Birthday Dinner at Farina, Kansas City

The last time I wrote a blog post, I was under 30 with much less grey hair. While a lot has changed since then, like - I am now a mom to a three year old, working full-time, a first-time homeowner and rocking my thirties making my way through the new-normal; a few things have remained unchanged - I still live in Kansas City and I am still madly in love with food and travel.

Thus, my comeback blog post had to be about KC and food, and what better timing than my birthday for the re-birth of my blog.

We have been planning to try out Farina (a take modern Italian cuisine) by chef Michael Smith, since it opened its doors in February 2019, however the pandemic made us wait. Our expectations were definitely high since chef Smith is not only KC's first James Beard Award winning chef, but also we have been fans of his creations at his Extra Virgin for years.

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Last evening as we made our way into the restaurant, we were warmly greeted by the hostess and seated in Farina's elegant dining space. As we browsed through the menu and ordered some wine, we got to munch on the complimentary house-made Focaccia accompanied with olives, lemon slices and herbed olive oil. The bread was so good that it could have been put on the menu by itself. It was my son's favorite, and ask any parent, the three-year-olds can be a tough demographic to please.

For antipasti (appetizer), I ordered the DUCK MEATBALLS in tomato-prosciutto sauce. While the meatballs were nice and juicy but not ingenious, however I adored the sauce. I could taste the freshness of the tomatoes and great flavor of the prosciutto. It would be hard to settle for any other tomato based sauce now.

My husband ordered the GRILLED OCTOPUS for his appetizer. The octopus was grilled to perfection, which is sometimes hard to achieve. It was severed with equally delicious fingerling potatoes, diced tomatoes, sliced shallots and picked peppers, all flavored with lemon and black garlic. The dish also came garnished with some nice balsamic sauce.

No Italian dinner would be complete without some pasta, moreover you just cannot afford to miss the chef's take on Pasta Atipica (rolled, hand-formed and extruded pasta). My husband ordered the SPINACH MAFALDE with pheasant, spinach, pine nuts and gorgonzola. Unfortunately, there was too much salt in it for us and we had to send it back. However, when they re-made it, it turned out to be good. The pasta was cooked al dente and pheasant was particularly a pleasant surprise, as we were trying it for the first time. The pine nuts added just the right amount of crunch to the dish. However, I don't know if it was intended but I found the sauce to be a little runny and did not coat the pasta too well.

I ordered the POTATO GNOCCHI. It came with braised rabbit, leeks, sliced shitake mushrooms and shaved Grana Padano on top. The gnocchi was scrumptious, crispy outside and creamy-smooth inside. The shitakes gave the dish a nice bite contrasting the gnocchi. This was definitely taking comfort food to a new level.

For the secondi course, my husband ordered the SEARED DUCK BREAST. It is hard to ignore foie gras on any menu, and this one served along with the duck breast was a tiny island of melt-in-the-mouth happiness. The duck itself was cooked well, served medium-rare with some Tuscan kale, chanterelle mushrooms and marsala demi glace.

I ordered the MICHAEL SMITH PORK ROAST served with natural jus, sitting on a bed of saffron risotto, along with zucchini batons - battered and fried crisp. While the aroma from the saffron risotto elevated the dish, we were a little put off by the amount of salt in it once again. Thankfully, the tomato marmalade added some sweetness to it and we could tuck in the extra salt between the bites of the tender pork.

For dessert, we ordered the CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT TIRAMISU. It came out candle-lit, decorated with a "Happy Birthday" banner, thanks to my husband for not-so-secretly working with the kitchen for making it special for me. The coffee really came through and the texture was more than pleasing, however I would have preferred a little more of the hazelnut flavor as per the name.

If you are a Tiramisu lover like me and interested in making an easy home-style Tiramisu, you can check out my Tiramisu recipe here.

We definitely had a great experience overall. Although, not all the dishes had the cutting-edge "modern" angle to them, there were some definite sparks of genius, living up to the reputation of this highly acclaimed chef. We couldn't be more satisfied with the ambience and the service though. The restaurant was totally full on a Tuesday evening and had a great vibe. The dishes came fast out of the kitchen even with a full-house. Our server was great at taking care of us and explaining the menu items. We could see chef Michael Smith circulating in the dinning hall talking to the patrons time to time. He stopped by at our table too and exchanged pleasantries with and fist bump - high five with my son.

It is surely a great date-night destination, or an excellent place to celebrate a special occasion like we did. We would like to try their oyster bar or the happy hour menu next time.

This is not a sponsored post.

Photographs by Swakshar Ghosh.