La Marea Ristorante — Restaurant in Old Saybrook

The pizza is angelic -- lighest crust I have ever seen (both of us ate all the crust, without a second thought) (I speculate that the pizza-dough is made from imported "double-zero" superfine flour), -- and each pizza's cheese is thinly sliced bona fide buffala mozzerella (not the generic, shredded American "mozzerella"). This is also one of the few Italian restaurants where you hear Italian (not just Spanish) spoken from the kitchen. Authenticity is not an unmixed blessing though. This style of pizza was great as a Margherita, but I doubt that its angelicly-light slices would support many toppings or endure a drive home (were the pizzas to be ordered as take-out, rather than as dine-in). The interior is rustic and spacious, evoking thoughts of an alpine lodge (so, why not dine-in?). The entrees and appetizers were high quality (almost up there with the modestly-sized, angelic pizzas), but the portions are European-sized -- in line with the tales of Americans going to Paris, going to dinner, having an elegant dinner, and leaving hungry (and then going to McDonalds). So, if you want to stuff your face with supersized portions of relatively-high-quality, relatively-economical food, this place isn't going to become your new after-work bar or new go-to weekend-evening pizza-run option (stick with PizzaWorks, by the Old Saybrook train station, just 5km away for that). But if you want a pizza that is of a type that is (easily inhalable and is) hard to find on this side of the Atlantic, and want that authentic pizza in an authentic (sometimes a little too authentic [a la the less diplomatic relative in your party yells out, ^hey, I ordered the entree, not the appetizer^]) environment, this is the place: where pizza intersects with fine, European, dining. But hey, America is full of the utilitarian type of pizza places. In juxtaposition to them, La Marea's presence significantly enhances the diversity of the Connecticut Shoreline pizza ecosystem. The restaurant in general is worth a try. The pizza though, is a must-try, even if just so that you know what...

The fish Special was $40 , bland, boring and over cooked. Not worth $20 let alone $40.We sat with dirty dishes in front of us for a very long time until I finally slid them to the edge of the table and the buser that was doing nothing but finally came over and took them away. We don't appreciate watching servers and bartenders chowing down on food as we wait for ours to be served. Eat before your shift. Salt and pepper should've been brought to the table or at least offered. We waited an extended amount of time because they made the wrong entrée. The server that used the peeler to make an orange twist for a drink should never have use their dirty bare hands. They should've put gloves on. Gross. The server never brought us Parmesan cheese, a buser brought it over halfway through our meal and just set it on the table. However our server was very attentive to the table right next to us and offered to sprinkle cheese on their food that was just served. Very disappointing. The desert was dry, bland, not fresh and not very good. The gnocchi portion was more of a lunch size not a dinner size. I realize many people have a great experiences but ours was not so special. We normally tip about 30 to 40%. We gave 15%. Weird mediocre service. If I'm spending $300 on a meal I expect reasonably decent service. Super bummed. Feeling a bit disrespected and judged based our our service treatment. By the way the calamari and shrimp side dish had only 2 shrimp. A strange...

I recently dined at La Marea for the first time. There were four of us, two couples, and I will say that everything that we ate was very good and the service was excellent. On an overall basis, I would characterize the portions as being small (therefore expensive relative to the price) - for most of what we ordered. I ordered the crepes stuffed with spinach & ricotta and then the Campanelle pasta. The crepes at $17 I think, were very good but overpriced for two pieces. The Campanelle pasta had a wonderful mix of pancetta, shallot, peas & cheeses and was quite flavorful. Again, the portion was very small, in my opinion, for $26 or so.

One of my friends ordered a different pasta dish and had the same observation as we all did relative to the salads that our wives ordered. One of our servers brought some bread to the table and my feeling is that the bread should either be very fresh, warm or both. Perhaps we received some leftover pieces but neither of the small baskets we received were either fresh or warm. The Halibut special - which in retrospect I wish I had ordered - was the winner of the evening and I was almost going to order it but opted for the pasta at the last minute.

I did enjoy my meal and would return to La Marea and try something different - perhaps the seafood special of the evening. We were seated in the back (right) as you walk in so it was a smaller room with just a handful of tables and I enjoyed...