The lighter and simpler the better at Metro Cafe
2/6/2006 5:46:57 PM by By MATTHEW I. PINZUR
With its spacious patio overlooking the New River, Fort Lauderdale's Metro Cafe could be an ideal place to revel in the cooler evenings ahead, but the cuisine is hit-or-miss.
Tucked in the back of Las Olas Riverfront, Metro Cafe is the new facade for longtime tenant Mezzanotte. The traditional Italian menu has been tweaked, but the casual bistro has most of the same strengths and faults of its last incarnation.
Order light, because Metro excels in the basics. I suggest a white-wine rule: order the items that go nicely with a cool glass of pinot grigio simple pastas, seafood toppings, olive-oil sauces.
All the pasta is made on site, and it shows. Anyone who has left the spaghetti on the stove a few minutes too long knows how quickly fresh noodles turn gummy, but every dish we tasted was perfectly al dente.
Sample the remarkably well-prepared appetizer of fried zucchini and calamari. The bountiful dish is lightly coated with just a wisp of breading, without a hint of the mushy zucchini or rubbery squid that so often trash calamari fritti.
The cold antipasti plate is another lovely al fresco starter. Thin, cool slices of grilled squash, zucchini, artichoke and bell pepper are paired with roasted tomato, Parma ham and black olives.
A strange twist on bruschetta was probably the clumsiest dish I've tried this year. The traditional diced tomato and basil are here, but are joined by two fat fingers of grilled, skewered chicken and layered on a wide slice of thick Italian bread. There's just no good way to eat it pick it up and everything falls off but try cutting the chicken and the entire thing collapses. It's not even worth the effort, because the flavorless chicken adds nothing.
The beef carpaccio was also poorly prepared, like something that comes out of a student kitchen and gets a low grade. The tissue of beef was fine, but drowning in lemon-spiked oil and blanketed by too much shaved Parmesan.
Entrees, too, were often marred by amateur mistakes and assemblyline presentations, none worse than the lobster ravioli. Each of the six squares was about three inches wide, but the gluey filling had but one or two morsels of lobster, its flavor completely overwhelmed. The tomato-vodka cream sauce was a disturbing neon shade of orange and had a congealed texture that suggested a long rendezvous with a heat lamp.
A simple filet mignon was also disappointing, albeit less so. My steak was a little misshapen and mournfully overcooked mediumrare should be warm and dark pink, not brown but the red-wine sauce with mushrooms was pleasantly rustic and the mashed potatoes buttery and homey.
The veal scaloppine was another half-step better, a little gamey but dressed in a Marsala sauce. The accompanying garlic-kissed spinach was excellent, but the roasted potatoes were so overcooked they were hard to cut or eat.
The best meat dish we tried was a simple chicken cacciatore over angel hair with a hearty marinara sauce adorned with peppers, onions, capers and black olives.
Desserts were generally good if forgettable, although the tiramisu was lusciously soft and light and lovely, dusted with cocoa and perfect with a touch of espresso.
The service was friendly and attentive, but seemed a little unprepared. We had to ask one waitress to recite the night's specials before we ordered; on our second visit, we didn't bother and never heard about them at all.
For its weaknesses, dinner at Metro Cafe seemed better than the sum of its parts, and we would return for a quick meal before visiting the nearby bars, museums or theaters. It is, ultimately, a nice spot to nibble some pasta, watch the yachts slide along the river and toast the mild, post-Wilma weather with a cool glass of white wine.