Category Archives: Italian

Flash Deals, Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Union Square/Flatiron

Bocca

October 2, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

For less than $79, my wife and I scored this Groupon deal for Bocca, which gave us $120 to spend. In reality we probably paid about $68 for the Groupon, since we almost never buy them unless there is an additional discount code.

Anyway this Italian joint had some pretty interesting items on the menu. Here’s what we ordered:

Salmon Crudo

This shit was really fresh and clean. It was a great way to start this incredible meal.

Grilled Octopus Crostini with Chorizo, Kalamata Olives and Chic Peas

The octopus was perfectly cooked, and when I took a bite with a little bit of everything together, the flavors really exploded. Such an awesome Mediterranean dish.

Strozzapreti with Nduja

This was amazing. If you don’t know what nduja is, its a spicy, fatty and spreadable sausage product that lots of people eat with bread in southern Italy. Here, however, the geniuses rendered it down with tomatoes into a decadent sauce. Highly recommended.

Cacio e Pepe (Spaghetti alla Chitarra in Pepper and Cheese Sauce)

This was prepared table-side, and was absolutely delicious.

It’s a really simple dish, but sometimes that’s all you need for a winning food item. It’s no wonder this dish is all the rage in NYC.

Hanger Steak with Mushrooms

This fucker was awesome. Seriously. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, and the selection of wild mushrooms (I think Hen of the Woods and Porcini) really brought out the earthy flavors of the beef, which happened to be black angus from Creekstone Farm. 9/10.

Another thing worth mentioning is this great beer they serve.

This is right in my wheelhouse, since it’s an unfiltered, super bubbly Belgian farmhouse wheat beer.

BOCCA
39E 19th Street
New York, NY, 10003

Italian, Midtown West, Pizza, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Angelo’s Pizza

September 30, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Through all the years that I’ve lived and worked in midtown, I never once thought to venture into Angelo’s. It’s dumb/arrogant of me, but I always just assumed it was a tourist trap for the people going to see Letterman or Colbert next door. And being just a few streets up from Times Square and right on Broadway, I just assumed it was a shit show, like almost everything in Times Square. Boy, was I wrong.

While it may indeed get crowded at times due to the location, the pizza is definitely on point. They use a nice big coal-fired brick oven that heats up to 900 degrees.

The guys slinging the pizzas work with robot precision, and nearly every pie that comes out looks identical.

They’re not all square, obviously, and in fact these square pies are rolling out on the menu soon. The current pizza menu is quite diverse and full of really nice variations. The one that the guy was making above (at least in most of the pics) was a simple style pie with sauce, mozz, chunks of parm and basil. It was pretty good.

My friends at NYCFoodFOMO and BeFatBeHappy invited me here for an Instagram influencer event to sample and take pics of the food for promotional purposes.

The joint itself is category 1 in my pizza review taxonomy, which means that it’s a pie only place, with no sales by the slice. But it’s also a legit Italian restaurant as well with a fully stacked menu. With all that said, here’s what I tried:

There were two pizzas conceptualized by NYCFoodFOMO and BeFatBeHappy. One had sausage, roasted peppers and pepperoni, and the other had ricotta, garlic, bacon and red onions.

Here’s the first:

And the second:

Both were excellent, and the circular pies were more of a success than the square pies. I think if I had to choose one, the sausage, pepperoni and roasted peppers was the winner.

We also tried some pasta dishes. Three to be exact. The first was a nice and simple bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.

The meatballs were pretty good. Nothing can compare to mom’s, but these did get the job done.

Next up was a carbonara pasta dish with fettuccine and mushrooms.

Not bad! But it just needed a touch of salt. I guess the pancetta in the dish wasn’t as salty as expected.

Finally was a shrimp and pasta dish with added baked mozz on top.

Very nice. And then we moved on to dessert. Tiramisu, cheesecake and vanilla/chocolate mousse pie.

