Category: Italian

Reviews of Italian Restaurants in New York City

Bacaro

136 Division Street between Ludlow and Orchard
212/941.5060
$50 each for five, with two bottles of wine, with tip
♥

I used to know someone who lived on Madison Street in the deep recesses of Chinatown five years ago, but I haven’t been back in the area since then. Before that, Good World on Orchard was the place to be among dot-comers. For the last four years, I’ve been working in and around SoHo and have grown to love Frank DeCarlo and John LaFemina’s Peasant on Elizabeth Street. Its downstairs space is one of the places I end up in when I don’t have a reservation nor a dinner plan.

When Bacaro started appearing in food blogs as DeCarlo’s latest project after splitting from LaFemina, I kept a note in my head to make it back to Division Street when I get the chance. That opportunity came a little earlier last week when five of us wanted to eat from small plates and share bottles of wine but had nowhere to go. I had to lend my cab driver my iPhone to show him where Division Street is located because he said he had never heard of it. I was dropped off in the corner of a very quiet and deserted street. If it weren’t for the few smoking outside, I would have thought my Google map was wrong.

At 7pm, the four in our party were at the bar waiting for a table. We witnessed as other groups were seated as soon as they came in. It became worrisome that once another group showed up, we’d have to leave to find another restaurant, unless we wanted to wait for another hour. The bartender was nice enough to seat just the four of us–he made a smaller group move to a smaller table near the door just to accommodate us–and let us order food and wine while we waited for our fifth.

We started with duck prosciutto and some pear slices. Salty and tougher than the prosciutto I’m used to, the pears were still a good match. The braised duck leg that was served when our party was complete fared better, although it was still on the salty side. I assumed the octopus would come in vinaigrette just like they have them in Peasant, but they were fried in batter like calamares, which I’m not a fan of. It was amusing to find lemon peels and yellow bell pepper covered in batter, too, but I just thought the dish didn’t belong with the rest of our food. I also thought the meatballs were going to be gigantic like they have them at ápizz, John LaFemina’s second venture but without DeCarlo, but they were so small I could have eaten twenty more of them. The polenta salad was the most interesting because it was topped with a small chunk of cod. At Bacaro, everything I thought was a salad did not come with any leaves. The cod whet our appetites and prepared us for the gnocchi cooked in brown butter with mushrooms and the pasta with anchovy sauce–one warm and hearty, the other difficult to split among five.

Related post/s:
Peasant was Frank DeCarlo and John LaFemina’s venture before they split to do ápizz (LaFemina) and Bacaro (DeCarlo)

Giorgione 508

508 Greenwich Street off Spring
212/219-2444
♥ ♥

Giorgione is a jewel of a place found in the transforming neighborhood of Greenwich Street and the West Side Highway. It reminds me of the delis in Europe where locals eat and drink wine in the middle of the afternoon or leisurely enjoy coffee with a pastry. As soon as you walk in, you’re confronted with lunch boxes of greens with chicken or seared tuna. The long glass bars invite you to sit and casually enjoy your meal. It is that civilized way of living which delights me about Giorgione. When the restaurant is full during busy lunch hours, it looks like a happy communal space with beautifully-dressed New Yorkers.

My seared tuna looked more like sashimi but it was perfect with the bean and tomato salad. The baby arugula and endive salad with goat cheese became a more interesting dish when citrus and toasted pine nuts were added. I think a bowl of greens is easy to make, but a well-done salad is a hard feat. Giorgione does it easily and well. The hanger steak sandwich with stewed onions was large and filling, but the meatball sandwich covered in a big blob of mozarella looked unappetizing. All the lunch items are a bit pricey but this Italian joint is a nice break from the usual hangouts on Hudson Street.

Dani Restaurant

333 Hudson Street corner of Charlton
212/633.9333
$300 for fifteen without drinks, with tip
♥

Update, 2008: Dani is now closed and only available for special events.

Dani looked promising as soon as we walked in. Its space on Hudson is so airy and spacious, it made me wonder why other restaurants just don’t move to the West Village. I booked a table during lunch for a big group. They told me over the phone that our tables will be separated in two groups but assured me that they will be next to each other. When we were all seated, we occupied an L-shaped corner but with an empty table in between the two groups. We asked the maitre’d to move the place settings one table over so that we can be together but she never returned to fulfill our request. So there we ate, two groups side by side, separated by a small table in between, standing to pass plates of appetizers from one table to the next.

