02.27.09
Review of Pinocchio, Wednesday January 2009
1748 1st Ave. & 90th/91st St., 212-828-5810
Great for: specials, opera with your dinner
The Boyfriend’s father Mr. G took us out to dinner again, this time on the upper east side. It’s an adorable little place, and the specials are definitely the way to go if you find yourself in the “wilds” above 80th Street.
B and I got the pasta specials to start, his in entrée size and mine in appetizer. His risotto with saffron, shrimp and calamari was great and creamy. The squid was a little rubbery but otherwise it was a lovely dish. My spaghetti with sea scallops fra diavolo had yummy sauce and soft likeable tomatoes but I thought the scallops might have been a bit off. Mr. G was unmoved by his good, not excellent, artichoke soup. He said it didn’t taste much of artichoke and wasn’t cream-based.
All our entrées came with broccoli and creamy fine-ground mashed potatoes that I liked a lot. B’s salmon special with mustard was the best of the three main dishes. The large, flaky, tender filet came with lots of sauce, which was not too sharp and had just enough mustard flavor. My saltimbocca veal with crisp prosciutto, breading and spinach was pretty good. The prosciutto was a little too salty but the dish as a whole was quite decent. On the other hand, Mr. G said his homemade scarpariella (chicken) on the bone was better than their just-all-right version.
We liked the strawberry shortcake with lots of whipped cream and powdered sugar, as well as the bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo CaDonini for $23. B rated it a 6.8 and I agreed. It was kind of the waiter to steer us to that instead of the $38 bottle we were initially considering. We were a bit puzzled by the regular coffee that they poured from a carafe as people do at home – it tasted fine, in any case. The nice waiter managed not to hover though he didn’t have much to do. Overall, it’s a quaint, cute little resto. And if you pay cash they’ll give you ten percent off.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $195 (3 people, $23 bottle of wine, 1 dessert, 2 coffees)
Noise level: loud opera but it’s nice
Chance of walking in: good. Although it was a horrid, cold, rainy Wednesday night.
