My wife and I stopped in Tre for their weekend happy hour menu, which is a great deal and runs from 2-7pm.
We started with some cocktails, which were excellent. The espresso martini and aperol spritz were both well made.
We tried five items.
The fried calamari was dry and rubbery. Skip these.
The sautéed broccoli rabe was tasty, but at $13 it was too small of a portion size (this was from the regular menu, not the happy hour menu).
The fried artichokes were great. Nice crisp, good seasoning, tender.
I also liked the linguine al limone. For a discounted happy hour deal, this was a great buy. Lots of garlic though.
We also ordered the chicken milanese from the main menu. This was perfectly crisp, tender inside, pounded thin, and topped with a nice arugula and tomato salad.
Keep an eye out for the operating fee, which is a 4% charge added to your bill. Not sure why they don’t just raise prices instead. On the flip side, they also offer a cash discount.
Would definitely come back to try more stuff. Give this place a shot.
My wife and I popped in here because we heard good things. We started with some nice cocktails, and a beautiful bread basket with focaccia and basil-infused olive oil.
Then moved on to the roasted octopus and crispy artichokes.
Both of these were great, and the octopus came with a few pieces of crispy artichoke as well. We were glad that we ordered the artichoke side dish for some extra though. They were delicious! Also the cauliflower puree underneath the octopus was so flavorful. I could eat that like a dip all day!
In the middle course, we had the dinner special of truffle pappardelle with chicken milanese, as well as the fusili with red pesto and straciatella.
Both of these were expertly seasoned and beautifully plated. We really enjoyed these. The red pesto was a unique mix of walnuts and red pepper that I had never had before. The Milanese was fried super crisp and pounded super thin. Perfect.
For the main course, we had their crispy pork shoulder with fennel and arugula salad. At $22 this is an absolute steal.
The skin was perfectly crisp, covering a layer of deliciously sticky fat and tender, juicy braised pork. Amazing.
For dessert, we had their tiramisu. This was really nice as well.
We love this place, and we can’t wait to go back! We also noticed that they have some excellent buy-one get-one free deals on Uber Eats. Needless to say, we will definitely be going back and also ordering delivery.
I went to Sartiano’s with four of my law school buddies after a round or two of drinks at Zero Bond, so we were able to try a lot of stuff.
I apologize for the lack of quality images. I really just shot video here, so as to minimize my use of the light. All the pics below are screen grabs from my video.
The caviar cannoli were delicious bites of savory goodness. They’re pricey, but when you’re going big with a meal like Sartiano’s, you get these! As a matter of fact, these were on the house thanks to my friend being a regular here.
The steak tartare was one of the best I’ve had in a while. There were some crispy sunchokes on top that really made this dish pop!
The fried calamari was almost fried in like a tempura batter, and it came with fried slices of zucchini and squash. I really loved this. perfectly seasoned!
The baked clams are fantastic here. I highly recommend those as well. We grabbed two orders, that way everyone got a few. I actually forgot to mention these in the Ride & Review.
Even the Caesar salad was great. It’s served in layers; almost like a salad lasagna.
The tomahawk was pricey, but it was a solid 8/10 in terms of flavor. The aged flavor was mild, but they do dry-age meats on the premises. It was really nicely cooked (clearly grilled and not seared or broiled)), and adorned with delicious roasted garlic and herbs.
A real beauty.
The veal parm was excellent. This stole the show for us. It rivals Carbone, Ballato and all the other greats in the area. Perfectly crisp with some nice melty mozz and grated parm on tip.
We had some roasted carrots and smash-fried fingerling potatoes to go with the mains, but we also threw down on some pasta as well.
We even had some meatballs on the side, not realizing that we would be getting some more with the “Sunday Sauce.”
The “Sunday Sauce” has a serving of baked ziti (tubes arranged vertically in the dish for extra presentation points) along with a heaping bowl of tomato sauce with slow cooked short rib, sausage, and more meatballs within. Awesome.
