Here is my review from October 09. If you want to read the full review with photos check out my review link and see post #12
Il Mulino, Swan Resort, October 8th
We first started coming to this restaurant right after it opened. Last year, we had a larger party and found the food to be okay. This year it was definitely better. The place was dead at first, but a few more parties began to show up as our meal progressed. Luigi was a robust fellow with lots of energy. He and two other servers hovered around us picking up plates and delivering entrees all night. He went for the wine and another fellow dropped off some spicy focaccia and crusty Italian bread along with the baked eggplant and house made salumi to munch on.
The restaurant itself is beautiful with dark woods and dark orange and deep yellow lighting. There are wooden floors and sleek table settings. A wall with a checker board pattern of glass windows sits in front of the open kitchen line. This is a lively night spot when there a number of conventions in town.
For appetizers I selected the polpetti, which they described as a veal meatball served with traditional sauce and cheese. There were three large meatballs with sprinkled with cheese. They tasted like pure meat, lacking some herbs and I filler that I normally prefer. DF had the insalata caprese salad with mozzarella, sliced tomatoes with sundried tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh cracked pepper. DM went with the house salad. A large, but homely salad-it tasted good, but needed a little love in its preparation.
My entrée was the veal saltimbocca. I did not want a real heavy saucy dish this evening, so this was a good alternative. The veal was tender, salty and flavorful from the sage and prosciutto. It was finished with a white wine sauce, herbs and served with sautéed spinach. The portion was quite large with three pieces of scaloppini on the plate. DM chose the lunch size version of carbonara, which she found a little drier than most versions, but the rednered pancetta added a lot of flavor. The portion was still too big for her to even dent. DF picked the cannelloni, which are stuffed rolls of pasta filled with a ground meat & spinach topped with light tomato cream sauce. Again this was a large portion and this dish is particularly filling-I think he managed to eat one whole one.
For dessert Luigi served my tartuffo with a lighted candle! It was not the best tartuffo, it was filled with a vanilla gelato and the chocolate shell was more of a milk chocolate than dark, but it was good. DM went for the flourless chocolate cake, which was very intense with flavor. After dinner they bring over your complementary limoncello for a digestif-it tastes like lemon cough syrup and is really strong.
We had a great experience this meal and enjoyed our dishes. The prices are more expensive than most other restaurants, but the portions are huge! Three meatballs for an appetizer, I was expecting one little meatball on a plate. The cannelloni were monsters and the pasta dish was hearty too. You could easily split and entrée here after eating an appetizer. I feel pretty positive that it will be on the adr list next year.
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I think I'll be making an ADR!
