MIDA

Cuisine	Italian
Price	$$$ (31-50)
Rating	4/10
Last Visit	Jan. 6, 2020
Location	Boston: South End

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General Notes

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Mida has an interesting special on Mondays, in which you can have AYCE pasta (plus salad and bread) for $35. Certainly an interesting deal, so I went and gave it a try, especially after seeing it featured on Eater a couple of times. Unfortunately, I was a bit underwhelmed by my experience. The atmosphere of the restaurant itself is fantastic, and I generally enjoyed my stay, but the food is a bit uninspiring. They say that they focus on good, simple food, but I think they take the simple part too far. Other than the ricotta gnocchi (which was decent), everything else was about average. Perhaps their normal menu receives a bit more love and care, but I was certainly a bit disappointed.

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Positives

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> AYCE pasta is a pretty cool idea that I rarely see elsewhere. It's nice to be able to sample 5 different pastas, all for just $35. The pastas supposedly come in "half-portions" -- in reality they're more like third-portions and you can order as many as you want. A chef in the back seems to make them all in rotation.
> The atmosphere, overall decor, and service were all excellent. I definitely felt very comfortable during my time here.

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Negatives

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> The dishes I ordered (which was basically the entire AYCE pasta menu + the ricotta gnocchi again) were pretty underwhelming. Which is surprising because they're supposedly known for their pasta. The pastas themselves were pretty solid, just the flavor was relatively uninspiring.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★☆☆ Bucatini All'amatriciana -- San Marzano tomato, guanciale, pecorino romano. Tasted pretty good at first but I didn't really enjoy my subsequent bites as much. I'm not a fan of the texture nor the taste of the guanciale.
• ★★☆☆ Carbonara? -- I can't find this dish anywhere online, so here goes. It was decent but a little bit too strong for my taste. Would have liked a bit less pecorino and a bit less salt as well (the salumi really adds a ton of salt).
• ★★☆☆ ?? -- No clue what this dish was called, can't find it online. This dish was really...funky. I'm certainly not used to having crispy elements in my pasta, and I don't think it worked particularly well in this case. I think I enjoyed the first bite but then soon didn't enjoy the rest very much, for some reason. I could not discern the duck flavor at all.
• ★★★☆ Ricotta Gnocchi -- Cacio e pepe, pecorino romano. Probably my favorite dish of the night. The gnocchi were quite fluffy, and the flavor of the pecorino romano paired nicely. There was also a light lemon flavor, which rounded out the dish nicely.
• ★★☆☆ Lobster Scampi -- Fresh basil, mascarpone. I forget the pasta shape exactly, kind of like a really long spirally macaroni. It tasted decent, but definitely could use a bit more seasoning. The lobster is cooked alright, but it's also a bit tough. The pasta was good but slightly too al-dente for my taste.