Yesterday evening it was time for a return visit to Peabody Square, this time to Tavolo.

It felt like my Italian grandmother kept urging “Mangia, mangia!” No, wait, I don’t have an Italian grandmother. OK, so my Jewish grandmother kept urging “Ess, ess!” (but that doesn’t fit Tavolo’s ethnicity).

At any rate, we had a huge and especially delicious meal. As Barbara likes to say, “Leftovers are a good thing.” Now we have a lot of leftovers.

Barbara started with the Chef’s Burrata; this time it came with roasted red beets, cherry tomatoes, arugula, red onion, dijon balsamic vinaigrette, and aged balsamic. She reports that it was yummy, and had to take half of it home. I started with the even yummier (IMHO) so-called appetizer-sized house-made meatballs, which came with house-made marinara and parmesan. I had to take half of it home.

Are you sensing a theme here?

Then, of course came the entrees. Barbara had black-pepper-crusted flatiron steak, with roasted potatoes, broccoli rabe, and a black pepper cream sauce. She took half of it home. I had the amazing speck-wrapped cod, which came with shallot risotto, wilted spinach, and cranberry compote. (For those who are not in the know, speck is the same as prosciutto, except different.) I had to take half of it home.

I managed to leave enough room for a scoop of lemon sorbet for dessert: tart and delicious.

And then, as if we didn’t have enough leftovers, we ordered a margherita pizza to take home. The story (probably apocryphal) is that it is named after Queen Margherita of Italy because it has the same colors as the Italian flag. And, oh yes, we also took home two slices of flourless chocolate cake.

Service was excellent as always, with the special feature that Tara, Michela, and Jeffrey were all there and all served us!

Categories: Dorchester/Boston, Food & Restaurants