Good meal: Italian small-plates.

The meal I had the night I was the victim of an attempted mugging (a friend from high school was in town for work and I went out with her and her coworker to a really nice "small plate"-concept Italian restaurant on her company's tab!) -

- 2 $5 martinis - one lemon and grappa, another gin with orange bitters (my friend and her coworker each also tried one with pomegranate-infused vodka, too).

- an appetizer of thick fried pork belly (so light and tasty! - the fat was crisp and moist, and the meat fell apart in your mouth), with an apple relish.

- an appetizer of fried palm hearts and cherry tomatoes with a lemon juice etc. dressing.

- an appetizer of roasted beets with creme fraiche, hazelnut sauce, and crumbled candied walnuts (the sauces and walnuts were in moderation, and complemented the beets well; they didn't overwhelm the earthiness of the root vegetable, but rather subtly emphasized its pungent sweetness).

- an entree of this great fatty risotto with nice fresh peas and pieces of ham or pork or something, with an egg yolk on top that broke and ran all over it and added this nice fatty flavor to it.

- an entree of linguine with crab and octopus (I'm not a big fan of seafood, but it was well done; sauce was just the right amount to stick to the noodles, the seafood taste was strong but not overwhelming).

- an entree of half a roasted chicken in a pepper sauce, accompanied by a crisp heart of Romaine lightly coated in caesar dressing and dusted with parmesan cheese.

- a dessert of organic yogurt pudding (surprisingly sweet) with red wine-soaked dates and some kind of sauce (it worked okay-well, but only if you got the right amount of everything on your spoon).

- a dessert of chocolate hazelnut cake that was nice and moist, and on a crispy bottom of rich (dark) bitter chocolate.

Everything was very good to excellent (the pudding and to some extent the chicken were weak points), and we shared everything and ordered a little bit too much (though we finished it *all*), and yet the bill ended up only being $120, including tip! And that's for 3 courses and liquor, mind you.