Pao!

Had dinner at Pao! this weekend. Thumbs up. Steak in the cream port sauce was excellent (accompanied by homemade potato chips and some pureed spinach mush, yum). The wife had the pork and clams in a peppery/oily sauce, also good, although picking off her plate while eating from mind didn't really mix well.

I started with a salmon tart with carmelized apples on top and onions underneath. It was outstanding. I dont' know if tart is the right word for it though, for some reason "tart" makes me imagine there's some kind of pastry involved and there wasn't.

The waiter told us the wrong soup special, but my wife took what he did have (carrot soup) and it too was very good. To his credit, the waiter felt bad about the mistake and gave us a free extra glass of wine. We weren't even upset about it, so it wasn't like one of those asshole freebies, it was genuine. (By the way, they have a wine list that is inscrutable to someone like me, but the mid-bodied offering by the glass was still quite bold and only 6 bucks a glass -when you're not getting them for free.)

What should not be left out is that we were there at sunset and the city is empty and the weather was beautiful and the day was relaxed and the bartender was happily whistling along with the Portuguese music as he prepared for the night time drinking crowd. Down the street the staff at the fancy Italian restaurant were playing soccer in the street and laughing and having fun. It's hard to have a bad meal in these conditions.

That corner is great by the way. You can't lose at Greenwich and Spring.