I got invited to a tasting dinner for two at Radio Milano.

So naturally I brought along my favorite person.

Radio Milano is a modern Italian restaurant in CityCentre (for those of you from Houston!).  While Italian, they also include a fusion of Texas into their dishes with farm-to-table beef, produce & cheese. 

When we arrived, Chef Jose greeted us and asked if there was anything in particular we wanted to try.  We were up for anything so he decided to prepare us his favorites. 

We started off with water: flat for Andrew & sparkling for me.

First up were homemade ciabatta roll + warm olive oil for dipping. 

Then the courses started rolling out.

Crab salad ravioli with chilled huckleberry gelee.  I ate the flowers and that seemed to make Andrew a wee-bit nervous.

Veal Sweet Breads with chestnut mousse & saba vinigrrette.  Okay…I only knew what ‘sweet breads’ were because Andrews’ parents had them on New Years Eve and told us about them.  The chestnut mousse tasted like hummus…but nuttier. 

Gnocchi with pomodoro, grilled octopus & parmigiano reggiano.  This gnocci was the softest I had ever had.  They were so light and fluffy that if I didn’t want to eat them so bad I probably could have used them as a pillow.  SO FLUFFY.

This was my first time trying octopus and it was tasty.  Chef Jose sous-vides it and then finishes it on the grill.  It was incredibly smoky, in the best of ways.

Fagotelli with butternut squash, sage, brown butter and pumpkin seeds.  It was very similar to a ravioli stuffed with butternut squash.  But like 87532 times fancier than just a ravioli stuffed with butternut squash.  After tasting this dish, I totally understand all the people freaking out about brown butter.  It is worth the freak out.  So good.  I could’ve drunk the rest of that sauce.

This was my favorite of the night!

Risotto with porcini mushrooms, pork belly, pecorino romano and demi.  I’m actually not the biggest mushroom lover, but I was picking them out of this so I could eat them before Andrew got to them…they were so good!

Tagliatelle with uni cream, lobster and pane frito. 

Pheasant with a potato cake, apple mostarda & a cardamom reduction.  That potato cake under the pheasant had my heart.  The layers were so thin and crisped in what I think was olive oil<3.

Pork Trio, which came with chop, leg, porchetta, eggplant, white port and these little pasta cake things.  Chef said the inside was made with garbanzo bean flour + cheese and the outside was lightly coated in semolina flour.  It was pretty much the classiest mozzarella stick I’ve ever eaten.  And it was so my taste (cheesy) and my texture (crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside).

Then it was time for dessert!

Passion fruit custard + ricotta ice cream (SO GOOD.) + meringue cookie + strawberry jelly & cherry foam.  I’m not sure if they called it ‘foam’, but that’s what the texture was like…a creamy foam.

And the pistachio semifreddo with chocolate shortbread + cherries + pistachio dust…which I would say is similar to gold dust because it was so completely delish.  Chef Jose said that since shortbread has so much butter in it you can combine it in a food processor long enough that it will turn into a liquid.  Then you can pour the chocolate shortbread over the semifreddo and allow it to set in the freezer. 

Overall my favorites of the night were: ricotta ice cream (i mean…I love cheese, I love ice cream…why not smoosh them together), garbanzo bean dumpling made with cheese & semolina flour and the butternut squash fagotelli in the brown butter.

I really liked that the portion sizes weren’t tiny, which I tend to see happen at nicer restaurants.  You pay $30+ for a dinner and it’s itty bitty.  I felt like the portion sizes at Radio Milano were larger and were worth the price.

Thanks for having us, Radio Milano!

{We were treated to this tasting at Radio Milano free of charge.  I was not compensated for my time.  All opinions are my own.}