Bottega Restaurant
2240 Highland Ave. South (Southside)
939-1000
www.bottegarestaurant.com
Dinner only, Mon.-Sat. Valet Parking. Full bar. Reservations encouraged. Highlands Bar & Grill may be award-winning Frank Stitt's first restaurant, but Bottega is one of the hottest fine-dining places in town. Rustic Mediterranean and Italian cooking, with fresh seafood, meat and game all cooked "with the soul-satisfying essences of Tuscany, Andalusia and Sicily," as they say on their web site. You'll find dishes such as homemade ravioli with braised pork, bruschetta with crawfish, Parmesan soufflé, lobster with torchio pasta, tagliatelle pasta with venison bolognese.
For a more casual version, including sidewalk dining and lunch, try Bottega Café, next door in the same building, where you might have baked feta with focaccia, farm eggs stuffed with tapenade, wonderful wood-fired pizzas, Italian cobb salad, pastas such as Bottega Cafe's version of mac and cheese (baked penne with three cheeses), chicken scaloppine or salmon with polenta and olive-radicchio relish.
Click here for Bhamdining.com review of Bottega Cafe
Deborah Lockridge
in Birmingham Restaurants: Southside
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2 Comments
Reader Comments (2)
June 07 I took my mother to Bottega’s for her birthday. She lives in Georgia and was here visiting. I was so excited to finally be able to take her. It was my sister my mother myself and a family friend. We enjoyed a lovely appetizers and drinks. Our main dishes were delivered and they looked and tasted wonderful. My mother was really enjoying her dinner until….she found a bug. We all immediately stopped eating and asked for the manager. This wasn’t just a tiny knat. It was the size of an eraser top and dead. My heart was broken. I so wanted my mother to enjoy her meal and have a nice birthday. The manager took my mother’s plate and returned quickly empty handed. He then said that the bug didn’t come from the kitchen and must have come from outside. (We were sitting in the far back corner.) We all sat there looking at him, shocked. He didn’t say sorry. He didn’t say I’ll bring another out to you. He didn’t say would you like to order something else. He didn’t say anything for the longest time. He finally said “well ok” and walked away. We all were speechless. When the waitress came back we asked for her to remove all the uneaten dishes and for her to ask the manager to take off the dish that had the big dead bug in it. She returned and said the manager said that she could offer us a free dessert. We all in unison said NO THANK YOU and asked for the check. I paid and we left. I have never been back.
I ate there around a year ago in the non-cafe side and was sincerely disappointed. My venison was overcooked and mealy (must have been the wrong cut for scallopini). My companions pappardelle was undercooked (not al dente - I have been to Italy and know the difference) and clumped together in a mass. The tenderloin on our appetizer was also over cooked. When we asked for recommendations the server said everything was good and that she had no preferences; when asked to recommend a bottle of wine she answered awkwardly. Forgive me, but this is unacceptable performance and behavior for a fine dining establishment. I do expect the kitchen staff to be able to cook and the front of house staff to be able to answer simple questions or to provide someone who can.