If you’re wondering who these folks are, they’re some of the crazy Instagram food people from the event. Check out the madness:

UPDATES 7/5/17 & 7/23/17

I finally made it back to try a classic style pie. Awesome.

It is now my go-to delivery pizzeria as well.

ANGELO’S PIZZA
1697 Broadway
New York, NY 10019

Filet Mignon, Fusion, Italian, Japanese, Midtown East, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Union Square/Flatiron

Natsumi Tapas

September 28, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

When I see something that’s marketed as Japanese-Italian fusion, the first thing that comes to my mind is Super Mario Brothers, one of the best video games ever released by Nintendo.

From http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net

But now, since having this meal, the next thing that comes to mind is Natsumi Tapas. Natsumi is the latest venture by Barbara Matsumara, and it focuses on small plates for grazing and larger plates for sharing. She consulted with Italian chef Andrea Tiberi and sushi chef Hiroyuki Nagao to create a dynamic menu that gets increasingly interesting the more you look at it. I was invited in for a press meal with Jay from The Dishelin Guide, so we got to taste a lot of stuff. Here’s what we had:

First, a nice pour of sake from this very cool bottle that houses the ice inside the center without touching the sake and thereby watering it down.

This place also mixes up some really nice cocktails too, by the way, like the EMW, which is made with shiso leaf, sake and gin.

We started with this filet mignon, which was served sliced, tataki style, with a ponzu, garlic and truffle sauce. The truffle and garlic really brought an awesome fusion flavor to an otherwise Japanese flavored dish. While this wasn’t a traditional “steak” in the sense of a steakhouse cut or portion size, I’m still going to score it since it was worth discussing. 8/10. I definitely recommend this dish.

Next up was the tuna tartare martini with avocado and caviar. The orange layer at the bottom definitely had some tobiko mixed in for a nice change-up in texture. Very smart. The mango and basil pesto sauce really made this pop with unorthodox and surprisingly good flavor combinations. Also recommended.

While the flatbread wasn’t exactly the pizza dough crust that I imagined (it was more like a puffy cracker), it did pack a lot of flavor. We tried the spicy tuna caviar flatbread. It wasn’t as much of a fusion as some of the others seemed to be, like the seared salmon flatbread, but it was really delicious nonetheless. If you’ve ever had “sushi pizza” before at some other restaurants, it is somewhat similar to that, and always a crowd-pleaser.

This bowl of green tea gnocchi with asparagus and capers in a light butter sauce was absolutely perfect. Definitely my favorite item of the night, by far. While it leaned a bit more on the Italian side, it was probably one of the better gnocchi dishes I’ve had in town. The green tea flavor was very mild, but the sauce was drinkable. I highly recommend this dish when you go here. Not only was it tasty, but it was also beautiful.

We finished our savory courses with the Squarano roll; seared tuna, seared salmon, kani, avocado, scallion, pepperoncini and green tea aioli. This was pretty tasty, and nicely nestled into the fusion realm with the addition of an aioli and pepperoncini from Italian cuisine. Really, you can’t go wrong with any of their special roll selections. They all looked great.

For dessert we tried the cheese cake tempura, which was nice and crispy outside, and soft like mashed potatoes inside. It had just the right amount of sweetness, and the berry compote on the plate was the perfect way to incorporate a sauce element.

Definitely give this place a shot. It just opened in March and the place was packed to the gills when we went on a Tuesday night at 7pm. The ambiance is comfortable, not too dim, not too bright, not too loud and very spacious, which is a welcome addition to the NYC Japanese restaurant world.

NATSUMI TAPAS
323 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10010

Burgers, Italian, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Pomodoro Rosso

July 17, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Oddly enough, my wife and I came here to try out some pasta on the recommendation of friends, but we ended up eating an American style brunch instead. We will definitely be back for a proper Italian meal, but I have to say, the American brunch was pretty good.

