Bar Primi is brought to you by the same people of The Dutch and Locanda Verde which means that it comes from a pretty good lineage of popular and much loved restaurants. It occupies the space of what used to be Peels but honestly they didn't do much to change the space. Lav and I met up here early on a Friday night (around 6:30pm) and it was pretty empty and easy to get a seat. By the time we left around 8, it was definitely jam packed with people. They don't take reservations, so definitely get there early.
The menu here is a very manageable Italian line up of about 6 different kinds of appetizers, antipasti dishes, pastas and then 1-2 specials of the day. I was very appreciative of the fact that the price point for the pastas was fairly reasonable - all under $20, which is crazy that I even have to say that but in the world of $25-30 pasta dishes, I did notice that right away and was very pleased with that. We were both starving and based on the waiter's recommendation, we landed on the ricotta bruschetta ($8) and the rice balls ($7) to start and I got the bucatini ($18) and Lav got the linguini ($14). I was dying to get the meatballs since it was apparently stuffed with cheese, but I didn't think that I could finish it on my own so I didn't order it.
The ricotta bruschetta was served with honey drizzled on top and pieces of fig. It was delicious - I've always loved the combination of ricotta and honey and it reminded me very much of the other fabulous ricotta dish at Andrew Carminelli's other restaurant but it wasn't quite as good as that one. The rice balls were also fabulous, probably my favorite dish of the night. There were 4 fairly good sized pieces served with tomato mixed into rice mixture and then it came on a bed of basil pesto sauce. It was a very addictive dish and if the rice balls were this good, I can only imagine what the meatballs were like. Then we moved on to the pasta course. My bucatini came with a lamb ragu sauce and while the pasta and sauce were done well I wasn't wow'd over by the dish. The pasta was a smidge too al dente for me and the serving size was a bit on the smaller size (I guess that's why it's $18!). While it wasn't a bad pasta dish, I was bit underwhelmed by the whole experience given all the buzz around the place. Lav had also mentioned that her pasta that came with 4 cloves of garlic and breadcumbs was ok but not a wow dish. So I think we were both a bit let down by the overall pasta experience.
Luckily the restaurant did redeem itself a bit with dessert. We got the tiramisu ($7) and it was heavenly. Very light and fluffy - the piece looked huge but we quickly finished rather quickly. You could really taste the coffee flavor in the lady fingers and the mascarpone cheese was creamy and delicious. Lav had mentioned that it was better than some of the tiramisu dishes she had in Italy.
Overall, it wasn't a bad meal but the main dishes were just not as impressive as their pedigree lends. If you stick to a meal of a bunch of appetizers, antipasti and desserts, you'll most likely have a much more satisfying meal. Total bill with tip, tax and wine: $50/pp
Photo Credit: Yelp
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