11.24.11
Posted in East Village, Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 21:16 by Dominique
19 1st Ave. & 1st/2nd Sts., 212-420-4900
Great for: focaccino, late-night Italian cravings
The only Frankie’s restaurant I’d been to before this was Falai, and this one confirmed my good opinion of them. Fortunately they’re all a little bit far from me or I’d get really fat.
The arugula with parmigiano reggiano was so fresh it was a bit spicy, and the balsamic vinaigrette balanced wonderfully against the lemon my date and I squeezed on it. It does have to be chopped up and looks enormous, but don’t worry, it’ll disappear quickly.
I liked the cute rigatoni polpettini ragu. There’s just something adorable about tiny meatballs. It could maybe use a little more salt but it was a nice homey, tasty dish with rich red sauce.
The life-changing focaccino, two flat sheets of bread enclosing melty robiola cheese and prosciutto di Parma with a big hit of white truffle, is incredibly decadent and wonderful. The crisp bread and prosciutto were an amazing contrast to the creamy cheese, while the truffle oil was the perfect final touch.
Our waiter was nice and didn’t hover much, probably because it was still busy. The gangsta rap was a bit loud but apparently it’s usually not like that. Overall, it was a very satisfying meal and I was happy.
Rating: 8 / 10
Our cost: $75 (app, pasta, main, beer, glass of wine). Cash only
Noise level: kind of loud
Chance of walking in: they’re open until 2am weekdays, 4am weekends; you’ll probably still have to wait.
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10.09.11
Posted in Chelsea, Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 23:25 by Dominique
128 W. 26th St. & 6th/7th Aves., 212-243-8183
Great for: most seafood, panna cotta
This place is actually a steakhouse, but for whatever reason we plumped for all seafood. I loved my tuna tartar over avocado and sour cream garnished with bloomed mustard seeds and soy and wasabi oil. It was a great idea beautifully composed in squares, with a nice melding of flavors. The little bits of mustard cut all the cream well. My friend’s lobster salad with winter melon (which was like watermelon) had too much of the latter and not enough of the former. It was decent.
I was mildly enthused by my Alaskan king crab tagliatelle. It was a bit bland. The crab itself was nice but the pasta somehow didn’t absorb any flavor. The veggies were good though. The fennel pollen tuna in pesto finished with saba over butternut squash caponata, on the other hand, was lovely. The just-barely-seared tuna and the braised vegetables underneath were delicious. It was definitely something to dig into.
I’m glad I allowed myself to be tempted by the “sinful” panna cotta, made fresh daily. It was soft fluffy vanilla loveliness, not too heavy despite probably ridiculous amounts of cream.
The waiters are good at their jobs. The décor is the epitome of midtown corporate. I rather liked it though their efforts were uneven.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $135 (2 apps, 2 entrees, 1 dessert, 2 glasses of Chianti)
Noise level: probably not above a convivial hum
Chance of walking in: I imagine you can walk in fairly easily.
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02.08.11
Posted in Gramercy, Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 03:18 by Dominique
2 Lexington Ave. & 21st/22nd Sts. in the Gramercy Park Hotel, 212-777-2410
Great for: pasta, sophisticated nights out, dates
The Scholar/Mistress and I share many common interests, the foremost among which is amazing food. (Or maybe reading books. But you guys don’t care about that.) We were delighted to get a reservation to Maialino, which we’d both heard wonderful things about.
Our starter of crostone di fegato (chicken liver) and aged balsamic vinaigrette was great on large half-slices of bread. The balsamic was a nice peppery contrast to the creamy pâté.
For budgetary considerations we got two pastas to share as a main. My bucatini all’amatriciani with pecorino, spicy tomato and guanciale was delightful and spicy. It reminded me of when I’d first had the dish in Rome; this was just as good, with perfectly al dente and wiggly noodles. S/M’s agnolotti corn ravioli with sungolds and ricotta salata was also lovely. We liked the large pasta and all the flavors went together really well.
Surprisingly, one app, two pastas and a generous side of potatoes with rosemary is enough for two hungry girls! We still had a little room for dessert, of course. I went for the affogato, gelato in espresso, which was good but super bitter and delicious simultaneously. S/M ordered the absolutely lovely gianduja budino, a chocolate and hazelnut bread pudding. It was very large and wonderful, especially when we discovered the chocolate melted in the middle.