The lunch menu is very simple with a good selection of sandwiches and salads. There are also some hearty fares like my super al dente orecchiette with lamb or my co-worker’s pasta al forno with smoked mozarella and sausage. A tuna special was deemed mediocre by another co-worker which was curious because I’ve only seen him eat fried chicken during lunch times. Their prix fixe was a good deal with a small bowl of soup, salad and a panini, but those who ordered the paninis alone all disliked the pasta dough chips served on the side. Dani provides a nice space for big parties, but its staff needs to loosen up to accommodate even those who do not order booze during the day and work a little harder for the 20% tip they automatically add to group checks.

Cafe Falai

265 Lafayette Street, off Prince
917/338.6207
$50 for two, BYOB for now, with tip
♥ ♥

I remember loving Falai when I visited two years ago. A panetteria has opened down the block since then, and now a cafe on the west side. Cafe Falai is BYOB and closes at 8pm while they wait for their liquor license. The waiter entertained me while I waited for my two dining companions. They were so late he lent me his cell phone so that I can play Boggle. He told me he had only been working there for three days, but as soon as my group showed up, it seemed it was his first stint as a waiter, ever.

The menu is not much different from the original Falai. Our beautiful bowl of caramelized onions came with a dot of yolk. Before we finished raving about how it looked, the waiter grabbed a spoon, stirred the yolk and scooped up the onions to distribute in our small bowls. He left and returned with a small pot of consommé and poured the broth in our bowls and then left again to take everything away. Our delicate onion soup looked abused. It looked like we were eating chunky tea, but the waiter obviously thought he was giving us extra love. Fortunately, he left us mostly to ourselves the rest of the night. (We tried to laugh with him when he burped while giving us our check.) The breaded and fried mozarella was incredibly light and the balsamic dressing over the frisé was exceptional. I was just a tad disappointed that it came with only five small golden beets. The pappardelle with mushrooms was good, served with buttered sauce and sage. The branzino was perfectly cooked. Its crisp skin gave way to the tender white meat. I loved that it soaked in soupy pesto with mini Brussel sprouts and grape tomatoes. The veal meatballs were less adventurous, however, and the octopus, I thought, was undersalted and too soft. Because chef Iacopo Falai was a pastry chef at Le Cirque 2000 back in the days, we didn’t want to skip the cafe’s dessert offerings. We ordered a citrus tart which I loved because of its gingery taste, but my companions preferred the light and flaky apple pastry. I would like to go back for their baked goods and cup of illy coffee the next time I visit. I just hope that the waiter is not there before dinner service.

Related post/s:
Iacopo Falai’s first restaurant

Il Buco

47 Bond Street between Lafayette and Bowery
212/533.1932
$180 for four people with a bottle of wine, without tip
♥

We wanted to eat at Il Buco ever since we walked by one night and took a peek inside. Candles were lit that made the ambiance romantic and rustic at the same time. We just knew that it would be a nice place to sit, eat and drink wine with good company. Four of us finally booked a table one cold, winter night to do exactly just that. We could only get a 6pm table with a week’s notice, so we took it. Unfortunately, we were seated right next to the entrance of the wine cellar. Cozy it wasn’t. It looked like they were conducting a field trip down the basement. Guests kept walking in and stepping back out and I kept interrupting our table’s conversation by pushing the door closed to keep the draft from coming in. Our waitress never made a move to transfer us to an unoccupied table even though the restaurant was not completely full before 8pm. We had to ask the bus boy for more bread and olive oil because our waitress kept forgetting us. But since the bus boy only came by to take our plates away, we never had enough.

The menu is Mediterranean, a cuisine that I can enjoy any time, with some Italian specialities. But nothing in the menu made my heart palpitate. The special of the night was braised oxtails on mashed potatoes which I make at home for less than $30. An appetizer portion of baby eels were ordered, only to be canceled when our waitress informed us that it was going to cost us $75.

We ended up ordering the octopus with Umbrian chickpeas and parsley, the bass with fresh pomegranate, lime, red chili and cilantro, the cod with fennel, lemon and red onion with mint salsa verde, the fennel-crusted sashimi-grade tuna and the beef carpaccio. The small plates were at least $12 each. They were all delicious but a little hard on the wallet. We also decided to order full plates of the pappardelle with black trumpet mushrooms and the gnocchi. The pasta servings were so small. I can’t imagine getting them as half orders.

Il Buco is like waking up startled in the middle of a beautiful dream.