Some friends were singing the praises of Via Emilia Garden, an Italian restaurant located at 3500 N. Miami Avenue (Miami). But we should have known we were in for trouble, when its website noted that its “mission is to spread emotions, letting your mind travel to those happy memories, where you forget that you’re in a restaurant in Miami, and feel at your Grandma’s Sunday lunch.”▫️
But the “emotions” we experienced had nothing to do with remembering our progenitors, ours were more of annoyance, particularly after we tried the “Parmigiana di Melanzane” ($21, pre-tax/tip).
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While there’s considerable disagreement about its historical underpinnings, some are of the view that eggplant, or “melanzane,” was transported from Asia to Sicily around the 9th century A.D., where it was planted by Arabs. It’s believed the name comes from the Sicilian word palmigiana — meaning “shutters,” which refers to the thatched roofs that the slices resemble, while others claim the name derives from “parmiciana,” a Sicilian word for “Persian.” Wherever you stand on that, I’m sure we can all agree the dish is supposed to be “soft,” and “silky,” with this “veggie” soaking up all the flavors like a sponge.
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To our chagrin, not only did the portion size strike us as small for the $26+ cost, (post-tax/tip), but what we got arrived lukewarm, (the cheese wasn’t fully melted), and it was all drowning in sauce. And as for taste, it was a miserably-muddled, mushy-materialled, mess. (Even the slight bitterness that you’d expect from the main ingredient was conspicuously absent.)
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Because we shelled out a lot for this dicey dish, we planted it with an “F.”
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