Bianca

• Cuisine(s): Italian
  Hours: Daily 7am-4pm, Sun-Mon, Wed-Thu 7pm-11pm, Tue, Fri-Sat 7pm-12am
  Price: $$$$ $$$, $$$$
  Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
• Attire: Casual Dressy
  Features: Kid Friendly, Patio/Sidewalk Dining, Wheelchair Accessible
  Serving: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: Full bar
• Reservations: Accepted, Required
  Parking: Valet

Description

Bianca's executive chef is Brian Massie, but the menu appears to have been written by a focus group -- worse, a focus group of conservative people who haven't been out of the house much lately. Starters are salmon carpaccio; burrata and prosciutto; "12 hour" meatballs; and grilled langoustine, octopus, or sardines. The last dish comes garnished with shaved fennel, apple, and Sicilian olives, one of the few creative matchups. Mostly, the fare is based on simple Italian cooking using few ingredients. Spaghetti pomodoro is emblematic of that style, but Bianca's rendition, using only San Marzano tomatoes, basil, and pecorino cheese, contains too much heat from red pepper, too strong a tomato-paste taste, and so jarring an amount of salt as to render the other criticisms irrelevant. The staff couldn't fill our water glasses fast enough -- so they didn't try. Roast chicken is very flavorful and moist, as is a sirloin bistecca, which is to be expected when paying $36 and $46, respectively. And that's one main problem with Bianca: It isn't special enough for the unbelievably high prices. Neither is the service. The snootiness presumably comes free.