Restaurant Review: C&O Cucina

C&O Cucina - lunch on June 13, 2015

My niece graduated from college last month and we held her graduation lunch celebration at C&O Cucina, an Italian restaurant she and her friends had discovered when they were scoping out restaurants in the area. On yelp, C&O is rated 4 stars and almost all of the reviews rave about their garlic knot rolls. So does C&O because said rolls are prominently advertised via a banner at the front of the restaurant.

Garlic Knot Rolls

The restaurant itself, aside from the banner, doesn’t exactly scream “we’re a restaurant!” and it’s set on a busy street with no obvious street parking. There is a small lot for valet service next to the restaurant but it’s easy to miss if you’re driving by it too quickly *cough*. Still, if you do happen to turn in time, valet parking is only $5.50.

Antipasti

When we first walked in, a waiter was walking by with a huge platter piled high with fresh, warm, buttery garlic knot rolls. I almost followed him without bothering to check in and find our table but realized in time that that might be both tacky and gauche. But don’t think I didn’t consider it.

OMG, one bite and I understood why yelp mentioned these so prominently. They’re delicious. And that’s an understatement. Warm, soft but slightly crisp on the outside, perfect chewy bread texture, just the right amount of garlic. Bread lover’s paradise. Delicious, I tell you. I made myself stop after consuming two but I’m not sure that was a good move since I don’t live in the area and when am I going to be able to have these again? My niece advised that you’re not supposed to even consider stopping until you’ve had at least 3. She’s smart; she just graduated with honors from college. I should’ve listened to her.

Shrimp Ravioli

I feel like I can just stop the review there and let the pictures speak for themselves. I didn’t know what everyone else ordered (there were 13 of us) but I snapped pics of most of them. I do know everyone raved about the antipasti platters we ordered as appetizers. I ended up getting the Gnocchi Bolognese. I normally don’t order gnocchi dishes because they can be pretty heavy and most gnocchi entrees are pure carbs. But this came in a Bolognese sauce that was pretty meaty so I felt like I got some protein in. The gnocchi was fine but it was really the Bolognese sauce that made the dish. Also pretty freaking delicious.

Gnocchi Bolognese

Lasagna

Afterward, a few of us, including me (of course) ordered dessert. All of us got the molten chocolate cake with ice cream. If you’ve read a sample of my previous restaurant reviews, you’ll see the pattern emerge that this is the dessert I get most often. You’d think I’d go for a bit more variety but whenever I’m confronted with a new dessert menu, it’s honestly the most appealing choice on there 9 times out of 10. Although it is a pretty standard dessert and comes with the ubiquitous sprig of mint that I promptly take off as soon as I’ve taken the picture for posterity.

Seafood Salad

Lamb Osso Bucco

The dessert was good because it was served warm, the middle was appropriately molten and it came topped with ice cream. I tried, unsuccessfully, to put aside my dessert snobbery of thinking “I could make this” and just stayed in the moment, savoring my warm molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. I mean, yeah, I really could make and have made this but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of it. Or from thinking about those warm, buttery garlic rolls. Props to C&O Cucina for the perfect place for a graduation lunch with great food and great service.

Chocolate Lava Cake