My wife went with the Pomodoro Sampler, which included French toast, smoked salmon with tomato and onion, fresh fruit and a poached egg on an English muffin (eggs benedict).

Everything that I tasted from her plate was pretty good. I actually went with the Pomodoro Burger, which was a cheddar cheeseburger topped with a fried egg, bacon and grilled red onions.

This thing was pretty great! I was pleasantly surprised. I’m typically not a cheddar guy when it comes to burgers. I prefer a hard, aged cheddar for eating, but for a burger I want something that melts really well. As such, that kind of cheddar isn’t the right fit for what I want from a burger. The particular cheddar used here was mild and nicely melted across the whole patty, though, so it worked. It was served on a great toasted bun that held up nicely to biting and squeezing. The bacon was crisp and just the right thickness, too.

This fuck came with a side of truffle oil and herb French fries too, which were cooked perfectly and really had a nice truffle aroma.

It was a hot fucking day outside too, so I cooled off with a beer, and my wife had a lychee and St. Germain bellini.

Oh, and I sucked down a bloody too.

We’re looking forward to another meal here!

POMODORO ROSSO
229 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10023

Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Pizza, Press Reviews, Queens, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Tutti Matti

June 15, 2016 Johnny Prime 1 Comment

Tutti Matti opened up in January. They’re slinging some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. Their pizza is Amalfi Coast style, which is cooked a little longer than Neopolitan style.

The crust is light, airy and crisp, yet it still has a doughy quality to it, so it isn’t stiff.

This crust makes for a great calzone too:

Our friends at The Creative Shake and Eaters Drinkers invited us here for a press meal, where we were able to sample a bunch of pizza as well as some of their regional Italian cuisine. Of course a really nice selection of Italian inspired cocktails were flowing.

This pasta dish is made with spicy nduja and tuna. You wouldn’t think the two go together well, but it was tasty.

I regret that I didn’t get a chance to sample the lasagna, but it looked and smelled delicious.

Fried seafood, very light and crisp, and served with a zucchini cream sauce that was incredible!

My favorite of the non-pizza items were these lamb chops. They were perfectly cooked, well seasoned and beautifully plated.

Last of the savory items was this chicken cutlet that was pounded flat, breaded, fried and topped with arugula, tomato and balsamic vinegar. Very simple and tasty – plus I thought it was kinda shaped like the Millennium Falcon.

For dessert, we all destroyed this delicious Nutella pizza:

This place has two chefs: a pizza chef, and a cuisine chef. I only spoke to the latter, Luigi, who served up the lamb that I loved so much. I was glad to have the opportunity to tell him just how awesome those chops were.

This place is just one stop into Long Island City on the 7 or E trains. I will definitely be back for more of that pizza and lamb in the future. In addition, they have the following weekly specials: 20% off lunch from noon to 3pm during the week; gnocchi night on Monday ($17 all you can eat); pizza night on Tuesday ($16 unlimited slices); ladies night on Wednesday (first glass of wine $13, rest of the night is free from 5pm to close); Thursday through Sunday $1 oysters 5pm to close; and Happy Hour all week from 4pm-7pm with $7 wine and $5 beer. Pretty amazing!

UPDATE 6/15/16

FINALLY got a chance to come back here and sample some more pizza and other dishes. The pizza still holds up as one of the best in town, easily. We tried four different pizzas:

Campagnola (tomato, prosciutto, arugula, parmesan)

Black truffle!!!

Radicchio and sausage.

Broccoli rabe and sausage.

I think that last one was my favorite, but it was really tough to choose a best of the four.

We also samples some pasta dishes. First was this buccatini. Very simple and nicely executed:

Next was linguine with clams. Stunning presentation and very nice, mild flavors. Not too heavy with the garlic and oil.

Last, baked gnocci. While these were heavy, they had a lot of flavor.

Of course I had to get the lamb chops again since I loved them so much last time.

