Several weeks ago my MOH and I met up for an afternoon of wine tasting in Frederick County, followed by dinner at Aida Wine Bistro, an Italian restaurant in Columbia. My friend Lauren also joined us for the evening.
Aida makes several of their own pastas and also tries to pull as many local ingredients as possible. The menu is moderately sized and diverse, and when we showed up on a Saturday night at 1900 the place was starting to fill up.
To me no Italian meal is complete without a glass of wine and I was surprised to see Old Westminster Winery's Greenstone, a dry white, on the wine list. Often when a place has local wine it's from one of the more popular places like Boordy so I give Aida credit for including a smaller local winery, and one that's down the street from my house, on their menu.
We ordered an appetizer each and were also offered breadsticks but you do have to pay for them. I noticed that it was taking a long time for them to come out and when I first asked the waitress she told me the bread is made to order and it would be out shortly. When she came back with the bread she apologized stating that she had forgot to put it in. They were worth ordering, very doughy and warm and served with a white creamy sauce and olive tampenade. The white sauce was good however I don't like olives so I skipped the tampenade.
I picked the grilled Spanish octopus for my appetizer, served with confit potatoes, cream cheese tampenade, and champagne vinaigrette. The octopus tasted fantastic with the char marks from the grill and it wasn't overly chewy. The creaminess of the cheese and acidity from the vinaigrette were great complements. If the thought of eating octopus creeps you out I urge you to give it a chance! It just tastes like a white fish.
Caroline picked the herb crusted lamb carpaccio, served with crispy capers, parmesan croutons, and truffle aioli. We were going to town with ordering things that a lot of people like to avoid! Your taste buds would've thanked you though had you tried it because it was paper-thin, savory, and very tender. eIt's easy to forgot you're eating raw meat when it tastes that good.
Lauren tried the grilled heart of romaine with homemade Caesar dressing, croutons, and parmesan. It was very elegantly presented and Lauren said she really enjoyed it.
I couldn't go to this restaurant with homemade pasta and not order any. Their spaghetti, linguine, and ravioli are all made on site. I picked the mushroom ravioli in a cauliflower puree with shiitake mushrooms, prosciutto, and a balsamic reduction. You really can't beat the quality of homemade pasta, it's very tender. The ravioli were filled with a pureed mushroom filling and the shiitake's were on top with the prosciutto. I thought the prosciutto could have been a little bit more tender, it was a little tough. I also would have liked a little more sauce. Overall a good dish but it could have been a little better.
Caroline picked the spaghetti with homemade marinara and meatballs. You could also order this with garlic and olive oil and the meatballs were optional. She said that the homemade noodles and sauce were really good. The meatballs had a good flavor but she thought they could have been a little bit more firm.
Lauren ordered Kathryn's fresh pasta primavera with local and seasonal vegetables, linguine, garlic and oil, and herbs. She said the dish was very fresh and flavorful and the veggies were crisp.
Overall I think the food at Aida is done well and worth a visit if you're in the area looking for some authentic Italian. My only comment is that the service was extremely slow. We were there for two hours and not because we were gabbing over wine. It took a really long time for each course to come out, almost uncomfortably slow. If you visit don't count on a quick meal.
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