I’m so glad the hotel finally found a restaurant worthy of it that’s popular too. I definitely wish I could afford to come back often.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $90 (1 app, 2 pastas, 1 side, 2 desserts, 1 lavender mint tea)
Noise level: noisy
Chance of walking in: it might be ok, since the place is huge, but you should call.
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01.02.11
Posted in Alphabet City, brunch, East Village, Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 14:35 by Dominique
156 East 2nd St. near Ave. A, 212-477-7600
Great for: brunch (so far)
The Australian Astrophysicist lives near Tompkins Square Park and consequently I have been trying places east of 1st Avenue. This place is worth the walk.
The garlicky white beans that come with the bread basket are delicious, and I’m not even a fan of beans. We were soon distracted by terrific poached eggs. Mine were on a large block of tasty grilled polenta with prosciutto di Parma, shaved Parmesan, abundant fennel and aged balsamico. It was so much deliciousness I actually could not finish it. His eggs Benedict came with great hollandaise sauce, pancetta, potatoes and mixed greens.
The place is cute inside with a surprising number of tables. Rather twee, but I like it. It’s fun to see the cooks in the open kitchen. Despite watching the entire time, I still have no idea how they poach eggs so efficiently and wonderfully. You should go and see if you can figure it out.
Rating: 8.5 / 10 pending dinner review
Our cost: $40 (2 mains, 2 coffees)
Noise level: not noisy
Chance of walking in: it’s probably packed and they only take reservations for 8 or more. There are two private rooms downstairs though.
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12.27.10
Posted in Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, NoLIta, rated 8 to 8.5, SoHo at 19:54 by Dominique
55 East Houston & Mott Sts., 212-274-8881
Great for: pasta, reliably excellent food, large parties – you can have your own room
I came here several years ago with a friend and I remember really liking it. I’m happy to see it has expanded into a sort of annex next door, which I think they occasionally use as private event space. On this particular evening it was open to the public. My date was a guy I went to law school with (yes, I went when I was very young) and recently ran into while dealing a poker game. Manhattan is a small world.
I have to commend their bread first. As my faithful readers know, I don’t eat bread unless a sandwich needs fingerholds. When I noticed salami peeping out of this, though, I had to try it. I managed to stop myself after two whole slices. That probably also had to do with the arrival of the very nicely done calamari. I liked the crispy spicy batter, although the calamari was a bit rubbery. The marinara was lovely and addictive.
The black ink linguine with shrimp in marinara was so awesome I ate until my tummy hurt. I blame it on the soft, yet not sticky, noodles and lots of delightful, plump shrimp. Also, of course, the magical marinara. The linguine alla vongole was light and wonderful. It was not drowned in olive oil as at so many restaurants. I want to copy that when I make it at home.
Everything was excellent. I particularly like the black wood tables. I’m only sorry I didn’t come back sooner.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $75
Noise level: quiet
Chance of walking in: decent. It’s not very obtrusive and the rest of the block kind of is.
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11.25.10
Posted in Italian, Midtown West, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 03:11 by Dominique
234 W.56th St. & 8th Ave./Broadway, 212-265-2610
Great for: specials, bruschetta, pastas
The then-Boyfriend’s parents were taking us to see Jersey Boys, and wanted Italian food nearby beforehand. This seemed to fit the requirements, and turned out to be a really good choice. So was Jersey Boys, for that matter – I didn’t even know most of the songs and I still loved it.
I had an audition beforehand so I missed most of the apps, but they very kindly saved me a little bit of each. The calamari was just ok, pretty chewy, with nice breading and sauce. The bruschetta was better. And I was really glad they’d managed to leave me some of the creamy burrata special, which was scrumptious mozzarella wrapped in lightly toasted prosciutto. I would happily have eaten a couple more plates of that.
Two of us ordered the rock shrimp and scallop spaghetti special with cherry tomatoes and arugula. Though the tomatoes could have been incorporated more, it was very good overall. The nice fresh seafood was cooked just the right amount. I couldn’t bring myself to try any of the special of ravioli stuffed with wild mushroom in butter and sage sauce, but the sauce turned out to be quite tasty despite the mushrooms. The baccalà with potato slices (really chips) in fennel purée was well-executed, tender and flaky.
Service was as lovely as the décor. If you need good, moderately priced Italian food in midtown, you won’t do much better than this place.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $160 for 4, 3 apps, 4 entrees
Noise level: happy noisy
Chance of walking in: not bad, there are lots of tables.
