07.12.10
Review of Emporio, Friday lunch February 2010
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” 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.
