Pastiamo in Princeton, NJ

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We popped over to the Princeton Shopping Center last night for a casual Fathers Day dinner with our friends, Mike and Lynne. We go there often for a variety of meals. We love the Spanish food at Mi Espana and the Indian food at Cross Culture. The baked goodies at LiLLiPiEs are out of sight. And just across the way from LiLLiPiES is a year old pasta-centric restaurant called Pastiamo, which has been catching my eye for some time. It was time to check it out.

Mike and Lynne are good friends and good sports, willing to join me as guinea pigs when it comes to trying out new restaurants.
Upon arrival they gave us a small sampler of focaccia and with the house made tomato sauce. A veritable “amuse-bouche.” Very tasty.
Mike started with the Caprese salad. The pieces of mozzarella were thick and generous. It’s June and the great local tomatoes have not yet started. The restaurant wisely chose to use grape tomatoes which always seem to be sweet and in season somewhere. Mike said the salad was great.
Lynne ordered the Pastiamo salad. It was a nice portion of fresh veggies served with a Balsamic vinaigrette. Nice $9 starter.
Barb had the soup of the week, a warm vegetable soup, puréed and topped with an olive oil drizzle. I tasted it and found it quite tasty.
My Gazpacho was really perfect. It was partially puréed with a good amount of chunky veggies in the middle. The cilantro gave it a beautiful kick. I’m a big fan of gazpacho and this one was among the very best I’ve eaten.
We ordered an app of meatballs in tomato gravy. They were soft and perfectly seasoned.
I ordered the Tagliatelle with a Carbonara sauce. The pasta was made fresh in house. Chef Francesca says she prefers the Cacio e Pepe, but I knew that Lynne was ordering that. I felt the dish was quite enjoyable and very rich. It’s always been one of my go-to pasta dishes and this one didn’t disappoint.
Barb asked chef to go off-menu and make her a dish of meatballs with Roasted Eggplant. Chef was happy to do that for her and Barb was delighted with the resulting plate.
Mike is a fan of simpler, purer foods. He ordered Spaghetti in a simple tomato sauce. He enjoyed it and left a little for me to eat the next day.
Lynne ordered Cacio e Pepe with home made Linguine. She liked it and gave me a taste. I felt it was very good, but would have preferred a ton more black pepper. Of course, that’s my preference with both Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara. I would have been a peppery Roman. They did bring a plate of black pepper to accommodate my taste.
My dessert was the Chocolate Cream Panetotone Pudding. It was coated with caramel, crispy and out of this world.
The Millefiglie/Napoleon was layers of puff pastry with a nice chocolate cream inside the layers. The powdered chocolate and sugar coating gave it a very appealing presentation.
This is Chef Francesca. She was very talented and quite accommodating. We stayed a while and had a very nice conversation with her about food, places we’ve visited and a little bit of wine we’ve had.

I think Pastiamo is a great place to go for lunch as well as a pleasant dinner. It’s byob, but has a small list of local wines. It’s a simple place with several outstanding dishes. The staff couldn’t be nicer. We were served by Ellie, a very sweet lady who was happy to give good advice and steer us in the right directions. I’ll be back soon.

3 thoughts on “Pastiamo in Princeton, NJ”

  1. Wow! Another wonderful review with photos that really bring me right to the table. Everything that you all ordered appeals to me. This review invokes intense cravings and yearnings in my soul. And as always the realization that there are few if any restaurants where I live that can come close to the nj/pa area.

    Liked by 2 people

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  2. Wow! Another wonderful review with photos that really bring me right to the table. Everything that you all ordered appeals to me. This review invokes intense cravings and yearnings in my soul. And as always the realization that there are few if any restaurants where I live that can come close to the nj/pa area.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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