cinghiale

great meat appetizers. excellentpastadishes. probably the finest italian wine list in the u.s. expensive yes.

thepastais so delicious and tastes so authentic and homemade. (it puts quite a dent in the wallet just fyi) there's a great wine list as well. my hub and i ate in the formal dining room which is definitely fancier than the wine bar, which looks lively and inviting.

so… i have a few favorite italian spots, and none of them are in little italy.   cinghiale has earned its spot – from the food to the busy atmosphere to the service.  cody was super helpful in helping us decipher the menu and design some vegetarian dishes.   he also helped us pick a great peppery pinot nero that fit in perfectly with our rich, decadentpastadishes. i started with the fairytale pumpkin chestnut “cappuccino”  with poached pear.  a lot of people think of pumpkin pie or pumpkin spice and expect that cinnamon sweet sugary flavor when they hear pumpkin.  this soup was savory – the chestnut pumpkin flavor shown through this creamy bisque.  the pumpkin is incredibly smooth.  the poached seasonal pears at the bottom of the coffee cup was like a sweet surprise.   this was all mine, despite the name, it is not vegetarian – there is chicken stock and pancetta. the brussels sprout and kale salad is also not vegetarian – but the chef was nice enough to sub out the pancetta vinaigrette for a lemon one.  (i can’t wait to go back and try it as it was designed; i hope it will still be on the menu…)  this was definitely more kale than brussels, but i didn’t mind.  the baby kale was not at all bitter and the crisp shaved sprouts added a nice crunch.  there were some other textural elements – shaved cheese and some croutons. for main courses, we all went pasta;  we did have a 6.2 mile run the next day.  my mom went with a chef-inspiredpastadish – fresh house-made spaghetti with seasonal vegetables – including more brussels, mushrooms and the baby kale.  she loved the garlickypastaand ate just about every bite. i was amazed that we all hadpastaand each dish had a completely different flavor profile. i was the only one who ordered straight from the menu – a tajarin with a rich buttery sea urchin sauce and day boat scallops.  the scallops were super sweet and exquisitely cooked.  they truly complemented the briny and

has potential..... what to say about this place... if it were a moderately priced restaurant, i would say the experience was pleasant, but for the price and the way the restaurant hypes it self up, i was pretty disappointed. i will start with the good... the wine menu was extensive and very impressive. plenty of authentic italian wine at various price levels. the cured meats are fresh and cut right when you order like any self-respecting italian restaurant would do. thepastacourse and desert were both delicious and obviously home made - i could have had double portions of both! now to the negatives... there were tons of employees running all over the place but they didn't seem to be doing much except getting in each other's way. the waiter was nice and attentive, but anytime we asked one of the "bow-tie gang" for anything, they seemed very put out and stuck up. my companion ordered the risotto for herpastacourse and it was undercooked as was my wagu sirloin. i asked for medium rare and it was barely seared - i'm sorry but you can not call yourself a fine dining restaurant if you can't properly cook a steak, especially when you serve it sliced! it was also extremely tough which seems very strange for a wagu steak... made me wonder if that is what they really serve. but all that could have been overlooked if i hadn't been so disappointed with the wine pairing selections. i chose the menu option that pairs a wine with every course for you. while i am a wine lover, i am not an expert and the establishment claimed to have a sommelier so i figured this would be an excellent choice. it must have been his/her night off. the selections were not just slightly off - it was like they tried to find the wine that would be the least appropriate fore each meal. the dessert was the worst of the lot... i ordered the tiramisu and the wine they served came with a spicy apple cinnamon biscotti that was a much better accompaniment than the rich, coffee flavored dessert i had. when i brought my concerns up to the waiter i expected him to offer to get the manager or the sommelier but he just shrugged and told me that they had a limited number of wines offered with the wine pairing option and those were the best they could do. not a good answer for a restaurant who's wine menu is 10x's larger than their food menu. all in all i was very disappointed and would not go back again... there are just too many other good choices in the area.

