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For our latest Roulette we headed over to one of Roc’s top destinations for a fun and delicious date night: Fiorella. They make everything from the pasta to the gelato with locally sourced and ethically procured ingredients. We had eight veteran Roulettes and received reviews from all of them. This was a wild ride: both the top and the bottom scores of the night were desserts.
We kicked off the night with the Mixed Olives: marinated with olive oil, garlic, orange peel. These were buttery and nicely seasoned! The olives are either taken care of or sourced well. They’re definitely not just like, “hey here’s some briny olives.” ⭐️ 4.1 ⭐️
The Meatball App: tomato braised meatballs (3), pizza bread, ricotta taught us that people have very specific ideas about the texture of meatballs. Some Rouletters noted these were a little too tender to the point of feeling mushy. Others spread the ricotta out on the pizza bread and placed the juicy meatball on top savoring a meatball they found tasty, juicy, and falling apart – just the way they like them. Consistently, Rouletters noted that these tender little fellas lacked seasoning (perhaps some more salt would have helped). How do you like your meatballs? If the answer is firm and spicy, these may not be the ones for you. Interestingly, other than a note that the ricotta had a nice texture but was quite bland, very few Rouletters mentioned anything other than the meatballs in their reviews. ⭐️ 3.8 ⭐️
The Beet Salad: arugula, delicate squash, golden raisins, raspberry vinaigrette (added goat cheese) was the second most divisive dish on what was another polarizing night overall for the Rouletters. Some loved these beets and found the salad to be sensational with a great balance of savory, sweet, salty, tangy, and texture. They found the combination of the deep flavors of the beets, squash, raisins, the freshness of arugula, and the acidity of the vinaigrette to be perfectly matched. Two Rouletters even rated this top dish of the night. For other Rouletters, the dressing didn’t pack enough punch and this dish overall tasted average as beet salads go. Still others liked the salad but found these to be the worst beets they’d had in the many, many, many (many! what is up with beet salads in Roc!?) beet salads RRR has tasted. To them, the beets tasted like they were straight out of a can. One Rouletter went so far as to (tactfully) ask our server if they were canned or roasted in house. She went on to explain that they are roasted in house, then chilled (which is a totally worthy way to make your own beets). However, if you’re going to go to the trouble of making your own beets, and they end up tasting like canned beets anyway, why bother? Care for them, a little, in the process of making them, some (any!) seasoning: salt, pepper, whatever… just don’t make your own plain-ass canned beets. ⭐️ 4.1 ⭐️
Next up was one of the app specials of the night: Fried Suppli: “cacio e pepe” served with marinara. Coming in as the second highest rated non-dessert of the night, these had the perfect amount of crunch on the outside and were exquisitely gooey on the inside. The pepper-y burst at the end was so sneaky and perfect. Two Rouletters rated these as the top dish of the night. Some Rouletters would have preferred another dipping sauce while others found the marinara a perfect complement to these cheesy and peppery little fried logs of heaven. ⭐️ 4.3 ⭐️
We followed this up with what used to be the signature Fiorella dish: Spaghetti: cacio e pepe. Well. When it was the signature dish they used a different noodle – closer to the thickness of a bucatini. About a year or so ago they went over to the spaghetti. When we inquired about it, we learned that it was an effort to streamline prep in the kitchen with only one size of noodle to produce. Unfortunately, it knocked this dish down from “if you come to Rochester, you have to try this because it uncannily transports you to Rome – and could easily hold its own if it were served there” to “if I’m at Fiorella, I’ll still order it because it’s usually really good.” The truth is that a thinner noodle just can’t hold up to and balance the thick cheesy and peppery perfection that was Fiorella’s cacio e pepe. Since the change in noodle, the sauce has also become inconsistent (perhaps to try to balance with the spaghetti?). The one we had during this Roulette was but a ghost of what Fiorella cacio e pepe could be. Five of the seven Rouletters who rated this dish mentioned the lack of…pepper. We actually had to put pepper on the dish after it was on our plates (because our ancestors whispered through time and space that this would help) and “pepper” is literally in the name of the dish. This was tied for second lowest rated non-dessert dish of the night. ⭐️ 3.5 ⭐️