Only this time we also threw some rib eye into the mix! This 32oz offering for two was only $64. Not bad, however I felt that it was a bit over cooked on the edges (it was a thick cut) and slightly under seasoned. It just needed a hit of salt and pepper. 6/10.

Since we came in with a pack of about 15 food bloggers, they threw in a piece of tiramisu on the house for us. Very nice, and with good coffee flavor!

TUTTI MATTI
47-30 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11101

Italian, Pizza, Press Reviews, Product Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Staten Island

Capizzi – Staten Island

May 26, 2016 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

Many of you are probably aware of my high praise for Capizzi, a pizza, light Italian fare and wine spot on 9th Avenue near the back side of the Port Authority in Hell’s Kitchen. The food is spectacular, and the service is stellar. I highly recommend it.

Well, the news here is that they recently opened a second location out on Staten Island, which has a much different menu. I figured I would take the opportunity to let my readers know about it, and highlight some of the items from that menu that owner Joe Calcagno pointed out to me.

Casarecce, their “Sicilian Mac & Cheese,” is homemade pasta with truffles, truffle oil, fresh burrata and roasted tomato – all cooked in their wood burning oven. $18 sounds like a steal for all of that high quality stuff.

Their red snapper is served with a tequila sauce (!!!) and comes with broccoli rabe and roasted potatoes for just $25.

For the lighter appetite, the $10 arugula salad with tomatoes, onions, green apples, cranberries, walnuts and goat cheese is simply tossed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

You’re probably noticing that the portion sizes are all big. Bigger isn’t always better at some places, but Capizzi uses insanely high quality ingredients, so bigger is most definitely better here.

The best part is that you can still get all those awesome pizzas and high-end Italian meats here, just like the Hell’s Kitchen location. The Staten Island joint just has a bigger, more diverse menu.

All the pastas, raviolis, deserts, etc. are made in-house, fresh from scratch, every day. The genuine wood-burning oven (built by owner Joe Calcagno himself) is used to create some of the finest oven-roasted meat and fish dishes, along with those amazing pizzas that are reminiscent of old world Italy. Capizzi uses local fresh fish, produce and imports, with many of the ingredients arriving from Sicily on a weekly basis.

Joe also developed his own olive oil and started a company called Bel Evo, which is produces his all natural and chemical free olive oil, which is unlike many mass-produced olive oils being sold out there.

Bel Evo is a blend of high quality extra virgin olive oils and vegetable oils with a great, bold olive taste, with a deep green color and a thick luxurious consistency that makes it a great option for all chefs and restaurateurs. It fits nicely with salads, pastas and pizzas, and with its high smoke point, it’s ideal for sauteing in a pan.

As a little boy, Calcagno’s grandmother introduced him to the freshest and finest Italian food available, when accompanying her on her rounds of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Together they visited the best shops for freshly butchered chicken, sausage, just-baked bread, pastries, vegetables, ravioli and everything else needed for a traditional Italian Sunday dinner (God, how I miss those). He also helped out in the family garden, growing tomatoes, eggplant and peppers to be canned, and wrapping fig trees for the winter (a feat of willpower, patience and strength).

Today Joe owns a few of his own Italian restaurants, keeping his family’s tradition alive. Capizzi, the restaurants’ namesake, is a small town in Sicily (a province of Mesina) where Joe’s parents and grandparents grew up. His restaurants are a tribute to them and to a time when things were simple, with fresh-made meals that were constructed with a sense of pride.

CAPIZZI
4126 Hylan Blvd
Staten Island, NY 10308

Italian, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Parm

May 21, 2016 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

My wife and I stopped in here on a Friday night for a quick meal at the bar. We heard great things but never had a chance to try before.

We ordered three items: meatballs, fried calamari with shishito peppers, and the Randy Levine sandwich, which came with fries.

First, let’s start with the weirdly named item: the Randy Levine. It’s a sandwich made of pork belly, plum sauce, Chinese mustard, half-sour pickles and garlic bread. It’s named after something that the president of the Yankees had once eaten in the Catskills.