15th birthday celebration. my grandson is a "foodie" and is a very adventurous diner. he was not disappointed by his meal at cinghiale. after the first course of sand eels he said, "i think the dinner will go downhill from here". gratefully, he was wrong. he loved the rabbit ravioli and declared the broth "delicious with a wonderful after-taste that is fresh and full of flavor". his steak was cooked to perfection. his younger brother is just the opposite and wantedpastawith nothing on it and a steak "well done". the waiter totally understood him and honored his wishes. toward the end of the meal the waiter came up to ask if we were celebrating a special occasion. i got a look from my grandson that begged me to so "no", which i did say. the waiter then came later with an extra dessert of chocolate panna cotta and said, "i have a feeling that you guys are celebrating something". the evening was a perfect celebration and the food was what we expect from a foreman-wolf establishment. we will make the long drive from northern baltimore county to cinghiale for another delicious meal.

simply incredible. we did a 6 course rehearsal dinner for sixty here in may. it couldn't have been better. both the food and the service were exemplary. space limitations are such that i can't completely describe it here, but if you go to http://cinghiale-jtmac49.blogspot.com you will find a complete review. bottom line---dinner for 60 was easily the best "banquet" meal i have ever had. so whether you're planning an event or just want a great meal, you need to go to cinghiale


-----28 jul, 2011-----

it couldn't be better. when our son told us that he was getting married, we realized that we would have to plan a rehearsal dinner. under the best of circumstances this is not easy. since we live in washington state and the wedding was in baltimore, it added another level of complexity. how would we find a good spot, without being familiar with the various venues 3,000 miles away?
i've never really had a decent "banquet" dinner and dreaded the thought of hosting a typical dinner. you know what i'm talking about; an almost fresh salad, a hunk of overcooked meat or fish, with steam table vegetables and a bland starch followed by an unimaginative desert. after literally hours of reading online menus, i was able to narrow the choice down to a few restaurants. cinghiale was near the top of this list. the menu was impressive, with very inventive approaches to italian cuisine. it looked great, but could they serve that menu to a group of 60 and maintain the quality?
with some trepidation, i called heather beckman at cinghiale. i asked her a couple of ridiculous questions in terms of adding a commercially prepared dessert rather than something prepared by their chef. i just wanted to see if they would compromise their standards just to book a banquet. she very tactfully refused my request. it was exactly the answer i was looking for. at that instant i knew i had found the restaurant i was seeking. after this it was all simple, we just had to plan the menu.
cinghiale has a unique way of charging for a banquet dinner. they simply figure out how much their banquet room would generate on that particular night if it were not being used for a banquet. that's how much you pay; whether you're hosting 30 people of 64 the price is the same. it really takes agonizing about cost out of the equation. there are always a few folks who fall on the cusp of whether they should be included in the invitation. it was very nice to be in a position of not worrying about spending more for those folks. our initial guest list was 54, but we were able to add 6 more and not be concerned that we just added additional expense.
do you remember you had a six-course rehearsal dinner? i do. with heathers expert help we were able to design a menu that knocked every ones socks off. we started with butlered appetizers. they included bresaola, salame, grilled shrimp with speck, vegetable bruschetta, tuna tartare and crispy asparagus. i have never been a fan of raw fish or asparagus. the tuna tartare was melt in your mouth delicious. the asparagus was lightly breaded and gently fried, simply incredible!
this was followed by a salad of baby greens, pickled beets, gorgonzola, and edible flowers with a drizzle of the most wonderful balsamic vinaigrette.
the primi course offered a choice of gnocchi with a lamb ragu and fresh mint or risotto with morel mushrooms, thyme and parmigiano.
for the secundi course we feasted on either grilled branzino with caramelized endive and meyer lemon and caper brown butter, or magret of duck with rhubarb, crystallized ginger in an amaro sauce.
a "real" dinner always includes a cheese course. we had a selection of robiola, taleggio, and fontina.
you'd think that after such a feast there would be no room for dessert. in most cases you'd be right. but when the dessert is home made salted caramel gelato you'd be wrong! we somehow made room.
what about wine, i hear you cry. five wines, all perfectly matched with the menu, accompanied this incredible six-course meal.
no doubt the food was incredible. but the best food in the world will not make up for bad service. cinghiale excelled at this too. we had a dedicated wait staff that was friendly, efficient and superb. have you ever had you order taken at a banquet? although we provided a count of the primi and secundi courses, and knew in advance what everyone was having, everybody's order was taken individually. very impressive. we had a couple of vegetarians, no problem. they each got a special primi and secundi course. one individual was lactose intolerant. he got a special primi course. one individual was dieting and didn't want a primi course to watch his calories. he got a special low calorie primi course. the amazing thing is we didn't have to ask for this, it just happened. during the reception, the service was impeccable. no one ever had an empty glass. no one had to look around for the next appetizer. as is to be expected at this sort of affair, the bride and groom were mobbed with well wishers. they had a dedicated waiter who saw to their every need. part of every rehearsal dinner is the "lets make fun of the kids" portion. there was a powerpoint presentation prepared, but for reason that was unclear, the lap top would not interface with the projector. no problem, they ran up to the office, got their laptop and a flash drive and, voila, disaster averted. perhaps the best example of the caliber of service was dessert. my son fell in love with the salted caramel gelato on our first visit and really wanted it for dessert. they were a bit reluctant to do this and it was completely understandable. a serving was three scoops; so with 60 guests this means scooping and serving 180 scoops of gelato before the first scoop melts. their standards are such that serving someone gelato that had started to melt was not acceptable. they even figured this out. the "scooper" scooped the gelato in their walk in cooler. then an army of waiters (i think they even "drafted" waiters from the main restaurant) descended and served all 60 guests in the blink of an eye. as i mentioned above, the whole affair was for a fixed price, near the end of the evening the head waiter informed me that we were a few hundred dollars short of spending the minimum and suggested a champagne toast to the happy couple. what a perfect ending to a perfect meal, and amazingly less than 1% over budget.
banquet food and banquet service are almost always tolerable at best. this was simply the most incredible banquet experience i have ever had. in fact, the experience rivals the best restaurant meal i have ever had. as part of the price a fixed percentage tip was included. i added 50% to this amount and was happy to do so.
this was all arranged by their banquet manager, heather beckman. heather is as amazing as the food and the service. she was always available to answer my sometimes stupid questions. she worked extra hard to figure out how to include the cheese course that i wanted and still serve great wines and stay within budget. i'm sure she used her powers of persuasion to convince them it was possible to serve 180 scoops of gelato before the first scoop melted. the event was an incredible success and all the credit goes to her, all i did was read a bunch of restaurant reviews and write a check.
if you are planning any sort of event and need a wonderful meal served in a beautiful setting by professional wait staff, stop worrying about how to make it happen. just call heather and she will take it from there.
if on the other hand you happen to be in baltimore and just want one of the best restaurant experiences you will ever had, just head for cinghiale, you will be pleased!


