It's about time Dan Kluger got his own restaurant. The famed chef of ABC Kitchen and ABC Cocina finally opened his own place in the West Village to much fanfare. Unfortunately, it's located kind of on this terrible street in the city - W. 8th Street - the street I say where restaurants (and shops) go to die. It's just not in a very prominent or visible street despite being close to both the West and Greenwich Village. I don't know what it is with the location - maybe it's cursed? The only time I could get was a 5:30pm reservation on a Sunday, which turned out to be fine because I could still get home early enough to chill and relax before the work week starts.
The atmosphere was similar to ABC Kitchen but a bit dimmer and without all the ABC Carpet Store accents. The menu is seasonal and local with a slight focus on vegetables but there are still plenty of meat and fish dishes to choose from, especially in the wood grilled section. Our waiter was super nice but way overly attentive to the point where it was making me a little uncomfortable - it's like he would linger at our table for 1 or 2 minutes too long. But he did make several good recommendations such as the baked ricotta and the date pizza. We decided to go with his recommendation and started with the baked ricotta ($11), the grilled broccoli ($13), the whole wheat pasta ($16) and the data pizza ($17). We also got one additional vegetable dish but for the life of me I can't remember what it was...so clearly it wasn't that good!
The baked ricotta was served with roasted kabocha and grilled sourdough bread. It was quite tasty and sweet but then again any kind of baked cheese served with warm and toasty bread is always a winner in my book. Next we tried the grilled broccoli and to be honest, it was ok. It served with orange, kohlrabi and a mint pistachio dressing. It didn't have much of a wow factor and tasted just like how it was described - grilled broccoli which in it of itself is not that exciting. Luckily the entrees were a bit better. The whole wheat pasta was a simple pasta with spinach, parmesan, basil and chilies. It was literally something I could make at home but (note to self - steal this recipe) but despite that it was a solid pasta dish - just not something I would necessarily go out and pay $16 for.
Surprisingly the big winner of the night was the date pizza - the waiter was totally right about it. I was a bit skeptical because I'm not a huge fan of dates but there was just something about the combination of sweet dates and melted mozzarella, bacon and radicchio that really worked all together. It was a fantastic sweet and salty mixture that pleased the taste buds enormously. I guess it's kind of like a deconstructed date wrapped in bacon but put in a pizza format.
I was surprisingly stuffed at this point but we left some room for dessert and got the cookie box ($14). A cookie box is never my first choice but Lav was super interested in getting it and some of the cookies like the mini black and white ones were quite lovely.
I want to give a shout out on their cocktails - they are fantastic. Smooth, sweet and very very easy to drink. Very dangerous. Overall, it was a a perfectly fine experience but definitely not on par with either ABC Kitchen or ABC Cocina. It's not like the food sucked but it somehow was missing something that I can't put my finger on. I wouldn't discourage someone from checking this place out (the date pizza is amazing) but don't go expecting the same caliber of his other joints. Maybe it is the curse of being on W. 8th street. Total bill: $85/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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