NYE Pre-Party @ Farnatchi

Happy New Year Everyone!!! :)

For NYE, I celebrated it with some of my closest friends and had a fantastic time at dinner at Farnatchi Gourmet Oven (Knox and 75). Just a note **restaurant menu prices seemed to be a dollar more on every item than the online menu.**

Farnatchi
3001 Knox St # 108
Dallas, TX 75205-5592
(214) 219-7200
http://www.farnatchi.com/
Price: $$

I chose Farnatchi as our dinner destination for NYE for a couple of choices. 1.It is BYOB, great for pre-partying! 2.The food pictures on the website looked really tasty. 3.The prices were pretty decent (as opposed to the super expensive pri-fixe menus other restaurants were doing). 4.Everyone likes pizza and pasta!!

We had a group of 8 people so I was able to reserve their only large party table. The restaurant is fairly small and has a great ambiance. It's casual yet still upscale.

Since we were there to celebrate NYE we brought quite a bit of alcohol. The waiter and waitress were very quick to bring out ice buckets and cut limes for us. Everyone was super nice.

We planned on sharing a bunch of different things so I just ordered for the whole table.

We got a few House Salads (mix greens, creamy italian dressing) $5~ to start. The greens were very fresh, and the dressing was delicious. Full of flavor but not drowning the salad. I enjoyed it a lot!



We got 3 different types of pizzas (all medium sized). 3 Funghi Pizza (pomodoro, mozzarella, mushrooms, spinach, goat cheese) $15~ (added sliced tomatoes $2~).

Mediterranean Pizza (chicken, pesto, olive, mozzarella, feta) $14~ (added sundried tomatoes $2~). Farnatchi Pizza (sausage, pomodoro & mozzarella peppers, onions, olives) $14~ All the pizzas were very good. Even though its all thin crust, it was nice and crispy without being too dry or thin. All were full of flavor and had lots of toppings on each slice. My personal favorite was the Farnatchi Pizza, I think because of the sausage. But the 3 Funghi Pizza got the overall popular vote. That was my #2 simply because I'm not too fond of goat cheese, and there was quite a bit of it on the pizza. But I still ate everything because it was all so delicious.

We got 2 pastas: Spaghetti Meatballs $9~ and Linguini Casablanca (shrimp, calamari, baby scallops) $11~ The pastas were cooked pretty well. Almost al dente...still had a slight bite to it. The spaghetti with meatballs was good but nothing special. I wasn't that impressed with the marinara. The linguini, however, was very good. It had a nice spicy kick and had lots of different flavors. There was also a lot of seafood in there! If you like seafood, I would definitely recommend this dish.

We also got some complimentary bread. I think its some sort of garlic/pesto spread on top. The bread was delicious. It had the perfect crust and slightly soft on the inside, and paired perfectly with the sauces from the pastas.

Lastly we got the Polo e ?? (stuffed chicken breast with spinach, bell peppers, with side of pasta) $14??

I can't remember the full name of the dish or the price...it is not on their website menu. I think we could've done without this dish. It was good, but quite small. It was hard to share the chicken, the last piece had to be split among 4 of us...so some people didn't get any. I guess for 1 person it's a pretty good size. The flavors were good but with all the other goodies around, this got lost in everything else.

For dessert we order 2 of each: Tiramisu $6~, Pistachio Gelato $6~, and Hazelnut/Chocolate Filo $6?? The Hazelnut/chocolate filling was quite interesting, it was almost like Nutella, but not the same texture. I liked it a lot. The filo exterior added a nice crunch, but I felt there was too much filo and not enough filling. The pistachio ice cream was ok. I liked the bits of Pistachio sprinkled on top, added more texture and the fruits were a nice touch. But I couldn't really taste the pistachio in the ice cream after sampling the other desserts. The tiramisu was pretty awesome. Super moist/soft/creamy/chocolatey. Definitely worth trying! :)

The service there was wonderful. The staff was really accommodating and towards the end of the night even partied with us a little! :) It was a great start to a great night of fun and celebration. I would definitely recommend Farnatchi for a celebration or regular meal. If you like Italian and Mediterranean flavors and Pizza...then give this place a try! I will definitely be going back in the future.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~