On our first dinner visit here we were hoping to run into a few of the Italian tennis players after their matches at the US Tennis Open. OH WELL ! We didn’t see any tennis stars but the food, drinks, service and ambience were beyond sensational. Before we finished our 2 week vacation in New York, NY we knew we had to return here. On Wed, Sept 11th we decided to turn up cold turkey at 5.pm . . we couldn’t get a reservation. YEAH BABY ! The kind host told us we had a table until 7pm. At this point we had the entire beautiful dining room to ourselves . . but not for long. A fun server named Luca soon came by to help us. FIRST UP ! A really nice ice cold beer would be great !
I chose the same one as on our first visit. In the meantime our good mate Flavio the colorful food runner brought us a glass carafe of water and 2 glasses. Luca returned with my ice cold Five Boroughs Tiny Juice IPA in a lovely tall glass . . it tasted very refreshing. WHOO HOO ! And then Flavio brought us Complimentary Artisan Bread with dipping sauce . . many restaurants do not hand out free bread anymore. OH YEAH ! To kick things off we ordered 1 x Suppli Cacio Pepe ( fried rice balls with cheese and black pepper ) Appetizer. We tried the fried rice balls on our first visit . . totally delicious. Not to be confused with arancini which we also love. Our rustic Italian artisan bread tasted lovely.
ENTREES ! My wife ordered Lasagne Alla Bolognese ( typical lasagna bolognese style ) while I had to have the Pinsa Fichi e Prosciutto ( Roman flat bread with fresh mozzarella, Parma prosciutto and figs ) on the SPECIALS. WHOO HOO ! Out came our Fried Rice Balls appetizer courtesy of Flavio the polite food runner. TOO DELICIOUS FOR WORDS ! In fact we ordered 3 more . . one serve of each variety to take back to our apartment. Just after 6pm our entree meals hit the table. My wife loved her well made Lasagne Bolognese heaps but not quite as much as the unforgettable Baked Rigatoni on our first visit. THE BEST FLATBREAD EVER !
My Fig & Prosciutto Roman Flatbread totally nailed it . . brown and a bit crispy underneath but delicately bready on top with the prosciutto, figs & fresh mozzarella. When our server Luca checked on us again I ordered another beer . . this time a Montauk Easy Riser Belgian White. It came out pretty quick . . ice cold in a lovely tall glass and tasted very good. By now the beautiful dining room was virtually packed out. THERE’S TIME ! At 6.25pm we ordered desserts . . . 1 x Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla Gelato and 1 x Gelato ( pistachio-chocolate-vanilla ). I tried this Italian gelato trio on our first visit and it was as good as it gets. By this time the restaurant was completely packed out.
Our decadent looking desserts arrived promptly and disappeared almost as fast . . Made in Heaven ! We paid the bill by credit card and headed for the front door thanking Luca, Flavio and Gabriele along the way. The interesting looking dude behind the bar was Giovanni Bartocci ( the co-owner with his business partner Marco Ventura ). I told Giovanni we loved our 2 dinner visits to their fabulous restaurant. I HAD TO ASK ! Do you identify more with Roman or Italian . . the instant reply was Roman with some Italian. Giovanni was born in Rome. HOW GOOD ? As good if not better than any Italian restaurant we have dined in world wide !
