded even on Sunday noon. The indoor area occupied most of the space, leaving a quite small size for the outdoor one. The walls were creatively decorated with shelves, where bottles of wines and spirits as well as ingredients of Italian dishes beautifully sat. Besides, I really loved the idea of using high ceiling as it created the ambiance of exclusivity. As expected, not few of the guests were foreigners and even celebrities (yeah. I did meet some actresses there).

Not only amazed with the interior, I was also pleased by the warm service of the waitress. If you were not the expert in Italian cuisines, you might find it quite hard to choose what to order since the menu provided no single picture. The dishes names were mostly in Italian. Though the explanation about the ingredients of each dish was indeed provided, but I guessed you might be not familiar with some of them. Thus, a helpful waitress would be a necessity here. Luckily, the waitress who served me was highly passionate in answering all questions I raised regarding the dishes. She also came up with their best-sellers so I could have some references in making my order. Tons of gratitude to her!

Complimentary Bread

Similar to other Italian restaurant, complimentary bread could be said as a required opening. This time, it became a great starter as I loved the texture of all types of bread served in the basket. Enjoyed it with butter, and you would definitely be pampered while waiting for your main dish.

Complimentary Bruschetta

If complimentary bread was common, then complimentary bruschetta would make it distinctive. Yes, you would also get this for free! This combination of crispy toast, fresh diced-cut tomatoes, basil, garlic, and olive oil was even a better opening.

We did not need to wait for long time to have my orders served on the table. Right after my friends and I finished the complimentary starters, all the dishes were coming.

Bianca Al Crudo (IDR 81k)

Dining in Italian restaurant without having pizza was surely incomplete. For the pizza, we picked Bianca Al Crudo, whose taste was quite lovely as it combined the savory taste from parma ham with the fresh touch from rucola salad and cherry tomato. Besides, the mozzarella cheese could be strongly tasted as it was abundantly given. Just one thing, I guessed it would taste even far better if they slightly added the parma ham. For the pizza crust itself, I really really loved it as it was thin and crispy.

Calzone Farcito (IDR 81k)

Besides pizza, we also ordered Calzone, which was basically the different form of pizza. If pizza served the topping on the crust, Calzone served it inside the crust. Yeah, you might call it closed pizza or pocket pizza. For this one, we had additional meat component for the topping as there were Italian sausages besides ham. Moreover, this combination also delivered another classic ingredient for pizza, mushrooms! Serving those 3 toppings together with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella, I thought you could guess how the taste would be as this mixture was quite common to have. Yes, it was luscious but again, more generous fillings would be nicer :)

Lasagne Verdi All Ortolana (IDR 81k)

Now, the turn for pasta, for which we picked Lasagna. At first, we chose the one with meat component. However, as we already had meat for our calzone and pizza, we then picked the veggie version for the lasagna. Basically, it was spinach lasagna with mixed vegetables toppings and mozzarella cheese. This might sound not appealing due to the VEGGIE word, but surprisingly, I really really loved this dish! If you were the ones who also loved creamy version for lasagna, then you were in the same boat with me. You didn’t need to worry about the veggie toppings as they actually neither tasted bad nor smelled bad. They even let you enjoy the rich taste on your taste bud as the y united sweet and savory flavors. As a plus point, the mozzarella cheese came in generous portion as well, thus this lasagna totally suited me.

Tagliolini Neri Al Salmone (IDR 79k)

Another creamy pasta on the table was this one. I was tempted to order it as I knew that it was black ink tagliolini pasta blended with salmon creamy sauce. I’ve always fallen in love with any blank ink pasta which was served with creamy sauce. For me, it’s just tasted impressive. Moreover, this time I was delighted even more as there was salmon there. It’s just beyond perfect as the salty taste from the salmon flawlessly balanced the creamy taste from the sauce. One more thing, serving this with tagliolini was certainly a brilliant idea. As the pasta was so thin and cooked al dente, it perfectly complemented the heavy sauce with its light texture.

Hot Caffe Latte (IDR 34k)

Talking about beverages, I firstly tried their hot latte. The coffee tasted quite good as the acidity level was at moderate level. The overall quality was more or less similar to the ones commonly served in other Italian restaurants.

Italian Hot Cioccolato (IDR 33k)

Finally, the turn for the star of the day. You might wonder, “Beverage?”. Yes, the star was beverage! For any chocolate lover out there, you should never ever miss this one! I’ve never had similar version of hot chocolate before. The texture was so thick that it was closer to cream than liquid. Yes, it was indeed exceptional. Even before I tried it, I was already drooling looking at the appearance. How about the taste? Impeccable! The sweetness level was precise and the chocolate flavor was strong. If you saw that the cup was quite small, you’d better try to have this portion first. With that thick texture, it was undoubtedly fulfilling.

All in all, Trattoria is unquestionably a must-visit restaurant for Italian dishes. Their selections of dishes would surely indulge both your taste bud and your tummy with their remarkable taste. I would definitely come back soon to try their rigatoni and most importantly to have their hot chocolate again!