Unfortunately the “slow cooked” pork belly was a bit too chewy. I attribute that to fat content that was not cooked long enough at low temperatures to get good and soft. Also the glaze on it tasted a bit bitter and burnt. Bummer.

The fries that came with it, however, were excellent. They’re called “Italian fries” because they’re tossed with herbs and parmesan cheese, I suspect. Nicely cooked and crisp, golden brown.

The meatballs were great, and I’m a stickler for these fucks. Nothing beats mom’s meatballs. Since these came off as the soft, long-cooked stewed kind, I did find it odd that the center looked medium rare. That had me concerned about whether they used veal or pork in the mix. In any case, no tummy aches from raw meat, and the flavors were great – even the red sauce. It was light and flavorful. Still though: the best way to make a meatball is to fry them in a pan first, get a crispy coating on the outside that locks in the juices, and then slow cook in the sauce on low for a while.

The star of the meal for my wife (for me it was the meatballs) was the fried calamari with shishito peppers. They had a great crispy crust, a good ratio of rings to tentacles, and the peppers offered a great pop of flavor to mix things up.

All in the bill came to $85 with tax and tip, which also included a beer and a glass of wine. A bit pricey, but at least three of the four items we ate were tasty.

PARM
235 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10023

Italian, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Pizza, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Pasquale Jones

May 4, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The Charlie Bird restaurant team recently opened this joint, and since opening it has gotten a lot of hype and attention from the food fanatic community. Namely, for the pizza and the pasta.

My wife and I came here with a crew of other food instagrammers so that we could try a lot of stuff and snap a bunch of pretty pictures.

The menu isn’t too extensive, which I liked. It listed a bunch of eye catching stuff that I wanted to try. I was also happy to see escarole make an appearance here in the greens section (though I didn’t get to try it out).

We tried three starters: pane carasau, cuttlefish and sugar snap peas. All were good, but slightly small in terms of portion size for the price point. While this is a “no tipping” restaurant and one should expect higher pricing, I felt that they went a bit too far. Based on my accounting of things, I’d say they are charging about 40-50% more per item. If you figure a 20% tip into the math, then you’re still overpaying by 20-30%, depending on the particular item in question. So while the idea of a no tipping restaurant may seem great, the real loser is the customer, who can no longer adjust their tip downward for low food quality or poor service. Our waiter was kind of a dick, and I wasn’t super impressed with the food either. As such, I felt like I over-paid for several aspects of the meal.

The pane carasau is essentially what you might get for free in a bread basket at a high end Italian joint. It was really just thin, crispy bread chips with a small dollop of delicious, warm honey and black pepper ricotta. $9.

The cuttlefish was steep at $18 for this plate:

The pickled peppers on top were a nice hit of heat, and it was cooked nicely in terms of texture, with only a slight bit of it being, perhaps, a bit overcooked and chewy. It tasted clean, though, and the charcoal grilling method added a nice earthy ash flavor to it.

The snap pea dish with watercress and cream was probably the best of the three, but, again, extremely overpriced at $17.

The peas carried a nice sweetness, but I was hoping for more cream.

Now for the pizza (category 1: full pies only, no slices available). We tried two pies: little neck clam and the special pizza of the day, which was a morel mushroom and cheese pie. The clam pie had good flavor, but it felt a little sparse on the actual clams and toppings. That means the diner feels ripped off when paying $24 for six small slices. That’s a hell of a profit margin when you think about how cheap it is to make this shit!

The morel pizza could have used more toppings a bit closer to the edge of the crust. That wasted real estate also translates to the feeling of being ripped off when the bill comes. This was, however, the better of the two pies, in my opinion. The morels had a meaty quality to them, and a good amount of earthiness.

On the pasta angle, we went with the baby goat pappardelle. This was a delicious dish. The meat was very tender, and the pasta was well dressed with sauce. The texture of the pasta was just right. While the portion size felt a little bit small for $23, I didn’t mind as much because it was top notch quality.