In a tie for top non-dessert dish of the night, we have the Malfadine: mushroom, spinach, butternut squash, sage, shallot + brown butter. The noodles held a perfect al dente chewiness that bit back. The squash and spinach and cheese all made umami sense together. This was just an all-around fab pasta. One note: it would have been fun if there was a little mix-it-up with mushrooms in general. We had a few things with mushrooms throughout the evening and they were all just…brown. A mix of mushrooms would have made this a model malfadine. ⭐️ 4.4 ⭐️
Thursday is gnocchi night, so we had to try the Hand-Rolled Ricotta Gnocchi: san Marazano, eggplant, others. This had a nice gnocchi texture, bright red flavor from the San Marzanos, not too much eggplant or… wait were those brown mushrooms, too? For some Rouletters, this dish brought out our picky side about cheese. It’s grated in great big pieces that just sit there on top, rather than a nice fine ribbon (like a microplane makes) that sits on top just long enough for you to notice it but then gets bashful and melts away…these cheese pieces were not grate. Some Rouletters would have liked a little more richness in the sauce or the gnocchi a bit more al dente as well. ⭐️ 3.9 ⭐️
The other non-dessert dish of the night that tied for first place was the Wood-fired pizza: Diavola – plum tomato sauce, fresh mozz, spicy salami, garlic, basil, oregano. One of the things that Fiorella is known for is their naturally leavened crust that has such a lovely airy taste and never feels like a brick in your stomach. The Diavola is a crowd pleaser and two Rouletters rated it top dish of the night. Heat! Zest! Balanced with the sweetness from the tomato sauce. What isn’t there to love? ⭐️ 4.4 ⭐️
We followed this up with the Wood-fired pizza: Funghi – mushrooms, roasted onion, fontina + mozzarella. Importantly, they cooked the mushrooms (and onions) to the correct tenderness, which makes a huge difference for this type of pizza topping. Even the Rouletters who usually prefer a red sauce loved this tasty combination of onions, fontina, & mushrooms. Plus, this clearly came to our table straight from the oven which makes a huge difference. However, in the vein of our earlier comments on the matter, we would have to say that calling these “funghi” is a little pretentious. They’re…brown mushrooms. We’re sorry you ordered too many plain mushrooms last week, make a mushroom mostarda or something, but please, let’s mix it up. And on a pizza!? Is there a better canvas for mushroom heterogeneity? Mushroom medleys matter. ⭐️ 4.3 ⭐️
Our third pizza was the pizza special: Wood-fired pizza: tomato sauce, roasted mushrooms, basil, goat cheese and smoked mozzarella, finished with arugala and parmigiano. This should have been amazing. On paper it checked all the boxes, but in practice it fell a little flat. At the end of the day, it seemed like it was trying too hard – particularly with the arugula on top. A hat on a hat. A belt and suspenders. ⭐️ 3.5 ⭐️
The Parisian Paradox of the night was the Chicken Cutlets: Breaded natural chicken breast, green salad, lemon vinaigrette, parmigiano. This is typically one of the best chicken cutlets in Rochester – and that’s saying something in a city with this many breaded and pan-fried chicken breasts. It came out overdressed. Some Rouletters found it a bit greasy and a tad overcooked, so maybe the over-dressing was meant to cover that up? Your Roulette Croupier has eaten an indecent amount of Fiorella chicken cutlets over the years and these were not a good representation. If they’d salted the chicken either before, during, or after pounding, and certainly at any point before cooking, it would have been sensational – particularly if the sauce and cheese were not smothering the entirety of each cutlet. At the end of the day, Rouletters were either in the “these are sub-par cutlets” camp or the “I’m not going to let one poor showing lower my rating of what I know to be stellar cutlets” one. This score was buoyed by the memories of Fiorella chicken cutlets past. ⭐️ 3.8 ⭐️
The lowest rated non-dessert dish of the night was the Roasted eggplant + garlic greens: wood-roasted eggplant baked with plum tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, side garlic greens. We note that the ratings on this dish likely suffered from being the last dish most Rouletters tried while being on the full side. Overall, it was a nicely flavored eggplant and red sauce dish though nothing special. The texture of the dish and the less than attractive plating probably didn’t help. A Rouletter found one of the flavors of this dish to be off-putting, though we were unable to pinpoint which one. ⭐️ 3.4 ⭐️
The lowest rated dish of the night was the Flourless Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache. This was an absolute shock because this cake has an outstanding reputation and following. This was weirdly similar to the chicken cutlet situation. Like? Did they do something to that cake that they tried to cover up with a cup full of ganache on top and that weird slightly minty cream on the bottom? I have never seen that much ganache on this cake – it looked like the cake got caught in a tar pit on its way to the table. The cake is usually delicate and fluffy. From what we could tell it was a bit dry. Was that what the ganache and cream was trying to fix? Anyway, the flavor was pretty good, but the alleged ganache was gooped and gagged like an eliminated-too-early-Queen on a season of RuPaul. ⭐️ 3.3 ⭐️
