Basso

Basso is one  of my new go to places for a fun dinner with friends.  We live nearby so we can walk over and we recently dined there for a second time.  I don't know what it would be like with more than 4 people, but with 4 people you can get a great booth table.  There is a nice level of busy, fun noise in the background, but you can still hear your friends easily. The food and service were both good and they have a nice drink selection.  Will definitely keep it on my regular rotation of places to go.

Excellent service - held a going away party for some friends recently there.  They have a very reasonable policy that allows you to bring one bottle of your own wine with no corking fee - definitely going to encourage us to make this a more regular restaurant despite not being located in our neighborhood.  Food was great - good for couples, but also great for sharing - in particular the pizzas, the selection of which changes regularly.  Looking forward to our next visit.

Lunched with a girlfriend last week.

You really have to watch coming in from the blazing sun and getting situated on those immediate spiral steps down, 'cause it's dark. Thank goodness there's a railing.

We were seated right away, having arrived a bit before 11:30 a.m., in a cozy booth that was quite private. And it seemed like we were the only people there.

I checked in on Yelp and got a free beer or wine! What a glorious surprise!

Service was fine with Phillip. Although it did drag and drag and drag. Maybe they're used to leisurely lunches, but we didn't want it to take the entire afternoon.

We both got sandwiches. They come with a choice of house-made chips or fries.

My girlfriend got the Vegetable Burger with eggplant condiment, cheddar and arugula on a wheat bun. She opted for the house-made chips.

I got the fluke sandwich ($12) -- With bibb lettuce, olives, capers, tomato and aioli on a wheat bun. I opted for the fries.

It was nice that we were given a vessel of water, but we drank it all up, and it wasn't replenished. So I was going dry.

She said her burger was OK. I tried a couple of the house-made chips, and they were OK.

The fluke was good. I ditched the bun and found wonderful flavors. The bibb got a little wilty, but that happens.

The olives were huge green olives. The capers were reasonably abundant. The tomatoes were cherry or grape or heirloom, and held up well. The aioli was a nice condiment.

The fries were well-seasoned. Something on them. I'm guessing it was Parmesan.

We left asking for elevator service up, and were beautifully escorted to the upper regions by a lovely employee who accommodated us and was incredibly gracious. And we saw the backside of the kitchen doing this.

I had a hefty recyclable to-go vessel of half the fluke and some of the fries.

I'm giving:
-1 for the stairs, which could be incredibly treacherous for many people
-1 for the dreary pace of the meal
-1 that our water vessel wasn't replenished
+1 for the Yelp check-in free beverage
+1 for the escort to the elevators
-1 for needing the elevator to get out of the joint

I'm not usually a +1, -1 person, but I had to do this to figure out where the rating should be.

And doesn't that just tell you something in and of itself?