-----21 oct, 2010-----

i was looking for perfection, i might well have found it.. i am planning my son's rehearsal dinner for next may. i really want it to be special and different than the standard "banquet" food that is usually served at event like this. i spent a lot of time looking at restaurants in baltimore and cinghiale was pretty high on the list before i even talked with them. after talking with heather, i was pretty sure that it was the right choice, but my wife, son and daughter in law to be needed some convincing. last saturday we had dinner for nine. it was incredible. because of the size of the group, we were able to sample a lot of the menu. not a single dish disappointed. we had the risotto, and a couple of thepastadishes, in addition the duck, steak and rock fish. omg everything was nothing short of incredible. the somallier is quite knowledgeable, and with my limited ability to describe what i like, hit a couple of home runs. my sister in law, who is quite knowledgeable about wine, raved about his suggestions. the selection of gelatto for dessert, was varied, and each flavor was topped with a small cookie that perfectly complemented it. i can only think of one restaurant where i have had such creatively prepared food. most impressive was the service. we were a party of nine, not the easiest for a restaurant to deal with. the service was friendly, prompt and nearly without fault. (they missed giving olive oil to my wife as she had her menu over her plate at the time.) the only other negative was the noise level, but because of the size of our group we were seated in the "bar" side of the restaurant. i am looking forward to working with heather to design a meal that will knock our guests socks off, for no more money than a traditional restaurant would charge. if you live in baltimore you probably already know about this gem. if you are visiting, chinghiale must be at the very top of your list to visit. you will not be disappointed.

great experience!. thepastawas amazing, the bartender helped out with a great wine selection, overall a good dining experience. it is pricey, but you should expect that going in. dress nicely (i had jeans, but with a collared button-down). decor is amazing as well. i will be going back for sure!