Il Pirata in Niedermohr

I'm not really in a funny mood tonight. I'm watching Anne of Green Gables for the 1000th time, and I stuffed myself full of beans for dinner...that's what happens when the Mister is gone for the evening. So, I'm sitting here, wishing I was on Prince Edward Island with a big bottle of Beano. Forgive me for being less than entertaining (but I'll try to keep it informative).

Il Pirata is an Italian seafood restaurant located in the town of Niedermohr. It's about 7 minutes from our house, maybe 15 minutes from the base. Like so many restaurants around here, it's also a hotel. Most restaurants around here are teeny tiny, but this one is relatively huge. And, it's decorated really nicely (it'd be great for date night).

We've been here twice, now. The first time was around Christmas with a group of friends. I remember that some of our friends got the steamed mussels for an appetizer (one of their specialties). Josh actually tried one, and I couldn't believe it. I figured he would gag on it immediately, but he actually ate it and said it was "ok". I had the bruschetta as an appetizer. (BTW, it's pronounced "brew-SKET-uh" NOT "brew-SHET-uh". You have NO idea how much that irks me.)

Anyway, it was definitely the saltiest bruschetta I've ever had, but it was also definitely the BEST I've ever had. It was salty, but not in a bad way (although, I have a high tolerance for salt. I love it. I'm sure my kidneys will be pickled by the time I'm 80).

For a main course, I had gnocchi in their red sauce. Josh had something in red sauce. I'm not gonna lie, it had a distinct Chef Boyardee flavor. There was just something to it that just wasn't that great. Neither of us really liked it that much.

However, the waitstaff is AMAZING!! Very attentive, and very friendly. I know the owner of the place is Italian, and she was walking around talking to everyone. I bet money she trained all of her waitstaff to have her flair of Italian-ness.

Even though the main dish wasn't that great, the restaurant was awesome, just based on the staff alone.

SOOOOOO, last Friday, we decided to try it again. This time, just the two of us.

Just like in December, the staff was amazing. Compared with typical German restaurants, it could be construed as "annoying". Normally, you would have to wait quite a bit of time for a waitress to come to your table and take your order/bring drinks/bring food/etc. Not at Il Pirata. We actually had our drink order taken, then ANOTHER waiter came a minute later trying to take our drink order. All in all, we had three different waiters that night.

We got the bruschetta again. It was still salty, but still sooooo goood. Too bad I had to share with the Mister. ;)

For our mains, Josh got pork scallopini, and I got ricotta and spinach stuffed gnocchi in a gorgonzola cream sauce.

The gorgonzola sauce was SO GOOD. The gnocchi...just had a strange taste to it...also, a little TOO sweet. It wasn't that awesome. I ate most of them, but....I would have rather just had more bruschetta. They did bring us a basket of bread, so I had a great time eating the gorgonzola sauce with the bread. Until the Mister tasted the gorgonzola sauce, and decided it was so delicious that he had to take half the bread, and use it to eat my sauce.

JOEY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD!!!!

(if you like the show Friends, you'll know what I'm talking about. But I'm kidding, I'll share with Josh...as long as I get my fair share as well. ;) )

He actually liked the gorgonzola better than his wine sauce. He thought his main dish was just..meh.

It's just so disappointing. I love this restaurant. I love the staff, and they have a good choice of drinks. The bruschetta is delicious. The salads are good. I SO WANT the rest of the food to be awesome. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, there's so much I love about this place, but a lot of the food just doesn't do it for me...

They have so much to offer on the menu, and Italian restaurants normally have great options for vegetarians. Even though we haven't had great luck with our main dishes here, I'll definitely go back. They have to have something that's 100% delicious, right? They HAVE to! Maybe I'll just get two orders of bruschetta & a bowl of gorgonzola sauce next time....

All in all, I'll give the place a B+. Not too shabby, eh? If I were to give the grade JUST on food alone, I'm afraid I'd have to give it a C+. But, on average, I think it's definitely worthy of a B+.

For our date night, I don't remember how many euros we spent, but it was around $55 USD for the two of us. That was with 2 drinks each, one appetizer between the two of us, and two main dishes.


And now, I'm gonna continue with my Anne girl. And try to remember to never eat this many beans in one sitting again.