For the meats, we tried two dishes: pork shank for two, and dry aged rib eye for two. Let’s start with the pork.

This was delicious. While a bit small for two, the price of $48 wasn’t too bad. Well, I mean, when you compare it to the outstanding crackling pork shank with firecracker apple sauce at Maloney & Porcelli, which only costs $36 and can feed two people with extra to bring home, then, yeah, it’s way overpriced here. But given all else on the menu, I felt this was probably the best bargain. The flavors were outstanding and it had hints of sausage spice from the fennel and rosemary. This is a must-order if you decide to come here.

You can pass on the rib eye, however. It definitely delivered on the dry-aged flavor, but it was very small for two people to share at $125. If I had to guess, I’d say this was about 22oz on the bone. Maybe 24oz. For that size steak at a steakhouse, you pay between $50 and $60. So here, I would have expected to pay about $75 to account for the tip being included. At $125, we are looking at a massive fucking mark-up.

Contrast this with the best rib eye in Manhattan over at Osteria Morini, just around the corner, which offers a steak that’s more than twice the size of this thing at 52oz, with 120 days of dry-aging flavor, and accompanied by two generously-sized sides for just $145. Uhh… no brainer. Anyway, this steak had a bit of chew to it. Not as tender as we had hoped and expected from dry-aging.

It was cooked perfectly to medium rare, and it had a great crust on the outside. The crispy meat surrounding the bone was excellent as well. However there was no rib cap to speak of. Perhaps it was butchered off for some other use. 7/10.

The steak came with this nice roasted onion:

And something came with this side of citrus-dressed arugula:

But the highlight of the night, aside from the pork shank, was seeing Michael J. Fox and Dennis Leary in the dining room, eating together with their wives.

To sum up: skip this place unless you are focused on the pork shank. If that’s not your thing, then stick with the pizza and pasta, but I, personally, would still go elsewhere for those even though both were pretty tasty.

PASQUALE JONES
187 Mulberry St
New York, NY 10012

Burgers, Flash Deals, Full Points for Flavor, Italian, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Parms, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Osteria Morini

April 7, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Morini has a new burger and I tried this strip steak too. BOTH INCREDIBLE!

My wife was recently browsing around the Instagram foodporn landscape when she came across this image of a massive rib eye:

osteria morini — Photo Credit: Osteria Morini: @OsteriaMorini on Instagram

I was immediately intrigued when she shared it with me, but I kind of just put it on the mental list of places that I needed to try. Like any fool who is just looking at photos and not actually READING captions, I missed the integral part of what was going on and why my thoughtful wife sent it to me:

“BIG news. Literally. Tonight only we are serving 120 day dry aged Tomahawk Steak. It’s on a first come basis and there are only 7, so call to reserve yours now.”

120 fucking days?!?? Wow. So a few days go by and I get this frantic text from my wife: “GET YOUR CAMERA AND MEET ME AT OSTERIA MORINI TONIGHT AT 6PM!”

I responded. “Okay. Why, what’s going on?” Then she proceeded to explain to me the details of what I had glanced over a few days earlier. She’s a very patient person. I do this often, apparently. But my mouth dropped. She had secured us one of the seven 52oz, 120-day dry-aged Pat Lafrieda/Creekstone Farms rib eyes just a week or two in advance of our 7-year wedding anniversary. They only offer them on the first Wednesday of every month, so scheduling is limited. Anyway, I ran home and got my camera, because we were about to celebrate with the best steak we’d ever eaten.

The steak is not trimmed of any excess fat, and the bone is left with all the meat still attached prior to cooking, as you can see in the Instagram photo above. This is ideal when dry-aging, because eventually you have to trim off the outer bark and you inevitably lose some meat when that happens. Better that it be fat and gristle than your spinalis dorsi. Even still, this particular cut is still left with tons of surrounding meat and tenderized fat. Ours came out to the table pre-sliced, beautifully plated and ready for gorging:

Everything is edible on this. Even the fat breaks down into a really delicious beef jelly after that much time aging.

