La Catena Serves Careful, Generous Regional Cuisine

When a restaurant assigns a region to its food, it takes a risk: keeping the kitchen within boundaries and promising fare of more specific virtues.

La Catena, now in its 21st year, markets itself as "Northern Italian Casual Fine Dining," and succeeds in serving both Northern Italian cuisine and fine dining. The restaurant's name translates to "The Chain," which is ironic, given that the dishes served are unique, thoughtful and carefully presented.

Northern Italian cooking involves less of the quintessential "Italian" traits: less olive oil, pasta and tomato sauce, and more butter, polenta and cream sauces. The menu features the proper components of Northern Italy—tons of seafood mixed in exciting ways, creative combinations of cheeses and wine reductions—although polenta and risotto appeared surprisingly little.

The air of the dining room reminded me I was in an Italian restaurant, and the landscape paintings imitated those of the High Renaissance. The room was lit enough to converse, but dim enough to separate the tables.

Finally, the atmosphere was tied together with flawless service. Using the placement of salt and pepper shakers and the plates, our waiter produced a symmetry only Leonardo da Vinci could truly appreciate.

To start, the bread was decent, but the matching mushroom-red pepper olive oil was thick, robust and flavorful. Also, the complimentary bruschetta served was pleasing, but appropriately minor.

We started with the beef carpaccio, a rare cut of beef garnished by a balsamic glaze and centered on a baby arugala salad with mushrooms and truffle oil. The meat was refreshing—it melted in the mouth—but the consistency of the shaved granna cheese didn't lend itself to combination. Well-balanced and soothing, the dressing highlighted the arugala more than it's used to.

Browsing the list of primi and secondi entrees was somewhat harrowing, given the number of worthy dishes. We settled on the horseradish crusted salmon and one of two veal scaloppinis offered.

The salmon carried a satisfying outer layer, pronouncing the horseradish, and matching mustard champagne sauce (a somewhat daring combination of similar flavors), and let the well-cooked salmon taste like, well, salmon. A cylindrical bean puree sat on the side of the dish and tasted interesting, but didn't do much.

I'd be willing to bet things like cylindrical bean purees weren't served at La Catena when it opened.

The veal scaloppini, served under roasted peppers, fontina cheese and a savory cognac sauce, balanced well between the worlds of "comfort" and "gourmet." The ingredients blended effortlessly, and the small ball of cloudlike mashed potatoes served as an essential counter of starch.

Unfortunately, the meat lost its veal consistency during the process of preparation. In addition, the same green and orange splashes of sauce that circled the salmon (pepper- and carrot-flavored, although I'm not sure) were also around the scaloppini. This was unexpected given how different the two dishes are.

The garnish worked well for the veal, less well for the salmon.

I wouldn't do La Catena justice if I didn't mention the prices, which were always fair, if not low. The amount of veal and salmon offered was more than generous for the prices: $20 and $22, respectively. The quality of beef featured in the carpaccio ($11) was also finer than expected.

La Catena proves to be honorable to its chosen region, first by atmosphere, then by ingredients and finally by taste. Thankfully, the prices make it a place to visit with some frequency, and the dining experience makes it a place to stay.

La Catena is located on Route 22 East. For more information, call 908-725-9300, or visit the website.