100 Jerusalem Drive, Suite 106
Morrisville, NC
Website
Pasta/Entrees: $9.95–$23.95
Sandwiches/Pizzas: $7.25–$16.95
Babymoon Café is an Italian restaurant in the tradition of most Italian restaurants in the US: pastas, pizza, calzones, subs, and Rat Pack music playing in the background. Their porch is very inviting, and I especially liked the trellis's design.
First off, the bread was really, really good.
It was ridiculously soft and fluffy, and coated on top with what might have been an oil and butter mixture with garlic and a few herbs—whatever it was gave a great flavor to the bread, so much so that the dipping mixture was almost unnecessary. But that was good too, so you may as well dip. More calories for everyone! I forced Mr. Gourmez to start the meal with eggplant rollatini (he doesn't like eggplant) since it was my birthday, after all.
This was a strange version of rollatini—much more similar to eggplant parmesan than my understanding of rollatini, actually. I like eggplant parm, too, but I was expecting thin slices of eggplant rolled around the filling of extremely creamy ricotta and fairly thick squares of prosciutto rather than thick slices of eggplant topped with those fillings, then breaded and either fried or baked (my money's on fried), and smothered in marinara. Let me be clear, though, it was good, just not what I think of when I think rollatini. The marinara sauce was good and that ricotta was divine. Ultimately, I'm complaining that it wasn't rolled up and served with a lighter sauce, so really, I should probably just move on . . .
. . . to the main course, Chicken Mulberry. Two sautéed chicken breasts served up with tomatoes, broccoli, mozzarella, and angel hair pasta in a lemon and white wine sauce.
Man, there was a lot of mozzarella in this dish. Thick, huge globs of it, which luckily, weren't greasy in the slightest, just melty good. Too much? Probably, but hey, I like cheese. There were also parmesan shavings on tops, which probably did push it over the outer limit of cheesiness for one dish. The broccoli was undercooked, though it had a nice, garlicky flavor, and the tomatoes were possibly overcooked (it is moments like these when I wonder just how picky I really am). The chicken was great, the noodles good, and the wine sauce fine, but a little thickness to the sauce would have done wonders, whether by cream or cornstarch. The presentation was the best part of the dish, I think.
Mr. Gourmez had the Penne ala Mino, which came with a meat sauce, prosciutto, and mushrooms.
I only had two bites but was impressed with the meat sauce's flavor--very bright but not thick or overwhelmingly tomato-y.
For dessert, we tried their tiramisu.
Something I enjoy about going to Italian restaurants is trying their tiramisu because each place really does make it differently. The creamy layer of this one was closer to a custard: very dense and yellow. It tasted great and was a nice change from the most recent ones I've had elsewhere that were closer to whipped cream in texture and taste. The ladyfingers were well-soaked in something, but neither the taste of espresso or rum was strong; I longed for more of a rum flavor. The thick dusting of cocoa powder was especially yummy, and overall, it was an interesting and good version of tiramisu.
Babymoon is a good choice for standard Italian-American fare, but I think some of the recipes need a little bit of tweaking to take them to the next level.
Reviewed 5.4.10.