The cap was truly something to behold. Packed with tons of flavor and so fucking tender. As for the eye (longissimus dorsi), just take a look at this perfectly cooked masterpiece of a slice:

I half expected something so funky and nutty that it would almost be unrecognizable as steak, and more akin to blue cheese. But it was mild and pleasant, not so robust that it became odd tasting, like what can happen with some long aging processes. This was just right. I was smiling the entire time. This is the best steak I’ve ever eaten. 10/10, and still a 10/10 on a second visit years later.

But let’s not brush aside the other great Italian cuisine going on here at Osteria Morini. The bar has a great selection of Italian-inspired cocktails that are really unique and interesting.

The atmosphere is home-ish and comfortable. It’s warm and inviting, with lots of wood tones.

By 8:30pm the lights had dimmed significantly and the place was wall-to-wall jammed. The food is so great, it is no wonder why. But when you take the stellar service into consideration, a packed house becomes a no-brainer. GM Phillip Buttacavoli made us feel very much at home, and all employees from servers, to kitchen staff, to bartenders were really helpful, pleasant and nice.

The foccacia table bread was warm, toasty and nicely seasoned.

We started with the stracci pasta: long, wide ribbons of egg-forward pasta with a braised wild mushroom sauce and rosemary oil.

Perfectly cooked, and delicious through and through. The other pasta dishes all sounded great too. I will definitely be back to survey more of those selections.

The steak, which was a very fair $145, came with our choice of two sides as well. We went with the parmigiano roasted asparagus and the parmigiano fingerling potatoes.

The asparagus reminded me of the kind my mother used to make. Very simply cooked but with parmigiano over the top to add in some salt and flavor. And the potatoes were perfectly crunchy and nicely seasoned all around.

For dessert, we tried the gianduja budino: a baked chocolate and hazelnut custard with candied hazelnuts, brown butter and salted chocolate cake crumbles.

I loved it. It had just the right amount of sweet and savory to strike a great balance. They even gave us some complimentary glasses of saffron and cardamom amaro to go with the dessert.

We ended up using a great Gilt City deal on this meal. My wife paid something like $145 for $200 worth of credit to apply to the bill at pretty much any Altamarea Group restaurant (except for Marea). That left us with a little bit to cover at the end.

What a fantastic meal. I can’t wait to go back!

UPDATE 8/1/18

Had a bunch of pasta dishes, which were all excellent:

Octopus was really tender, and had a nice char on the outside.

Incredible “White Label Burger.” Custom Pat LaFrieda beef blend with tomato, speck aioli, and fontina cheese with sides of parmesan and parsley onion rings and fonduta.

And crispy breaded veal wrapped in prosciutto and covered with truffle cream sauce.

OSTERIA MORINI
218 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012

Italian, Pizza, Press Reviews, Queens, Restaurant Reviews

Via Vai

April 3, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Located right at the end of the N/Q in Astoria is an amazing Italian joint called Via Vai (translation: Coming and Going).

I was invited here for a free press dinner, but I can tell you honestly that this is some of the best Italian food around – especially the pizza. The flavors are not hidden with grated cheese or pepper on top at this place. You’re dealing with naked and natural dishes made from top quality ingredients. Everything comes to the table already nicely seasoned, and with great cooking technique there is no need for extra grated cheese or cracked pepper.

The first thing I noticed was that the staff can all speak Italian. In fact both people we met were from Italy. Valentina was from Genoa, and Manuel was from Rome. The crowd was good too; a full house by 7:30pm. Lots of neighborhood regulars were coming in, and the staff was eager to greet them. They even waved to people walking by on the streets – more neighborhood regulars that they know by name and sight. In fact the people next to us had clearly been there before, based on the conversation I overheard. They also spoke constantly about how great their pasta, shrimp and grilled veggies were. It seems like they had a great meal just like we did.

