The pop-o-matic Bar Report Special Restaurant Edition

I very rarely go out for dinner. Usually I go out for drinking and there may or may not be food served where I'm drinking. If I do make dining out plans it usually means heading to my favorite neighborhood pub, where I can always get a good beer, great burger and friendly service. They don't know my name at this pub but they know Kitty's and I'm usually with her.

This past Monday I actually had dinner plans (that means meeting people at a restaurant mainly for food). My sister in law was in town for a few days for business and we decided to get together at one of her favorite restaurants. She and my brother left NYC back in 2003 for California and as it turns out, her favorite restaurant is right in my hood.

Convivium Osteria, on 5th Avenue in Park Slope is a cozy little spot that features an Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish mix cuisine and the decor to match. I didn't see any beer bottles behind the tiny bar so I decided to open the wine list, which is longer than some books I've read and provides a little bit of info on the bottles stored in the cellar. I started off with a glass of Merlot because Merlot was one of the only words I recognized (you may have figured out by now that I'm not much of a wine connoisseur) then went on to enjoy a bottle of whatever my sister in law ordered.

We ordered a bunch of appetizers, which ranged from a meat and cheese plate to what I think was a whole octopus (I didn't go near that one). These plates were all large enough that I could have left satisfied at that point but decided to order dinner as well. Many of the entrees involved fish of some sort and since I don't eat seafood, I ordered the Gnocchi al sugo di faraona e funghi di bosco (Potato gnocchi with guinea-fowl and wild mushroom ragu). I'm not entirely sure what guinea-fowl is (some sort of bird I hope) but it was delicious!

Convivium Osteria is a bit more pricey than I'm used to but as I said before, dining out for me usually happens in a bar. I will definitely go back, in fact, this would be a great place to take my parents (who love eating out) if they ever actually visit. If I had some sort of rating system, I would give Convivium Osteria 4 out of 5 pop-o-matic bubbles!