Locanda Verde

A very long overdue apology for our lack of blogging – not only has the winter resulted in us cooking and eating in more, but the proximity of our Cinco de Mayo wedding means that a lot of our time is spent planning and looking forward to 5.5.12! Thanks to our pals Carly and Ilana, we booked a much needed meal out at Locanda Verde recently, and crossed one off the top of the list!

LV is great for so many occasions – a meal out with a group of friends, dinner with the parents, date night and even drinks at the bar.  It’s the kind of place that invites you in and makes you feel at home.  Do yourself a favor and sit in the back room - not only is there less traffic of people walking through, but the vibe is much better. 

We started out the night with some cocktails, naturally, and they have a great selection of wines and beers.  To kick the meal off, we ordered the Blue Crab crostini with jalapeno and tomato, as well as the Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with sea salt and herbs.

Any google or Yelp search for LV will have you reading people’s raves about the Sheep’s milk ricotta, and they’re pretty on-point.  Not only is the portion huge, but the soft and spreadable cheese is super fresh, which results in a simple yet amazing dish.  The crab crostini was very tasty, but didn’t feel very original or necessary.

Next up we shared a pasta, the Gigantone with Sunday night ragu and provolone picante.  LV makes their own pasta, and this dish was huge ribbons of fresh pasta with a tasty meat sauce.  It was good, but a little light on the meat sauce. 

The highlight of the meal for both of us was the Wood-Fired Pork Chop with Yukon gold potatoes, trumpet mushrooms and walnuts, which we also shared.  The chop was perfectly cooked and moist, and the accompaniments really complemented the pork well – the dish was fairly large and left us completely satisfied. 

And because we always need a little something sweet, we capped the meal off with the Chocolate Torta with hot fudge and hazelnut gelato – I mean, how can you go wrong there?

All in all, Locanda Verde left a great taste in our mouth, pun intended.  It was a solid, totally enjoyable meal and has a great atmosphere, so if you’re looking for your next dining experience, head on down to Tribeca!

L'Artusi is for Lovers

This past weekend, Eric and I hit up L'Artusi, which I had been wanting to try for a while now. We were lucky enough to get a 9 pm reservation, because it's definitely one of those places that's always packed. For a quieter, more intimate meal, try to be seated upstairs, where they have a wine room and less going on. We sat on the first floor in the back by the kitchen, where it was loud and crowded. However, even though I felt like I was in the middle of our neighbors' conversation, they couldn't distract me from the fact that their food rules.

We started out with the mushroom appetizer with fried egg, pancetta and ricotta salata. Each bite was full of flavor - maybe a little salty - but definitely one of the best mushroom dishes I've tasted. Complete flavortown. 

Mushrooms covered with a fried egg

Next up was the butter lettuce with lemon crema, gorgonzola, hazelnuts and olives. We both agreed that in our meal's setlist, this was the slow song that you need to catch a breather in between non-stop rock and roll jamming. Not a bad slow song - this dish was great. The lettuce was soft, the cheese was creamy and the hazelnuts added a nice crunch. This dish completely did it's part and did us well.


A heaping pile of butter lettuce

The ricotta ravioli with pecorino and black pepper came next and was recommended by our waitress because they make their ricotta in house. Perhaps aided by the buttery sauce, this pasta was deliciously rich and savory. I'm happy we decided to split everything because each dish was rich enough that you were fine having just half....well, maybe we could have each had a serving of this ravioli.

Our entree was the chicken, which was another recommendation by the waitress, after acknowledging, "I know it's chicken, but it's delicious." She was correct - they serve it in their own type of marsala sauce and every bit was tasty and savory - not dry and plain like chicken can be. This was the rocking set closer of our meal.

Encore: enter olive oil cake with a side of cappuccino gelato. This satisfied our sweet tooth and was a great capper to the evening.

We'll definitely be back here - it's a great place to go with a group and share plates. Or you may just want to go and get the ricotta ravioli for yourself. I know Eric does. http://lartusi.com/index.html