Fine Dining in New York - in parts - Babbo
My wife and I spent the last week in New York. This was our first trip without our son - he's 2 1/2 now. We went to New York last year, but since he was with us, we didn't even attempt eating at nice restaurants. He spent the week with his grandparents, and we spent the week hoofing it around Manhattan. I made reservations for all of our dinners a month in advance, and even fought the concierge services to get in at Babbo.
Babbo was our first service. We both had high expectations for this service. We both watch Mario Batali on Food Network - Molto Mario, Mario Eats Italy, and Iron Chef America. He has multiple restaurants in New York, but Babbo is considered to be the pinnacle of his ventures, and ranked as the best Italian in New York City.
We'll start with the ambiance. It was nicely laid out, we ate upstairs, but we were put at a terrible table. If they weren't 100% full, we would have moved. During the service, my chair was bumped by the serving staff over 10 times, the back part of my chair was hit with a serving tray when I was leaning forward - if I was leaning back, it would have hit me in the arm. And the noise. Wow it was noisy. The music was a loud, so everyone SPOKE REALLY LOUD to be heard over it.
As for the food - we started with Babbo Culatello with Ramps and Pecorino. The Culatello is a cured pork that is imported for the restaurant. Culatello is mostly unknown here in the States - it is similar to proscuitto, but different. The cut comes from the same part of the pig. The cut that is used for Culatello is the 'heart' of the proscuitto. From there - everything else is different. The pork is cured differently, massaged, and formed into a pear shape. The end product is stronger in flavor, but creamier, and more refined. My only complaint with this dish - there should have been more. I love cured meats, and this was like butter. very very good.
The second course was pappardelle with Morels and Thyme. We could have ended the tasting menu here. This was spectacular. The aroma from the dish was incredible, the morels were even better. This was by far the highlight of the evening. Everything about this dish was good. I cleaned the plate and wanted more.
It was hit or miss for the rest of the evening. The next dish was Duck Tortelli with "Sugo Finto." For us, this was a spectacular miss. The pasta was undercooked, and the meatless meat sauce tasted like something you get out of a Stouffer's TV Dinner. It was just bad - tasting of tomato paste, and not much else.
Next was Pork Tender with Barlotto Verde and Caper Vinaigrette. The pork was perfectly seasoned, and the vinaigrette went very well with the pork. As for the green sauce - I've been doing some research. Barlotto Verde is supposed to be a green salsa type dish. We ended up with mashed lima beans. It did not go well together. A spicy middle would have blended quite well with the vinaigrette.
Next was the wife's least favorite dish. Coach Farm's finest with Fennel Honey. This is what my wife likes to call the Stinky Cheese course. I liked the cheese, and I liked the taste of the honey. They went well together, but the honey seemed poorly executed. There were whole fennel seeds in the honey, along with the fennel pollen. When the seeds were eaten - you could tell they were raw. They were incredibly hard to chew and unpleasant. When I eat a cheese course, I don't want to have to grind my teeth to get it down. I think powdered fennel, or strained honey would have mad this dish much better.
Now we started the dessert tastings. The first out was a "Ciambella de Mandorle con Frutta Corretta." This was very good. Light and fruity. The almond cake was excellent, and the fruit was light and cool. It was quite refreshing, and our favorite dessert.
Next was the Chocolate "Tartufino" - I cannot even remember this one.
Our service was beginning to get spotty at this point. We had been waiting five minutes between courses at the beginning, as the evening went on, the wait extended and extended. When the final dish came out we were a little surprised. I guess that could explain why it took them 20 minutes to come out with a dessert. They ran out. I got the Bananna, Walnut, and Olive oil Cake with Olive Oil Gelato, and my wife got something else. It looked like they piped out a mound of stuff and gave it to her. I've checked the menu, and it's not on there. Mine was good, she hated hers, the thought it might have turned.
We would have returned it, but we were both tired and wanted to get back to the hotel. This is when the waiting game started. The entire service we watched the little army of serving an support staff fly all over the room. We were in no imagination the last table there, but I think the table got overlooked because of it's proximity to the prep area. We waited a long time for our check, that was a little disappointing. I wonder how the bevy of tables fared after we left. The staff was ready to go home at 12:00, but they were seating people up to 11:00 at night.
Overall, I enjoyed the meal, but I honestly think I enjoyed Sensi more. If we go to New York again, Babbo will not be on my must list, but I would like to try another of his restaurants.
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You should check out Mario's Grilling Challenge. The winner gets to hang out with Mario and have a VIP weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway with Mario and tailgate with him and Rachael Ray! www.mariobatali.com