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08.07.10
Posted in American, Italian, Lower East Side, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5 at 02:31 by Dominique
84 Stanton & Allen/Orchard Sts., 212-982-8895
Great for: pork meatballs, spicy meat sauce, cream sauce, bread, ice cream, destroying your hearing
I had an exhausting and strange audition – the weekend ones are always the worst – and my reward was to go try this place. Fortunately I had a wonderful book to read, so the noise didn’t bother me much. I highly recommend Leo Babauta’s Power of Less. Sadly, I can’t recommend the Meatball Shop anywhere near as wholeheartedly, but they do some things well.
There’s no mix-and-match option, so I ended up ordering 5 different meatballs as sliders. That was the only way I could try all of them (I didn’t bother with the veggie ball, that’s just dumb). They’re quite small for $3 – they’d fit comfortably in my tiny curled-up palm. You get a cool laminated menu to write your order on, since there are many permutations of sauces, meats and sandwich formats. I didn’t have stomach space to try any of the sides. You can get up to four of the same meatball on a sandwich as well.
My favorite was the pork in spicy meat (pork) sauce. The pork itself was flavorful, moist and spicy, and the sauce helped it along. I also quite liked the juicy special of tandoori lamb in tomato sauce. It had a good combination of spices.
The chicken in parmesan cream was tasty, not amazing, and soft. It scares me when chicken is very soft. I loved the cream, which definitely had some cool spices in there. I was a bit sorry I got the salmon in parmesan cream. Not as tasty or moist as I’d hoped, I definitely did not need more than one. I tired of it halfway through. Good thing I ordered it with the cream sauce.
The worst was the beef in tomato sauce. It was bland and had lots of gristle, unlike all the others. Shocking, that such a standard meatball was so underwhelming.
Whatever each bun was, brioche or something, it was terrific; fluffy and tasty without competing with the meat. And you guys know I don’t eat bread. Sometimes there isn’t enough sauce but that’s ok, the bread is good all by itself.
I’d heard a lot about the ginger snap ice cream sandwich. Since I was being a dutiful blogging piglet anyway I figured I’d go the distance. The ginger snaps were pretty good but ultimately they are still messy, bready sweets. I preferred the caramel ice cream. The sandwich is fairly difficult to eat – I found it best to nibble one side at a time so as not to squeeze out all the ice cream. For $4 it was a pretty good deal.
Service is nice, but scatterbrained and slow. It’s very likely that was because they just opened and were swamped from day one, so I didn’t mind being patient. I finished my book, though. The décor is colonial/crazy American Gothic. I have never seen so many black and white pictures of loony old people. I probably won’t again, as this place is very overpriced for being only decent, and insanely packed all the time. Only two meatballs of six offered are good – not a very good success rate. I’ll give them this, though; it’s a cool gimmick and they seem to be raking it in at the moment.
Rating: 6 / 10
My cost: $25 (5 sliders and an ice cream sandwich)
Noise level: noisy as hell; the music is loud rock and the people are just as bad
Chance of walking in: bad. But at least they’re open late (noon until 2am Sunday to Wednesday, 4am other days) and have many seats so you have a lot of chances to try.
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07.12.10
Posted in Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5, SoHo at 02:19 by Dominique
231 Mott & Prince Sts., 212-966-1234
Great for: olives all’ascolano, possibly pizza (pending another visit)
The first couple times I tried to come here, they were closed, or doing a private party. Don’t you hate when that happens, and then you finally try the place and it’s not amazing?
I started with the four juicy olives all’ascolano, which are breaded olives with veal and sausage inside. They were a little oversalted, but satisfying and a nice size and number. P got grilled octopus with potatoes. It was chewy and quite tasty.
We both got the Yukon gold gnocchi with oxtail ragù. The gnocchi had kind of a weird taste and the meat was super fatty and gristly. I never had oxtail before, and when I researched it online later I learned that it’s supposed to be a bit fatty, but this really freaked me out. I didn’t even finish my dish. Now that I’ve had oxtail at Má Pêche I don’t think the meat was very good quality. P quite liked his, on the other hand, so I’m willing to give them another try.
To calm down my palate, I got an affogato gelato in an espresso shot that was pretty good. I felt there was a bit too much cocoa powder which made it very bitter. It sort of did the trick.
We had a nice waitress. I found the meat slicer prominently displayed behind the bar the most interesting thing in the restaurant. I literally couldn’t stop watching people slice things on it. Fortunately P thinks my nerdy tendencies are funny. It was less amusing that they misspelled “proscuitto” [sic] on the entire menu.
I suspect pizza is their best thing, since that’s what everyone else ordered. Each pie is really big, though, and I didn’t want to eat that much. Next time I will suck it up and get a pizza, and sit in the lovely back room with its skylight.
Rating: 6 / 10
Our cost: $90 (1 glass wine)
Noise level: not too bad
Chance of walking in: fine.
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03.25.10
Posted in Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5, SoHo at 21:37 by Dominique
200 Mott & Spring Sts., 212-966-0904
Great for: crostone, quiet awesome Italian, logophiles, brunch
I love wandering around SoHo and the Lower East Side. There’s always a new little shop or restaurant, and sometimes it’s not even new; it’s only been hiding from you. That was the case with Epistrophy, which apparently has been right there for nearly 6 years and yet invisible to me the whole time. I’m just glad I got through platform 9 3/4 and found it – sometimes it still disappears on me, but I just keep the address firmly in my mind.
The Boyfriend suggested we start with crostone al pomodoro and mozzarella, which turned out to be the best idea ever. The dish is deceptively simple; toast with melted cheese and thin-sliced tomatoes. The mozzarella helped meld all the flavors together and protect me against the tomato texture, while the toast is a terrific half inch of crunchiness that is just the right level of crisp because of the cheese and tomato juices. The Boyfriend was in raptures, and has in fact asked for this dish on several occasions since. It is perfect.
His short ribs in red wine and herbs with roast potatoes were lovely, salty, dense and stewy with tender meat. The potatoes were well-spiced and delicious. It might have been a tiny bit dry but overall it was really lovely and I had to stop myself from sneaking too many bites. My pork chops Milanese with fennel and arugula in lemon dressing were also very good. I loved the salad and the pork was exactly the light, delicious dish I wished for. They must have an expert meat tenderizer – the chops were uniformly thin, so much so that the little bit they were overcooked didn’t even matter.
I got a big kick out of their word-themed décor. It’s interesting that they serve Italian food but the place has a French feel, especially with the distressed brick walls. It looks like an old antique store with lots of books. Which is basically my idea of heaven, plus they serve terrific food!!!
Rating: 8 / 10 (in April 2010 just as good)
Our cost: $55
Noise level: the hum of happy, well-fed people
Chance of walking in: low; I’ve been there on a late Monday night and it’s still packed.
In April, we tried the crostoni misti, which was almost as good as the simple tomato kind. I very much like the soppressata one. The tilapia in spiced tomato sauce (fregola al sugo di pesce) is very yummy and spiced as advertised. I am starting to suspect that they cook things super hot here, as the meats and fish we’ve tried have uniformly been a teeny bit too well done. The Boyfriend’s ravioli al carciofi with basil pesto, pinenuts and parmesan was terrific, with flavors that go together really well. I had to sit on my hands for a bit to stop stealing nibbles.
Their raspberry cheesecake is so scrumptious I want to roll around in it. It’s creamy, not too sweet, with nice tart raspberries and a nice contrast of chocolate drizzle. They also have lovely house wines.
Their brunch is also lovely; I’ve been a couple times, and pretty much anything with eggs is great.
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09.06.09
Posted in East Village, Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews at 23:54 by Dominique
I would not normally review a little pizza joint because a) I don’t eat bread, which includes pizza, and b) they’re not usually restaurants. However, in honor of Artichoke I am actually devoting a post to pizza. When I find another worthy place it’ll appear here.
Artichoke, 328 E.14th St. & 1st/2nd Aves., 212-228-2004: The spinach artichoke pizza is something special. It is basically dip on thick bread – as much as I prefer thin crust, I totally understood that it would have collapsed in on itself if they’d used one – and well worth $4/slice. I was less pleased with the crab pizza, which turned out to use fake crab. It was pretty good nonetheless, but too… sweet, maybe. Stick with the eponymous artichoke. I was especially happy this night because I’d just won the Big Gay Spelling Bee but had no one to celebrate with. I actually ended up making friends with some people on the benches outside (hello there, if you’re reading!) and went home with a smile on my face. Plus, I came at the exact right time to not wait at all! Usually the line is horrendous.
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