At first Charlie Bird was a hard one to figure out. First, the name of it doesn't really give a good idea of what kind of food to expect but upon further inspection of the menu it did seem to have more of an Italian slant. But when you walk in there the music was heavily focused on hip hop/rap which is an interesting soundtrack to an Italian restaurant in the Soho/West Village area. Secondly, when I walked in the host basically told me that there was no way I was getting a table that night without a reservation. Great, but I appreciated her honesty vs. telling me it's a 3 hour wait. So I sat down at the bar while I waited for Joaquin and Nancy. Luckily when all 3 of us where there, the hostess did say that we could sit at the bar and order dinner if we wanted to. It was freezing outside, so we figured we'd give it a shot.
The menu is divided up into pastas, small plates, vegetables and large plates. Per the recommendation of the bartender, we opted to split a few small plates, one pasta and one large dish. For small plates, we got the farro salad ($13) and the octopus ($17), for the pasta we got the rigatoni ($20), and for the large entree we got the roasted chicken ($29) plus a side of the brussels sprouts ($8). The farro salad and octopus came out first as appetizers. The farro salad was amazing - incredibly fresh, simple and clean tasting. It was served with pistachio, fresh mint and slices of parmigiano. It's totally a dish I would try to figure out how to make at home. It was a great palate cleanser and start to the meal. The octopus was served grilled with chickpeas, sage, and pieces of proscuitto The octopus was nicely grilled with just enough toughness without being overly chewy. Both dishes were a nice start to the meal. The pasta, chicken and brussels sprouts came out next as our main dishes. The pasta was served with a nice veal ragu. It was definitely a pretty hearty pasta, but my two complaints would be that there wasn't enough meat to the ragu and the pasta was just a smidge too al dente for me. But the true star of the night was the roasted chicken. I know what you are thinking. How can chicken be that good? But seriously, this chicken was one of the best chicken dishes I've had in a long time. It was the epitome of a perfectly moist chicken on the inside with a nice crispiness to the skin on the outside. It was sliced into manageable chunks which made it really easy to share among the table. It was simply fantastic and is what is carrying the high rating of this review. The brussels sprouts were fine but a bit overly cooked to the point where they shrank to a too small size.
We were all so full by the end our meal that we didn't have room for dessert. While the prices are a bit high (I mean we did pay almost $30 for what was probably less than half a chicken), the tastiness of the farro salad and chicken were worth the price and the annoying non-table situation. Definitely save yourself the headache of trying to wait it out for table and make yourself a reservation here. Total bill: $55/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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