Barbuzzo

Barbuzzo

110 S 13th St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Neighborhoods: Market East, Avenue of the Arts South

I'm not a self-prescribed fan of Mediterranean food, but Barbuzzo has made a convert out of me (as MinGa had done to me for Korean food in Chapel Hill, but that's a whole other story).

Unfortunately, we both ordered exactly the same three dishes, so I'll only be able to write about a sliver of what Barbuzzo has to offer, but if the rest of the menu is anything like these three dishes, it'll definitely be on my shortlist of go-to restaurants.

We started off with the buffalo mozzarella with basil and arugula pesto - a great combination of tangy and salty.  The only minus of this plate was that the vinaigrette / pesto on my dish was not as thoroughly mixed, resulting in one bite that was super uber salty.

Second up was the pan seared gnocchi soaked in smoked corn, truffle butter, cherry tomatoes, seared trumpet mushrooms, and guanciale (Italian bacon).  Some other Yelpers mentioned that there were only a few pieces of gnocchi, but  I thought my portion was pretty generous.  I like things seared / grilled, I like truffles, I like corn, and I like bacon, so this dish definitely made my taste buds sing. Try it.

Third up was the salted caramel budino (Italian custard) - the crust was dark chocolate, layered on top with vanilla bean caramel, sea salt, and a dash of whip.  Be warn, this is tasty.  If you ever had Werther's Original Caramels candy, then imagine eating a liquid form of it.  Simply delicious.  Caveat is that eating the whole thing will give you a slight sugar rush as it is quite sweet, so slow down and get some coffee to balance it out.

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