We also tried the green cavatelli with Jonah crab, which was really nice and fresh. I wish I had the stomach space to eat more of this.
For dessert, we had some chocolate ice cream for my boring-ass friend Paul, and tiramisu. Both were great.
All in, this was a fantastic meal. I can definitely understand the hype for this place. If you can get a table, do it! Personally, I would love to go again if I could.
My wife and I came here with another foodie and social media influencer couple to try out some of this new restaurant’s menu. Aqua has both Italian and Japanese menus, so you can have a full-on omakase here, or you can dine a la carte and dig into some pasta or veal Milanese.
We selected eight items from this menu, and then had two versions of their tiramisu (one classic Italian, and one Japanese):
First off, they make some really nice cocktails, which is clutch since they have a gigantic bar (the whole space is pretty massive, actually).
We started with the mushroom and truffle arancini. These were delicious bites.
The lobster bisque pizzette was really unique. I’ve never had something like that. It makes for great table bread to share as a snack.
This red prawn carpaccio was absolutely incredible. This is a must order when you go here.
These little nuggets of fried rock shrimp were really tasty. They don’t look like much, but I was hooked. I could not stop popping them.
The oxtail and truffle mafalde was perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the oxtail was super tender and savory.
Here’s a shot of their 12-piece sashimi omakase, which has all of your favorites, salmon belly being my favorite.
This eight-piece roll had salmon and scallop, which was nice.
And finally, the yuzu shiso marinated lamb chops. These were awesome. After the red prawn carpaccio, this was probably my favorite item.
For dessert, we tried the classic tiramisu and the matcha/green team tiramisu. I think we all agreed that the classic version was better. I didn’t snap any photos of that, so you’ll just have to watch the video to see them!
I finally got over to Foul Witch, named for the strange character in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” (one of my all time favorite movies). I had heard good things about this place, as it’s a sister restaurant to the popular pizza joint Roberta’s.
Like Roberta’s, they offer an item called Fire & Ice. This is basically the same thing at Foul Witch, but instead of being toppings on a pizza, it is a bunch of deliciousness on a plate. Stracciatella cheese, fresh pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and a Calabrian chili paste spread.
Absolutely delicious, especially when stuffed into their sesame focaccia with cultured butter as a makeshift sandwich (I didn’t snap a pic of that mashup).
We also did a side of their Sorana beans with salsa verde, which ate like cannelini beans with an avocado mousse on top. Very nice.
In the middle, we housed two pastas and their Dutch Baby.
The Dutch Baby is a cross between a pop-over and Yorkshire pudding, topped with duck liver mousse and apple. As tasty as it was pretty.
The first pasta was turnip and poppyseed caramelle. This was nice, but the broth had a little bit of a burnt, bitter flavor (likely from the turnip). Otherwise very unique.
The second pasta was Pici al Peposo, which is like extra thick spaghetti served with a peppery meat, horseradish and Parmigiano cheese. We sort of identified the meat as short rib, but traditionally this dish is made with either stewed short rib or shank. This was really nice, although a bit heavy.
Finally, we finished with their wagyu chuck steak.
This was perfectly cooked, super tender, juicy, flavorful, well-seasoned and just over all delightful. 9/10. It was served with a Bearnaise sauce and various types of allium (onions, garlic, chives, shallots, leeks, etc).
We would have tried a dessert, but the charcoal grilling going on in the kitchen set off the smoke alarms, and it just became unbearable to stay any longer. FDNY showed up. Haha! In any case, I would definitely go back to try more things here.
This little Sicilian shop has some pretty tasty shit! My friend and I tried their potato pizza, their tomato garlic and anchovy pizza, their meat arancini, and their orange olive oil cake.
Everything was awesome. For me, the favorite was probably the potato pizza with the tomato slice close behind. These were in the Roman style for pizza, which I love to see done right like this.
They also sell some nice looking sandwiches, and great, difficult to find groceries like Castelvetrano olive spread and pistachio cream.
BEST SICILY BOTTEGA
87 Beaver St.
New York, NY 10005
