RustiCucina, San Diego

I grew up eating a lot of Italian food.

Ok, correction, I grew up eating a lot of ... extremely American Italian food.  By which I mean, we ate a lot of pizza (my father's favorite food), and a lot of basic spaghetti & jarred red sauce, sometimes frozen ravioli in jarred sauce.  Baked ziti or lasagna when mom was really cooking.  And no, I'm not talking anything remotely authentic.  When we went out to dinner, it was either to 1) Subway, 2) Del Taco, or 3) Papa Ginos, Little Ceasars, or the local pizza place, so even then, I wasn't really exposed to much real Italian.  There was one decent restaurant in town, that was a real sit down place and thus not somewhere my family went, but it was place I sometimes got invited for birthday parties, and it had decent enough Italian, with an actual wood fired grill, fresh pasta, imported tomatoes from Italy, etc.  College meant dining halls, and more very basic pasta and sauce.  I certainly didn't have exposure growing up.  I've still never been to Italy.

Anyway.  During my recent trip to San Diego, I did a little restaurant research, and one place, RustiCucina kept popping up.  It seemed like a casual, neighborhood Italian place, reasonably authentic, well regarded.  In particular, they do a tableside pasta cooked in a cheese wheel, that you know people go nuts for.  Oh, and deep fried, breaded burrata.  

I didn't actually ever make it there, nor did I even get to try the savory cuisine, but one night in my hotel, after a lackluster dinner, I wanted a nice cocktail and I wanted a great dessert.  RustiCucina came to mind because I knew they delivered, and had a huge cocktail menu.  It is hard to find a good delivery cocktail!

And thus, DoorDash it was, for literally just a cocktail and dessert.  I can't tell you anything about the restaurant itself.

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My delivery was fairly fast, the food nicely packaged, my Dasher friendly.  

Cocktails

So, yeah.  The cocktails.  I really, really wanted a strong, whiskey cocktail.  I had a glass of red wine with dinner, and it was eh, and, well, I just wanted something with bit more ooph to it.  RustiCucina has an extensive cocktail menu for delivery, plus a slew of specialty cocktails.  It was exactly what I was looking for.

Il Fumoso. $16.

'Smoked bourbon, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters.' 

For my cocktail, I was tempted by many of the classics that I do like, such as a Negroni, Manhattan, or Old Fashioned, but, opted instead for one of their signature cocktails.

This was ... ok.  Very boozy, and bitter, just not really what I wanted it turned out.  I did greatly enjoy the boozy soaked cocktail cherries though.

i think it was a fine drink, just, not what I wanted in the end.  Oops.

***.

Dessert

Besides the cocktail, my main reason for ordering was to get dessert.  And, although alone, I doubled down.

The desert menu at RustiCucina is full of Italian classic: Cannoli. Tiramisu.  Limoncello Cake.  Creme Brulée. Pistachio Semifreddo.  Molten Lava Cake.  

Mostly all things I like, and seldom have.  This seemed like a good chance to indulge in classic Italian.  Reviews claim the tiramisu is the best folks have ever had.  I needed to try that, right?  The problem is, I don't have caffeine at night, so I couldn't actually eat it fresh, but hoped it would still be tasty the next day after lunch.  And, since I was saving that, I needed to pick another to eat right then.  Had I been dining in, the pistachio semifreddo likely would be my pick, but for delivery, I was a bit worried about a melty mess.

Tiramisu. $12.

I was impressed when I opened first box.  Even for takeout, they did garnish it fairly attractively with a chocolate sauce drizzle, whipped cream, and mint.

The tiramisu almost seemed like it was made to order, and was certainly a standalone individual item, not a slice from a layer pan.  I'm not sure I've seen it done this way?  It still had the classic components of ladyfingers lightly soaked in espresso, a thick rich cream, and lots of cocoa powder, but, the  ladyfingers were very nicely laid out, and the pastry cream in between layers was piped on it a pattern, not just a layer.  

Anyway, construction aside, it was ... underwhelming.  If it was freshly made, I think that detracted from it.  The ladyfingers didn't really have much soak or moisture, and were kinda dry.  The cream wasn't particularly mascarpone flavored.  Overall, it was just ... lower end mediocre.  I've had considerably better mass produced frozen versions before, and really, no tiramisu lives up to that from Tricolore Cafe.

The chocolate sauce mostly just served for looks, it was very thin, watery, I suspect just Hershey?  

But the whipped cream?  It was not fluffy whipped cream from a can, nor even housemade whipped cream.  Nope, it was the kind that comes on pre-made grocery store cakes, not really whipped cream, more like sweet stable fluffy frosting, and, um, I kinda loved it.  I'm a sucker for that stuff.  So, <3 the sweet whipped topping!  Definitely the best part of the dish.

**+.

Creme Brulée. $12.

People also rave about the creme brulée.  And, you know me, I love a good pudding, and adore a good creme brulée (there is a reason my blog has labels for each!).  Even though I knew it wouldn't be quite as awesome delivered (no hot top and cool base, if freshly bruléed to order), I hoped it would still work.

It too came with a drizzle of chocolate sauce in the box, whipped cream, and mint.  And, um, a real creme brulée dish.  Usually for takeout they use foil ones!  

It didn't look like the top was nicely caramelized, no layer to crack, but, actually it was.  Really decent caramelization.  The dish was pretty shallow, but the custard was rich, and this was plenty.  The texture was good, but it didn't have much flavor - no vanilla bean or anything like that.  

Also on top was what seemed to be blueberry compote?  Or at least, cooked down blueberries.  And there was sauce on it, that at first I thought was chocolate sauce (which did NOT please me as I avoid caffeine at night), but, I didn't actually taste chocolate.  I think actually that this was just the brulee top, sorta weepy, as it had a slight caramel taste to it.  It certainly didn't seem to be fruity or chocolate, both of which were my original guesses.

So, overall, it was a fine, but rather boring, creme brulée.  I would have liked more vanilla bean or flavor to the custard itself.  I loved the sweet whipped topping with this one too though.

***.