We started with some drinks: a Picus red wine, which was a nice blend of sangiovese and montepulciano. Very smooth. We also had a Staten Island hefeweizen from Flagship. It was the filtered wheat style: good flavor.

The first thing that our lovely waitress Valentina brought to us was this plate of warm flatbread foccacia, which was like a pizza crust that was ever-so-lightly salted. It was served with olive oil that had a garlic clove and a rosemary sprig in it. Light. Perfect. I could eat this shit all day.

Next up was a pizza, fresh from the brick oven:

While I’m more of a traditional margherita pizza guy, this shit was so fucking good that I could see myself having this shit at least two or three times a week. A light, airy dough is made in house and allowed to rise for 48 hours. It gets crispy, soft, fluffy and absolutely perfect in terms of texture. This particular pie was topped with a fig marmalade, prosciutto, gorgonzola, truffle oil and arugula. This was Valentina’s favorite pizza on the menu, and Manuel told us that this is how he used to eat pizza in Rome.

Next up was polpette (meatballs). The sauce was chunky and fresh, nicely seasoned. The balls were very soft, and made from all beef, which I like. Lots of times the pork, veal and beef mixtures can get too dense. I tend to be a picky meatball guy and I really liked these. I still like my mom’s better because she fries them in a pan first to give them a crispy crust before plopping them in the sauce – so you get crispy outside and soft inside.

Then we got to try this really interesting gnocchi special. The purple color is from the beet and ricotta based pasta dough (all pasta is made fresh in house). The sauces on top were twofold: parmesan fondue porcini mushroom. The dish was then finished with some truffle oil and crushed hazelnuts. This was unique and very different, and stunningly gorgeous to see in person. They were like pasta bubble gum balls. I didn’t really taste any beet, but the flavor was really good.

Last, we had some kickass desserts. The absolute best panna cotta I’ve ever had. It was insane. Realllllly smooth and creamy consistency. The texture was flawless. Not overcooked at all. It was like creme brulee but not as eggy, not too sweet.

Last was tiramisu. This was super light and whipped, with cocoa sprinkled on top. There were thin layers of cake between the ricotta, and there was just a light hint of coffee flavor, which I appreciated (I’m not into heavy coffee flavors in dessert).

Clean bathroom too – that is always important!

UPDATE 4/3/16

My wife and I came back here to try out their brunch/lunch options. They offer a great deal where you get two entrees/items and a dessert for $28. This is probably enough to split between two people, but my wife and I each did our own to maximize the items we wanted to try out.

Our “starters” were a spinach and egg pizza, and a spinach and asparagus crepe. The pizza was great, once again. The egg really brought home the breakfast feel, and Manuel even drizzled some truffle oil over the top to give it an earthy punch.

The crepe was light and fluffy, and thicker than one might expect when hearing the word “crepe.” It was somewhere between an omelette and a crepe, I would say. It was covered with a light tomato sauce and filled with cheese, spinach and asparagus. Beautiful to look at, and even better to eat. This was a perfect brunch item.

We tried two pasta dishes for the “entrees.” First was this bucatini carbonara. Bucatini, if you don’t know, is a thick spaghetti that has a hole through the center, like a straw. The sauce was nice and creamy without being too heavy. The portion size was great for the price, and the onion, pancetta and seasonings were all top notch.

The other pasta dish was a rigatoni alla grecia, which was similar to the carbonara but without the creaminess. This ate much lighter, but both dishes contained perfectly cooked pasta that was just the right amount of al dente.

By then we were full, so we brought some of the pasta home with us, but we couldn’t pass up on the dessert. We shared the panna cotta, which we knew that we loved from our earlier visit. I had forgotten how smooth and creamy this was. Just perfect. This time the plating was a bit nicer too, with some orange slices and pistachios.