Rigatoni For The Soul
15 Musa Yardua Street. Victoria Island, Lagos
NOSA: We named Basilico as one of the Lagos spots to visit in our 2014 IJGB Guide. That delightful exterior seating area I talked about, have a look.
NOSA: Totes adorbs, no?
We got some antipasti to start. Nothing too fancy...lol.
NOSA: Basilico is my favorite because they do cute little things like spell out their name with carrots. I got the Rigatoni in Amatriciana Sauce. A little knowledge dart here: amatriciana sauce originated in a little town called Amatrice, which is pretty close to Rome. Amatriciana sauce is the Lazio region's Prodotto Agroalimentare Tradizionale (PAT), i.e. in Italy you can't call your sauce Amatriciana sauce if it's not from Lazio (this doesn't apply outside Italy, however). Kinda how any "champagne" from any region other than the Champagne region in France isn't champagne.
Don't say we never taught you anything. Come for the food reviews, stay for Nosa's little wikipedia-sourced history lessons.
FOLLY: Dude, talk about Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V. Lowks would have preferred it if they spelt my name in carrots uno.
NOSA: Rude!
The amatriciana sauce had thick cut bacon in it. The bacon was a little struggle but struggle bacon is par for the course in Lagos so I won't hold it against them. I really liked the rigatoni. It was all al dente and ting.
Folly got the mixed grill with a side of mash.
FOLLY: Nosa felt it was "his turn" to get pasta after this experience.
NOSA: Folly's mash was absolute trash. I'm really sorry I told her to get it instead of fries. It tasted just like it looked.
FOLLY: It looked like watery yellow eba, and also tasted like what I imagine watery eba would taste like. It had particles and was very inconsistent
NOSA: The pork sausage was pretty decent though. It had just the right amount of saltiness to it. Not as salty as you when your ex boyfriend finds happiness before you, however. Not that much salt.
FOLLY: Thankfully, that has never happened to me and I know my Jesus would never let it happen either. My God is bigger.
NOSA: The grilled beef fillet started off alright, but it got pretty tedious as the meal went on.
FOLLY: It never clicked for the pork chop though, it was both tasteless and tedious from the jump.
POSTSCRIPT
NOSA: You already know I like this place if I included in that IJGB guide, but I should probably add that it's advisable to stick to pasta at Basilico. Especially with Folly's mixed grill experience in mind.
Oh, little LOL moment. We asked the waiter if they had dessert and he told us he could either go to Crust & Cream or we could have "digestive and cappuccino".
FOLLY: At the end of the meal, I found myself wishing I had a dog that I could take the leftover meat home to. Bet he/she would have found that bone delightful. Yes, it was that underwhelming.
Oh, I'm judging all of you Nigerians that feed your dogs eba. Jollof rice is excusable, but I just want to call USPCA for the rest of you.
DAMAGE
Assorted Starters - N1500
Rigatoni with Amatriciana Sauce - N3000
Mixed Grill (Meat) - N3500
Mashed Potatoes - N700