The top rated dish of the night was the Lemon Ricotta Cookies. OH BOY, these were a delight. Such lemon! Zest and zeal with a sweet cream pat on the back. What a neat and unique pairing. The cookie texture was incredible – soft, fresh, melt in your mouth dough with a crisp lemony frosting. The bright lemon mostly comes from the icing – it’s incredibly bright and cheery and refreshing. One of our Rouletters doesn’t dig lemon, but they still enjoyed the cookie minus the icing. There is a slight lemon flavor to the cookie itself, but it doesn’t overpower. I think this is the first time we have had a dessert win the 🏆 Shrimp Toast Award 🏆! ⭐️ 4.6 ⭐️
When it comes to drinks, Fiorella keeps it simple. They have wine, beer, and often a Bellini special. Peroni is always on tap – what better beer is there to drink with a nice Italian meal? The other taps rotate, and one is often an IPA. We always say: you don’t need to have a lot of beers on tap – you just need ones that make sense to the largest cross-section of people. Fiorella delivers. For wine, they have a lovely Italian selection and serve it in a quartino, which is like a glass and a half. Double bonus.
Rouletters loved two of the reds: De Angelis, Montepulciano D’Abruzzoand Nero d’Avola. The Bellini special of the night was strawberry. This turned out to be a bit polarizing as well. Some Rouletters took a sip and thought, “After a stressful week I wanted to pretend I was on the Amalfi Coast looking at the crystalline waves. This transported me there. ‘How do they get their entire body in those tiny speedos?’ I asked. The Bellini answered: ‘God loves you, that’s why.’” Other Rouletters took a sip and said, “I want to love this, but it was way too sweet.” ⭐️ 4.4 ⭐️
The service at Fiorella, as always, was brilliant. Our server was sweet, flirted just right, and was attentive without being cloying. We loved that they brought out a second set of plates and cutlery without us asking. The water was always refreshed without asking. They clearly knew how to serve large groups of people and keep them happy which was a noticeable improvement from other places. At Roulettes, the Croupier gives the server the entire order after conferring with the Rouletters. Our server was able to look at the list, come up with a coursing strategy on the spot, and run it by the Croupier. This makes an enormous difference in our experience and shows an incredible understanding of the menu, the kitchen, and the importance of timing a meal for maximum enjoyment. ⭐️ 4.9 ⭐️
The ambiance of Fiorella is one of the things that makes it such a great date night spot. It’s simple, but so lovingly Italian. From the soccer team scarf above the door to the black and white picture of a woman surrounded by flowers and tea lights on the bar (the owner/chef’s mother perhaps?) to the beautiful old photos of people in Italy that hangs in the restroom, it oozes old-world charm. To let you know they don’t take themselves too seriously, they also have an Italian Star Wars poster and a band poster on the walls plus fun stickers on the kitchen door to gaze at as you wait for their all-gender restroom. They serve their pizza on empty gallon tomato sauce cans and the plates you eat off of are all vintage mismatches like you might get from a thrift store. It all comes together to create a charming ambiance.
Unfortunately, we think this was a rough night for Fiorella’s kitchen crew. Six of the eight Rouletters have eaten at Fiorella before and had far better experiences. This was disappointing, because for some of us it is our go-to for a range of special occasions: friends visiting Rochester for the first time, date night, birthday dinner, or even a hard week where we need a pick-me-up. For others, they had more limited experiences, but thought, “Golly, this could be my Italian restaurant home in Rochester.” We were so excited to Roulette it. We don’t know if it was the B team in the kitchen but it did not have the same love and care in the food that we usually experience. We all have off nights.
We think that we went in expecting a 5, and it was hard for us to admit that some of these bells ringing around us seemed to be cracked. There wasn’t the clear-minded resonance we’d come to expect from our prior visits. In the future we’ll hope for a better representation of the excellence that we know they’re capable of, and that we missed on this visit. At the end of the day, the exceptional service coupled with fond memories of past Fiorella greatness buoyed this score up to show that sometimes the total can be more than just the sum of its parts. ⭐️ 4.3 ⭐️
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