Costata overall score: 94
NOTE: THIS JOINT IS NOW CLOSED!!! Very unfortunate…
Ever since this joint opened I’ve been itching to try it out. As an eye-talian WOP, I was intrigued by the idea of an Italian steak joint. After the great meal at Quality Italian, I figured this place would be up to snuff as well. We had a generous gift card to knock the bill down too. Check out the results:
Flavor: 10
I ordered the boneless rib eye, however when the entrees came out, they delivered me a bone-in strip. Doh! I was gearing up for a rough experience, so my wife and I started digging into her lamb chops to get started. The manager, Adele, came over to the table with the strip in hand and said, basically, that since it was already cooked, we could just have both. WHAT!?!??! I felt so terrible, not to mention I am trying to count calories on a new diet. But how could I resist? I accepted the gift of beef and started chowing on the strip while waiting for the rib eye. The flavor was incredible. I got halfway through the strip and had to hold myself back to save room for the rib eye. But when the rib eye came out, it was like next level shit. Perfectly cooked. And the lamb was pretty incredible too. I hold back from a full score of 10 here simply because there was some gristle type fat that was too rugged to eat, but for the most part the fat was very melty and jelly-ish, even on the edge of the strip, which really surprised me.
Check this beast out – I went back for a second time and we ordered the rib eye for two. This was an easy 10.
Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 10
You seriously can’t miss here. They have filet, strip and rib eye for one, but they also have porterhouse, rib eye and strip for two. Quality here is all prime and aged, so you are in good hands no matter what you choose to stuff down your esophagus.
Portion Size & Plating: 10
Portions are all sizable here. My wife and I sat at the bar in order to take advantage of some smaller sized items at a cheaper price (see below under bar and apps) and even those were a good size. So when you are ordering off the regular menu as opposed to the bar menu, you are getting king-sized shit. As for the cuts, the boneless rib eye is 18oz, the bone-in strip is 18oz, the boneless strip is 12oz, and the filet is 10oz. Then you have the big guns. Strip for two is 36oz, porterhouse for two is 40oz, and rib eye for two is 44oz. Even the lamb chops are 14oz. Big shit. Plating is nice – steaks come with a grilled lemon and some useless greens.
Price: 10
We had a gift card AND we took advantage of some happy hour pricing at the bar, so we did well. below is the bill before knocking off the gift card money. As you can see we ordered a lot of shit, and we were not charged for that mistaken bone-in strip.
William Price II
Bar: 10
This place has two bars: a small one near the entrance, just past the host station and stairway, and a larger one upstairs at the front of the dining room. Both are well stocked with interesting spirits and potions for concocting ass-kicking cocktails. We tried a bunch of stuff. Alex, the bartender downstairs, was really sociable and he mixed a great drink. Although it’s a small spot, I could definitely see myself hanging here after work for a drink and a bite – especially when the happy hour menu has so many great drinks and food items for half price. That, along with Alex, made me give the bar a full 10 points despite its small size.
Specials and Other Meats: 8
There was nothing on special/off the menu, but the menu did have veal, lamb and chicken by way of alterna-meats. The lamb was perfect by the way.
Apps, Sides & Desserts: 9
We tried LOTS of shit here due to the convenience of the bar menu. I’ll start with what we sampled at the bar.
First was half a dozen oysters for only $9 – all from the east coast. Three were from CT (naked cowboy) and the other three from RI (east beach blonde). Both delicious, though I preferred the naked cowboys from CT.
blondes on left
cowboys on right
Next was the trio of crudo for $12. We picked amberjack (delicate, but with a little kick of chili and shallot), fluke (a little tougher to chew, but clean/crisp, and topped with caviar), and the scallop (soft and buttery, with a great truffle puree beneath).
top – scallop
mid – fluke
bottom – jack
Then a steak tartare. Yes – this was only $11 on the bar menu. It’s like a full-sized app! It was diced a bit too large for my liking, as some pieces remained chewy, but it was packed with earthy flavor due to the mushroom cream at the bottom. This was served with a little plate of cheese chips as well.
At the table we tried an app sized portion of the garganelli pasta with speck and radicchio. It was creamy and savory – really nice. Slightly salty due to the speck, but I think they managed just fine.
Then an order of octopus with pork belly. The octopus was perfectly cooked, and the skinny end had a really great char across the suction cups that really gave it a nice flavor. However, the bed of orange rind relish underneath was too bitter for my liking.
On the side, we had the creamed spinach, of course. it was very creamy, but not overly heavy or salty. They topped it with some crispy onion too. Very nice.
For dessert, we tried a trio of sorbets: blood orange, grapefruit campari, and pear. Each tasted very much like the fruit, but a bit too bitter on the back end for the grapefruit.
On a second visit we dove into a nice romaine lettuce salad with crispy anchovies, very nicely dressed, and with shaved cheese on top:
We also had an app sized bowl of spaghetti with clams (Little Necks and razors) in a garlicky butter sauce:
On the side we tried the crispy artichokes. Very good, well cut so as not to include the woody bits of leaf, and the heart texture was just right. However, a dipping sauce would be a nice added touch for this.
Seafood Selection: 9
There’s a great deal of seafood on the menu. Caviar selections, many different crudos, five different kinds of oysters, sea bass, langostines, lobster, and some innovative apps as well. Something a little more manly would have rounded out the score here to a 10 – like maybe a swordfish steak done in a new/unique way.
Service: 10
Everyone here was incredible. Our waitress, Amber, was wonderful. I felt really bad when the wrong item came out to the table (strip instead of rib eye), and for a second I almost considered just sticking with the strip.. but I HAVE to try rib eye to rate a steakhouse fairly. When they said we could keep the strip anyway, I was blown away. What an incredible attitude to have towards customers! There was no way my wife and I were going to finish all that meat, so we ended up giving our leftovers to a hungry war veteran who was begging for FOOD, not money, on the subway. I figured it was only fair to give away what I did not pay for. The people at Costata, I’m sure, will be happy to know that the misfire of the strip ended up helping someone in need. When someone is asking for food, you KNOW they are not trying to scam. I hope she (the veteran) enjoys the wonderful meal we gave her. I’d say it was about 14oz-16oz of strip and rib eye, plus nearly a full sized side of creamed spinach. OH – I have to mention the table breads here too – they served rosemary flavored focaccia bread with a small dish of garlicky lard instead of butter – SWEET!
The second visit came with a nice little goodbye baggie of popcorn:
Ambiance: 8
They didn’t change the layout much from when this place was Fiamma. I think they could have benefited from throwing some booths in rather than just tables. It was very nice though, and they were playing great music (classic rock and oldies).
