Volare Restaurant Visited 2/24/2018 4.5 Forks

Volare Restaurant  147 W 4th St, New York, NY 10012

This has got to be one of the most surprising restaurant discoveries for me in a while and I can't take any credit for it.  Will has been on a red sauce tear of NYC for a while and since this place is basically 5 mins from his and Aarti's apt, it's now become his version of Cheers - where everybody knows his name. In my almost 18 yrs of living in NYC, I have never seen this place before and for good reason.  The outside is so unassuming that it's very easy to walk right past it without even blinking an eye.  It's smack in the middle of the West Village but it reminds me more of a place that belongs in Williamsburg like Bamonte's (the old Italian part).  

It's incredibly old school and everyone in there looks like a regular.  It was jammed packed when we went on a Saturday night at 6:30pm.  The menu is a typical old school red sauce joint with your anti-pasti, insalate, pasta, pesce, and carne.  It's nothing fancy but everything is comfy and spot on.  We ordered a TON of food and I can't remember all of it, but we got several kinds of pastas (meat and veggie friendly kinds), caprese salad, and an ossobuco which has kind of become this thing that Will and I get when we do these types of over the top Italian meals.  The pasta dishes were super hearty and delicious.  What was great about them was that when you got to the bottom of the dishes you didn't see a big pile of oil - so it made me feel like we were kind of eating healthily?  The food feels homemade and very much like you're eating in someone's home.  The ossobuco (veal shank) was amazing - it fell right off the bone and I would highly recommend mixing each bite with the risotto.  I often feel incredibly guilty for eating veal but sometimes it's just so damn delicious.  At the end of the meal, they wheel over dessert and then gave us some after dinner drinks and that literally put me over the edge. 

The waiters there was so incredibly friendly and accommodating.  We kind of went off script and ordered things that were not really on the menu (like a penne vodka) but was easy enough to make in a place like this.  I'm not sure if it was because Will was a regular there but the wine pours were gigantic.  1 glass was pretty much like 3 glasses.  We left the meal feeling incredibly excited and ready to conquer our trip to Italy in the fall.  If you're looking for a really solid place that's no fuss and right in the heart of the Village, definitely put this on your list of places to visit.  Tell them Will sent you!  Total bill:  $80/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp  

Raviolo Visited 2/24/2018 2.5 Forks

Raviolo  57 7th Ave S, New York, NY 10014

Sorry, I realize it's been a while since I've updated the blog!  Lots of things going on but the good thing about taking a long break between visiting a restaurant and updating the blog is that I have a lot of time to really think about my meal.  Raviolo was the February stop on the monthly rabbit habit date Anuja, Amy and I have (visiting veggie/seafood friendly restaurants).  It seemed like a super cute idea - pasta tapas concept and most of it in a ravioli format.  My rating is probably a bit harsh but upon further reflection, it just wasn't a meal I really enjoyed or would go back to unfortunately. 

When I walked in, it reeked of cleaning fluid.  I realize they had just cleaned off the table which is good thing but the odor was quite strong and off putting.  The staff was super nice and explained the menu - it was a laminated menu where you use a dry erase marker to indicate your order.  As I mentioned, it's mostly small (2-4 pieces) of ravioli dishes, buns, bun-boloni and then main entrees of pasta where you can also mix and match.  We started with 2 orders of the cocktail gamberi ($12) and another veggie type of ravioli (it's escaping my mind now which one it was - the one big downside of writing a review a month later), the cacio e pepe bun-boloni ($10) and I got the white carbonara ($15) pasta entree and Amy and Anuja split the pasta combo of green pesto and the black vongole ($18).  We also got their version of an aperol spritz which was the total highlight of the meal because it came with these fun lit up ice cubes. 

When I hear the word "ravioli" I usually envision a square or circular pasta with a pocket sealed with filling.  So when I thought we were getting a shrimp ravioli I pictured a ravioli filled with shrimp in it.  I guess I should have read the description more closely because it did say it was a "cocktail" and it was essentially a giant piece of shrimp cocktail with pasta dough wrapped around the outside.  It made no sense and while the shrimp itself was tasty the pasta was too doughy and too chewy.  The other ravioli dish we got was a traditional ravioli dish and it was fine but since it's not served in any sauce or broth, it was kind of meh.  The bun-boloni was an Asian style white steamed bun shoved with cacio e pepe, pecorino cheese and black pepper.  To me, the only thing you should ever put into between two steam buns is pork belly.  The bun was dry and the concept of the dish was a miss for me.

As for the main pasta dishes, they were fine but not mind blowing.  My carbonara was served with penne pasta and topped with guanicale, ricotta, fried onions and an egg yolk.  As with any carbonara dish, it was very heavy and since it had meat in it, I was the only one eating it and I was definitely uncomfortably full at the end.  I'm not a huge fan of carbonara on penne, I prefer it with a bucatini or other long noodle type pasta.  As for the pasta itself, while I don't think it came from a box, it didn't really taste like some old grandma was hand making it in the back either.  It tasted like a dish I could have made at home.  I didn't try the other pasta combo but the comment Amy and Anuja made was that they wished that there was a divider or something so that the two pastas didn't end up mixing together.  At one point the pesto and black spaghetti were all mixing around together and that made it a bit unappetizing.

While the concept of this place is cute, the execution of it needs to be tightened up.  With so many wonderful and delicious Italian places in the city, it's kind of hard to justify paying $50 for this kind of meal when I know I can spend a little bit more but get a much more authentic experience elsewhere.  Total bill: $50/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

East Harbor Seafood Palace Visited 2/17/2018 3 Forks

East Harbor Seafood Palace  714 65th St., Brooklyn, NY 11220

Dim sum is one of my favorite foods so when it came time to celebrate Chinese New Year, Mabel and I thought it was only right to have some dim sum together.  We usually go to Golden Unicorn but we thought we'd be adventurous and try something new and different.  So we decided to haul our butt to Sunset Park in Brooklyn to give it a go.  Along with Flushing in Queens, Sunset Park has one of the largest population of Chinese people around NYC and you could really live here and never have to speak English if you want.  It's really a whole different world.  The only annoying thing is that it's far and a pain the ass to get to from the city.  It took Mabel and I over an hour to get there on the subway.

When we finally got to the restaurant it was complete mayhem, which I usually expect at most Chinese restaurants but this one took it to a whole other level.  We knew we came at a bad time (close to noon) so it was wall to wall of people and it was so confusing what was going on.  We ended up waiting over an hour to get seated and by that point we were about to pass out.  This place is a huge banquet type restaurant and it seems that you'll have better luck getting seated in larger parties instead of small parties.  When we finally sat down we were ready to order everything that came around.  While the carts were plentiful, many of them seemed to have the same things.  Like some dim sum places you've got to be aggressive and really flag them down if you want something.  Some of the wait staff was really nice but some were down right rude - even when we spoke to them in Chinese.  As for the food, it was totally fine and we were pretty much able to get all our favorite dishes.  As expected, some dishes better than others.  The dumplings were generally fresh and warm but others like the turnip cake was cold and unimpressive.

Overall it was like any other dim sum place that I've been to before and while the food was filling, it wasn't necessarily worth the hour long trek and hour long wait.  Maybe if I lived in the area and I could get there really early, I could see myself going there but for me, I'll stick with the usual suspects in Chinatown because at least I know it won't take 2 hours to have a meal there.  The one upside though is that the prices are cheaper here, which made the pain only slightly better.  Total bill:  $16.35/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp