This is a hard review to write because I really really wanted to fall head over heels in love with Lilia and I think I still can but my first experience definitely could have been improved upon. It's definitely got tons of buzz lately because of the 3 star NY Times review from Pete Wells and Missy Robbins is also an extremely well respected Italian chef who people were excited to see come back with her own shop.
In terms of the good, the space is lovely - spacious, bright, airey and in a part of Williamsburg that's not quite on the craziness of Bedford but still on the corner of hip and happening. It took me over a month to get a reservation but luckily I was able to get something on a Saturday night at 7pm. I would strongly recommend reservations otherwise you'll be waiting until the cows come home for a table. Unfortunately, even having a reservation doesn't guarantee you a seat at the time you wanted. When we got there, they told us that they were running behind and they would come find us in a bit. We waited about 25 minutes, for our table which actually didn't bother me too much but it was kind of an indication of things to come.
Lav and I were starving and everything on the menu sounded great. We went a bit crazy with the appetizers - cacio e peppe fritelle, housemade mozzarella, whole artichoke, and grilled ramps. For entrees, I don't care what you do, you must get pasta. I'm sure the fish and meats are delicious but you don't come to a restaurant like this without getting pasta. Lav got the Malfadini and I got the Pappardelle. It was surprising that they didn't serve bread before hand, so we had to actually order a side of bread, which if I wasn't hungry isn't a terrible idea because most people are trying to cut carbs out of their diet, but in this moment, it was kind of annoying.
The cacio e peppe fritelle were basically fritters of balled up cacio e peppe - it's a nice idea and it was well battered and fried (meaning that they weren't overly covered in breadcrumbs or super fried). I would have liked them to have been served with a marinara sauce or some other kind of dipping sauce to give it a bit of moisture. Unfortunately, only I could eat the housemade mozzarella because it had bottarga on it (fish roe) and while I love fish roe, I'm not really sure that I loved it on mozzarella - it kind of overpowered the dish. But the actual mozzarella was fantastic, especially with the delicious crusty garlic bread it was served on. The grilled ramps were also just ok - ramps went though this huge resurgence lately but these didn't really taste like much beyond the fact that they were some kind of grilled vegetable - it could have been any other grilled green. Finally the whole artichoke - I just didn't know how to eat it. I needed the waitress to give me a tutorial on how to maneuver around it. I just basically sucked on the leaves or in some cases, I ate the entire leaf - is that what's suppose to happen? The actual meat and leaves were covered in garlic, mint, parm and breadcrumbs - all lovely flavors but it made it really messy to eat. While I'm glad I tried it, I think I'll stick to just the heart part in my meals next time.
But you don't come to this restaurant for the appetizers, you're here for the pasta. Lav and I had a really hard time deciding which ones to get. The waitress said that the malfadini was the most popular, so we had to get that and they were taking the pappardelle off the menu soon to replace it with something else soon, so I felt like I had to try it before it was gone. The pappardelle was served with a veal bolognese porcini and nutmeg, which I was excited for because as most of you know, I love a good ragu and I love pappadelle pasta. Now I will say that the pasta itself was fantastic - you could tell that it was definitely homemade and made with a LOT of love. If I was reviewing simply on the quality of the pasta itself, I would give it 5 forks. Unfortunately what I didn't realize was that there wasn't any red sauce, it was just ground up ragu - which I just wasn't a huge fan of, plus the nutmeg flavoring was also a bit overpowering. If the pappardelle had a red sauce ragu, I probably would have inhaled the whole thing but I ended up only eating half of it. I tried the malfadini (which is a a frilly flat noodle) which was served with pink peppercorns and parm and again, with no sauce on it, so it just didn't really speak to me. It was very heavy on the peppercorn, which I wasn't a huge fan of. So sadly, neither of the pasta dishes were home runs for us. But the table next to us got the rigatoni which did have a red sauce it looked amazing, so I would definitely come back and try that.
We saved room for dessert and opted for the olive oil cake and a dark chocolate cake as well. I enjoyed the olive oil one more - especially the house made whipped cream on top. The chocolate one was way too chocolate-y for me.
While I'm sad to not give this place more forks, I am definitely open to coming back and trying different dishes. I can tell that the food is of high quality and made with love and attention, it's just that we probably didn't order all the right dishes. As for the service, our waitress was very nice but wasn't really attentive. It took forever to order our food and once we got it, we never really saw her again. But judging from the crowdedness of the room, it was clear that she was managing a LOT of tables, so I can't entirely fault her for it. I guess this is what happens when you run a restaurant that's fairly large but still trying to maintain a cozy Italian feel to it. Total bill: $97/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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