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July 25-31, 2002
food
 Vealās good: La Collinaās veal porterhouse with Italian grilled vegetables. Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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LA COLLINA 37-41 Ashland Ave., Belmont Hills, Pa., 610-668-1780
Appetizers $6.95-$8.95, higher for specials; entrees $15.50-$27.95, higher for specials
Lunch, Mon.- Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; dinner, Mon.-Thu., 5:30-10:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 5:30-11 p.m.
No wheelchair access. Smoking permitted at bar. Reservations recommended. All major credit cards.
For 16 years, suburbanites and urbanites have been scaling the Belmont Hills to dine at La Collina. The partnership of Alberto Guadagnini and Enzo Valent has been a long and successful one, having opened many other popular restaurants, among them the Villa Stratford and the Newtown Squire. But, right from the start, La Collina had a cachet about it, making it more glamorous than the others.
Leaving your car with a valet high above the Schuylkill, and swirling into the discreetly elegant dining room, you could be anywhere in the world. The view from the picture windows is only Manayunk, but from here it looks like a small Italian town. The room itself is of the stone fireplace, lace-curtain genre and comfortable, although always crowded. Happily, the bar is a separate room, always busy and dim, and there is music on weekends.
The greeting at the door is one of the reasons that people flock here. Everyone is made to feel important, but The Regulars come off as practically godlike in their entrance. The staff is very attentive, bordering on obsequious, if you are one of those Regulars. We are not, but look forward to the meal anyway, drinking martinis, nibbling the house breads, plain or stuffed with Italian sausage.
It does not start off well, with a shrimp cocktail composed of flaccid, tepid shrimp; it is whisked away and replaced with fine fresh cherrystone clams. Oysters, too, are shining and fresh as well. Appetizers are not terribly imaginative -- mussels, fried calamari and baked oysters. We do like the daily special, which is two little soft-shell crabs, done expertly. Somehow, we don't like them as much when we see the price, $18.95.
This is definitely the place to be for the over-30 set. Even as we are checking the wine list, they are still pouring in the door, floating by on cries of "Good evening, Mr. --, Mrs. --. You look lovely this evening!"
Ah yes, the wine list -- heavily Italian and fairly priced on most items, but $27 for a Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay sounds excessive. We settle for a Valpolicella, eschewing the $425 Barolo. We request the pasta assortment -- three pastas which the chef selects for you to taste. For us, he chooses tortellini with cream, bits of prosciutto and peas, a classic preparation properly executed; penne alla puttanesca, that spicy sauce of fresh tomatoes, olives and capers; and gnocchi Bolognese, a light meat sauce with diced vegetables. All three are done well, and follow the required recipe to the letter, but they lack spark -- the gnocchi are listless, and the sauce lacks seasoning, the tortellini are a little gummy. Nothing major, but no cigar.
Now I've known for years that the dish to order at La Collina is the Dover sole, which is highly touted by The Regulars. The restaurant prides itself on its selections of fresh fish, and the sole is indeed lovely, boned at the table and served with all that it needs, a little butter and fresh lemon juice. It is a large, neat portion, crisp around the edges, and glowing with burnished juices. The fish of the day is bronzino, a newly popular Mediterranean fish, probably rushed into service by the over-fishing of Chilean sea bass. I've had it other places, and find it a mild, soft fish that needs help with seasoning. Here, it is fixed at tableside just as the sole, but there is no butter, no lemon, no tempting juices. Just a large, white filet accompanied by the same undercooked carrots and potatoes as the sole. There should have been a captain rushing over with a little sauceboat, filled with some lovely stuff, especially when the fish goes for $33.95. It's a mystery. Chef Benjamin Cruz has been here from Day One, and he certainly knows how to handle the sole, and everything else for that matter.
I am continuing in my quest for the perfect veal cutlet, and this one comes pretty close, but for a change, the tender, well-breaded cutlet is topped with slices of eggplant, and mozzarella and some marinara sauce. It's really just veal parmesan with eggplant added, but it tastes awfully good. With it comes some nice bright spinach that would have been good with the fish too.
We know that we want the tartufo for dessert, for no matter how far a restaurant strays from the original, it can never be bad. We are urged to try the Baileys Irish Cream cake, and find it insipid, but we do get our tartufo, a dark orb covered with chocolate, with a dense center sporting a cherry. It's not the Piazza Navona, but it will do for now.
I never come to La Collina expecting to be blown away by the food, but the atmosphere and service are definite selling points for a pleasant evening. And don't get me wrong, the food can be quite good. The Regulars use this restaurant as the bellwether by which they measure all others. They wouldn't dream of venturing into Little Italy, bottles under their well-padded arms, to try some really experimental Italian cooking. The chef knows this, so he relaxes a bit, and rests on his laurels, and thereby a great restaurant becomes simply a good one.
