Tulio Belated Birthday Lunch

For a belated combined birthday celebration my team and I went out to lunch last Friday at Tulio, just a few blocks up from the office. I was super duper excited because pasta/Italian food is like my kryptonite - I am powerless against it. And since it was in celebration of my birthday, I planned on guiltlessly ordering something super naughty and full of carbs.

That morning I was super slammed and never got around to having anything for breakfast other than a few cups of coffee, so by the time we arrived for our noon reservation I was absolutely starving. As I stepped through the antique revolving doors I could practically taste delicious homemade pasta on my tongue. If only I was allowed a glass of wine to go with it...

We were seated at an adorable table in the back and soon after the server brought out Italian bread and some of the yummiest olive oil I have ever tasted (I think it was infused with herbs or something). I only had one piece of bread, partly because I wanted to save myself for the main course, but mostly because I didn't want to look like a greedy cow in front of my co-workers.

I saw a few plates of food go by including the fish special of the day, and the portions looked fairly generous, so I figured my order would be similar in size. Oh, sad, sad day when it finally arrived, quite a while later when I was beginning to actually feel faint from hunger.

Wild Mushroom Tortelli with yellow foot chanterelles,
puntanella, currant, and Meyer lemon butter.

Yes, my friends, you're looking at five little pieces of ravioli nestled at the very bottom of an extremely large bowl... $16 for ten bites of food (if you pace yourself and take small bites). As they looked sadly up at me my co-worker shot me a look of absolute pity as she dug into her own tiny portion of risotto. Sigh... what a letdown. I really wish I would have put my fork in the bowl for scale, but I promise you, I've never been more shocked at a portion size, even at a "nice" restaurant.

The dish itself was pretty good, but nothing special and certainly not worth the price, especially since I had to buy a deli salad a couple hours later to get me through the afternoon. I suppose I should have said yes to the $7 soup or $12 salad the server offered when I placed my order, but that felt awkward (and expensive) since no one else ordered anything extra.

So to sum up, I left my birthday lunch feeling disappointed and hungry, and I definitely won't be going back to Tulio if I can help it. If I can't, I'll make sure I eat a snack first next time.