Date Visited: August 24, 2023
We headed to a long established restaurant in the River Oaks area for our ‘G’ date night. Open since 2009, Giacomo’s is a neighborhood hotspot for both food and wine, so we looked forward to enjoying some of the more unique dishes.
We started with a very unique dish – Gnocchi alla Romana. Made with rounds of semolina (no potato) gnocchi, it is served over tomato sauce, topped with parmigiano reggiano. The browned caramelized bits gave this savory dish a great texture and great flavor.
For the mains, we split two different dishes – Porchetta e Fagioli and Spaghetti alla Carbonara.
The Porchetta e Fagioli is a Berkshire pork butt that is slow roasted and “aggressively seasoned” with fennel, rosemary, garlic and black pepper. It is served over cannellini beans that are stewed with tomato, garlic and sage. They were not kidding about aggressively seasoned! The pork butt is over-powered by the seasoning, so as a result, I can not recommend this dish.
On the other hand, the Spaghetti alla Carbonara is absolutely delicious. The crispy guanciale (cured pork jowl) in combination with pecorino romano and cracked tellicherry pepper was amazing. It was rich and creamy which is very surprising given there is no cream in the dish.
To finish off the meal, we decided on their seasonal dessert which supports the Rescued Pets Movement. Giacomo’s donates the proceeds from their seasonal dessert to this organization that relocates animals to no-kill shelters, foster homes and/or “fur”ever homes. On top of being for a great cause, it was delicious.
While we did not discuss it in this review, Giacomo’s wine list is very good featuring some unique, hard to find selections, some nice values and a great selection of Italian wines.
Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino – 3215 Westhiemer, Houston, Texas
HOURS
Tuesday – Saturday: 4:00pm – 9:00 PM
Sunday – Monday: CLOSED
http://giacomosciboevino.com/
Pam & Jeff Rate the Chef 