For Jackie’s birthday, Tom and I took Jackie and John out to eat at Nicola Tuscan Restaurant in Columbus.  I had never been there, and I like having new places to write about for the blog.

Nicola Tuscan Restaurant would be classified as fine dining.  The chef, Nicola Bedalli and his lovely wife Esperanza opened the restaurant in 2011.  It looks small from the outside, but inside there were plenty of tables, elegantly set with linens and diffused lighting.  The menu features made-from-scratch Tuscan and other Italian favorites.  There is also a party room for special events.

Tom and I looked at the menu ahead of time, so we were prepared for the prices.  We rarely eat at expensive restaurants, so we decided to relax and enjoy the atmosphere and food with two of our favorite people.  We started our meal with two appetizers which we all shared.  The Piadina is a flatbread with crispy parma prosciutto, fresh arugula, whipped buffalo ricotta, drizzled spicy honey, and grana padano shavings.  I don’t know what most of those things are, but Jackie said it would be delicious and she was right.  We also ordered the fresh baked ciabatta bread which was warm and chewy.

For our entrees, Tom and I debated splitting.  But John and Jackie encouraged us to each get our own and then take home any leftovers.  Because everything is fresh-made, there wasn’t a lot of salt added, so we felt comfortable doing that.  Tom and I both ordered the lasagne because that is what we really wanted.  John ordered Pappardelle con Cinghiale which is Tuscany’s national dish.  It was wild boar ragu over a bed of gnocchi.  Jackie ordered Pollo Mugello which had chicken scaloppine, black truffle, porcini pesto, and fontina cheese, served with fettuccine.

Our server was efficient but busy.  Consequently we took our time with ordering and eating.  All of the food was delicious.  The lasagne was very good and John let us each have some gnocchi.  I saved about half of my lasagne to take home.

After we finished our entrees, our server brought the dessert menu.  We ordered two pieces of cake and had some bites of each.  The Crostata al Limoncello was a light Italian lemon cake with lemon custard and Chef Nicola’s limoncello.  The Torta di Cioccolato was a heavier chocolate cake layered with rich mousse.  Both were melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

We finished up the last bites of cake about 8:30, which is a late dinner for us.  It was, however, delightful to enjoy a slow meal cooked with the best ingredients.  As always, good food is even better when shared with people we love.