Prezo. (Inside Eating Out).

Have you ever been so disappointed your stomach hurt? That's how we felt after eating at Prego, a second-class Italian restaurant located in first-class Polanco, arguably the city's classiest dining zone. The restaurant's well-manicured outside certainly surpassed the quality of its unimaginative interior design, which to some in our group seemed on par with that of a chain diner.

Tablecloths and napkins embroidered with Prego's name were a nice touch, but the too few windows didn't allow in sunlight that could have given the place a happier and better-ventilated feel. The decor's only saving grace was a kitchen separated from the dining room by big windows, which allowed a great view of the wood oven.

The right side of the menu gave us high expectations of the meals we were about to order. After all, dining on a 140-peso tuna carpaccio appetizer--one of the recommended specials--should have been a pleasantly memorable event.

However, when the waiter brought us our first appetizers, our high hopes for profound culinary satisfaction were dashed for the rest of the meal. While all of the appetizers were okay, they certainly were not worth the circa 100-peso price tags usually reserved for finer cuisine.

We ordered four opening dishes, two carpaccios and two salads. The tuna carpaccio--accompanied by sun-dried tomatoes and doused with lime--was a bit too sour, while the carpaccio with cariofi e funghti--a concoction of artichokes and mushrooms with Parmesan cheese--had a nice taste. Both salads--the insalata caprese, with tomato and mozzarella, and the Caesar salad--were good choices, though nothing extraordinary.

Our main dishes continued the downward spiral of our lunch as they did not even live up to the elegant mediocrity of our appetizers. Probably the best platter we ordered was a fairly tasty linguini topped with a variety of seafood treats. Next on the list was risotto with funghi porcini--a rice and mushroom combination--that while unattractive, didn't elicit complaints from the person who ate it. Descending down the line, we ordered gnocchi with asparagus and mushrooms, featuring incredibly soft and quite tasteless pieces of potato pasta. But the most disappointing platter of the bunch was surely the beef ravioli described by the person who struggled to finish it as of a "quality of the lowest-tier Condesa restaurant." Ouch!

Although we should have known better by this point, we decided to order dessert and settled on a tiramisu, a custard that tasted unmistakably like cough syrup and was small enough to finish in three bites. So much for those 55 pesos.

Our primary complaint about the place was a very faulty price-quality ratio, in which the quality of Prego's food didn't meet the expectations set by its location and high cost. But some things were just ridiculously priced (e.g., 31 pesos for small bottle of Pelegrino).

We try to review for our readers restaurants that whet the palate and make for a good time out with family or business colleagues but, hey, sometimes even the best of us strike out. Wish us better luck next month!