Sauce is one of those places that I have passed a million times in the LES but it has somehow never topped my list of places to try even though it's by the same owners of Frank, Supper and Lil' Frankies - all very solid legacy Italian places in the East Village. I ended up here on a pouring Saturday night to celebrate Will's 40th birthday party with some friends, although I did notice that the overall crowd was definitely much younger than 40 (it's probably because of it's location).
I liked that we had a sort-of private space in the back room (it wasn't totally closed off but we were able to get a large table in the back corner) and that it was a prix-fixe family style meal complete with a 2 hour all-you-can drink beer and wine concept (game on!). The menu started off with garlic bread and roasted stuffed peppers with farro, mushroom and sage. I was trying to limit my intake of carbs, so I didn't try the garlic bread (I know, sacrilege!) but I had a bite of the stuff peppers and honestly, I'm not a huge fan of farro because I think it can be pretty bland. But it is a very healthy and filling grain dish, so I get why they added it here. Next we had a stacked salad which came with arugula, endive, radicchio, beefsteak tomatos and buffalo mozzarella. It was a pretty tasty salad but mostly because it was heavy dressed with lots and lots of lemon and olive oil. We then had 6 different main dishes to share: filette with handmade ricotta cavatelli, bolognese pappardelle, meatballs, egg poached in gravy with peas, broccoli rabe with toasted garlic and soft parmigiano polenta. We also got served something off menu of hot italian sausage which was a nice surprise. It was a lot of food and it was super overwhelming because they just brought all of it out at once and shoved the plates where ever they could find room on the table. It would have been nice if they could have paced the dishes out more but I think we were only allowed to stay for a few hours, so I get why they kind served everything at once. I went straight for the meatballs and they were quite good and very saucy which was great. I must have had at least 2 or 3 of them. Next I tried the bolognese pasta which is usually my go-to pasta in any Italian place if there's nothing else that speaks to me. It was fine but it reminded me of the type of pasta I probably could have made on my own at home - which has always been my gripe about mediocre Italian food in the city. I simply don't like paying for simple pasta dishes that anyone can cook up in their kitchen - it's gotta really wow me in order for me to want to pay good money for it. It was the same thing that i felt about the cavatelli pasta - there wasn't a wow factor and it needed a bit more seasoning. None of us were really sure what to make of the egg dish - I had never had a random egg dish with sauce and peas before and I wasn't really sure how to eat it. With all the carbs on the table, it was a nice change up to have the broccoli rabe which was super garlic-y and tasty. Overall, most of the pasta dishes were good but seemed closer to the kind of decent Italian food you can make on your own.
Since it was a birthday, we had to have dessert and this is where I thought Sauce redeemed itself a bit. The tiramisu was great - nice and sweet and as usual, always a crowd pleaser at dinner. There was also a heavy chocolate cake that I didn't really try because by this point, I was so stuffed that I couldn't try anymore things but it looked like a very rich heavy dark cake.
Overall, the sep up and overall idea of this family style prix-fixe dinner is a great one for large groups. It makes it easy to not have to decide what to order and there was definitely something for everyone at the table whether you are a meat lover or vegetarian. This place isn't on the level of a I Sodi or Perla but then again you're also paying a much bigger premium at those places and they have a much more up scale vibe to it. I would say go here if you're looking for a fun low key outing with friends (or just looking to mingle with a younger crowd) but don't go in expecting Babbo type food. Total bill: unknown since it was pre-arranged
Photo Credit: Yelp
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