After some deep thought and consideration, I thought that Coccolino would be very satisfactory. I convinced a few other colleagues to accompany me and so here's the meal.
As before, we started with an amuse bouche with a slightly tangy tomato sauce with haricots verts and onions. It was really bright with a nice sharp vinegary bite, but not enough to overwhelm the green bean's flavor. Because of the onion and tomato, there was still some lingering sweetness which probably helped balance the acidity.
The second dish I chose was a slightly torched octopus carpaccio with cherries, capers, and olive oil. The slight tart but sweet cherries paired quite nicely with the nearly raw octopus and briny capers. To help with any potential toughness, the chef added some micro-cuts (similar to what's done in sushi) to make it much more tender which I thought was quite cool. The splash of olive oil helped bridge the ingredients a bit. Overall, it was a nice reunion with the octopus so I'm glad it was on the menu today.
The main dish was an Iberico Pork with a cherry sauce, roasted corn, broccoli, and fried gobo. Because Ibérico pig eats mostly acorns, it's a lot safer to eat at medium temperatures and when I ate it, it was super tender and hours later, my stomach feels fine. The pork and this dark cherry sauce (probably finished with a bit of olive oil or butter) was an amazing pairing. I feel like a bit of shoyu must've been added to add a bit of body and savoriness that makes a proper main. Using the vegetables to soak in the sauce was also very decadent. The fried gobo topping helped with the presentation but also, gobo tastes good since it's just a mild root vegetable so no surprises there.
Dessert was a blueberry tart, chocolate sherbert, and this almond panna-cotta like dessert with caramel. Nothing to say that I didn't say in my first review but it's consistently good. How could you not enjoy a decadent sweet dessert with this rich bitter caramel sauce?
Just a quick picture of the colleagues I mentioned above enjoying their appetizers. (Ignore the red wine of mine...)
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