Little Owl isn't a new restaurant but due to it's tiny size and perfect West Village location, it's incredibly difficult to get a table here. Lav and I tried to go once and they quoted us 2 hours, so we left and this time, they quoted us 3 hours! WTF? But then the hostess gave us the wink wink nudge nudge that something may open up sooner and that we should stay close. We opted to grab a drink around the corner and an hour later we had a table. It's super cozy inside (maybe 8 tables max) and the decorations were quite festive due to the holiday time period, so it was just adorable meal. It's a great date place if you're looking for someplace in the 'hood.
The menu is new American and has a variety of appetizers, an entire vegetable side section and an entree section. Although there was a nice section full of vegetables, none of the entree sized dishes were vegetarian, so Lav had to piecemeal her dinner together. We started with the ricotta cavatelli but made without chicken broth, and Lav got a variety of vegetables (each $8): squash, brussels sprouts with homefries, and the polenta and I got the pork chop ($26) as it was highly recommended by the waitress. The ricotta cavatelli came out first and I took a few nibbles. I loved the melted ricotta on top and the cavatelli had a nice thick consistency but you could just tell that it was missing the chicken stock (they substituted it with water instead) - there was an element of salt/flavor that was missing from the dish. Next came our entrees. My pork chop was enormous and had a good sear on the outside. I know that pork is not cooked like meat where you can order it medium rare, but it was just a bit too cooked on the inside for me. But it was a very meaty dish and the flavor of it combined with the butter beans made for a very hearty entree. Lav mentioned that her veggies were good but not particularly mind blowing. If dinner had just ended here, I would have been a bit disappointed. But this is where dessert picked up the slack. Since it was the holidays, we decided to treat ourselves to both the pear crisp and the chocolate souffle. Oh my, this is really where The Little Owl excels. The pear crisp was excellent. It had a perfect crumble top and I could just tell that it was full of butter but who cares? The vanilla ice cream was the perfect top for it. As someone who isn't a huge fan of chocolate, I actually really enjoyed the chocolate souffle as well. It was more dark chocolate than milk and when you cut through the cake, out came this fantastic ooze of sweetness. If this is how all chocolate dish tastes, I might change my mind about hating chocolate.
All in all, it was a perfectly nice meal but definitely not worth the 2 or 3 hour wait that we were originally quoted. I would say it's worth waiting it out for maybe 30 minutes, but there are tons of other great restaurants in the West Village, that there's no need to spend your night waiting much longer. I will say that their brunch/lunch menu looks pretty delicious, so I would be open to going again for a different meal. Total bill: $70 with tax, tip, and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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