Aida has jumped onto the local food bandwagon, bringing in food from Howard County farms such as Larriland. They've got some great wines too. We've had a number of meals here, and I feel somewhat foolish showcasing the simplest fare Aida has to offer, though it's my favorite. I will note that my husband's favorites include the calamari, rockfish, and anything with veal. Now back to our date.
I started with a glass of La Forge Estate Reserve Viognier 2007 (Languedoc, France). It was awesome, and I'm not really a white wine sort of girl. Interesting minerality, lots of grapefruit, nice nose, a nice body.
This is one of my favorite caprese salads. Tomato, mozzarella, a bit of basil, very good syrupy balsamic, and truffle oil.
The Husband had the andouille sausage ravioli. He's a big fan of the red sauce as well.
I had my standby favorite, handmade spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. There's nothing more perfect in this world.
A cannoli for dessert! Truth be told, I don't actually like cannoli. I love sweets, but I prefer them at, say four in the afternoon with tea or coffee. After dinner I'm more likely to have cheese or fruit. The Husband loved the cannoli though.
A relatively simple dinner date, and I would like to note that, in these troubled economic times, it wasn't terribly expensive. Now, you can totally go into Aida and blow $60.00 per person and up, including starters, desserts, wine, and drinks. But there are some good values, especially on their prix fixe menu and on days they have discounts.
For more info, visit their website.
I really love this place, but I will also be brutally honest - Aida can be very uneven. For example, a few months ago I went to Aida for one of my favorite dishes, spaghetti aglio e olio, spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. The pasta at Aida is freshly made, therefore the simple preparation is truly sublime. Except for the fact that the dish was choked with salt. And I really like salt. The poor waitress seemed shell shocked and did not know what to do. She clearly wanted to do the right thing, but she was just overwhelmed. I ended up with a less salted bowl of very good pasta. A young hostess once snapped at us, staring overwhelmed at a seating plan, nearly on the verge of tears. Sometimes the staff is just not trained about the menu items, or doesn't know how to open a bottle of wine (this poor waiter once popped the cork straight in). I will say, however, that I have never, ever had bad service at Aida. The mistakes are human mistakes that can be fixed with experience and training (I may eventually post about the horrible mistakes I once made while waiting tables). And every server has been extremely nice. Most issues arise when the owners do not appear to be front and center, a fairly rare occurrence.
Still, I would recommend Aida over most anything in the county, and certainly over any chain Italian restaurant. And, as a side note, I would like to suggest that the prices at Aida, ordering moderately from the pasta options, are not significantly more expensive (or even more expensive at all) than Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill. It's a fabulous local eatery, flaws and all.
I prefer my restaurants human. Sure, I might go to French Laundry, el Bulli, or Per Se once in a lifetime, and expect perfection. But while Aida is certainly a nice restaurant, it's a nice night out restaurant, not a once in a lifetime restaurant. And I like my nice night out restaurants to be human, to be flawed, to have character, and most of all to be experiences, not cookie cutter examples of blandess.
See their website, reviews on HoCoLoCoGirl, and for more local restaurant reviews check out HowChow.
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