Scarpetta has been one of those restaurants for me that has always been around and I've heard good things but I've never had a super compelling reason to go. But this time, my good friend from LA was in town and in trying to rack my brain of where to go, for some reason Scarpetta popped into my head and surprisingly there was an 8pm slot on a Saturday.
Even though it was pretty easy to get a reservation, the places was unsurprisingly totally packed on Saturday night. 2 of my friends were about 10-15 minutes late and some restaurants will both not seat you but possibly even give your table away. Luckily here, they asked if Jenn and I wanted to sit at our table while we waited for our other two guests which I thought was very nice. Once we were all seated we took a look at the menu and we all commented on how nice and manageable the menu was. The menu also noted on the bottom that they had a vegetarian menu upon request. I didn't look at the vegetarian menu in detail but apparently it was very robust and had a lot of great sounding options. I love this fact because I've always had an issue for places that don't have at least 1-2 good veggie options or just think serving roasted vegetables is a valid option. Back to the ordering, we decided to get the creamy polenta ($19) and the mozzarella ($16) for the table. Jenn and split two different meat pastas: the duck and froie gras ravioli ($26) and the short rib and bone marrow angnolotti ($24) and my other two friends split the spaghetti ($24) and the tagliatelle ($25). After my trip back from Italy, I definitely have a new love and appreciation for handmade pasta but it still kind of gets to me to pay $20+ for pasta.
The polenta was served with a topping of truffled mushrooms and what looked like a broth/consume at the table. This dish came highly recommended and indeed it was delicious. True to its description, it was very creamy and honestly very heavy on the butter. I loved that the mushrooms gave it some earthy flavor to offset the sweet buttery goodness. Luckily it wasn't too big in size, otherwise I probably would have ended up consuming 2 sticks of butter that night. We thought we had been pretty clear that we were ordering the mozzarella but they forgot about it which was a bit disappointing. Strangely, at the same time and totally unrelated they brought us a plate of crispy shredded artichokes and herbs (compliments of the chef). It tasted like thin shoe string french fries and were nice and salty but I would have still preferred the mozzarella dish instead. I guess the waiter didn't hear us when we ordered it? But at least we didn't get charged for it and honestly by the end of the meal, we were so full that our stomachs didn't miss it either.
Our pastas came out and they were beautifully presented. I know that pasta at times sounds very simple and uninspiring, but the way they were showcased here, they definitely looked worth every penny they were charging for it. Similar to my ravioli dish at I Sodi, I was pleasantly surprised that there were so many pieces of ravioli here. They were smaller in size and very plentiful and beautifully presented with a drizzling of marsala reduction. The filling was stuffed with duck and froie gras and the froie gras flavor really came out a lot stronger than the duck (but of course, froie gras in general is a stronger flavor than duck). After a few bites, you can really start to feel full simply because the filling in the ravioli was so rich and decadent. After I ate my half of the ravioli, I switched to my half of the agnolotti pasta. Agnolotti pasta is similar to ravioli in that it's small pocket-like pasta that's stuffed with meat or vegetables. This one was stuffed with beef short rib and bone marrow, so again a very rich and decadent filling. Both of these pastas had a great fresh homemade taste to it and definitely tasted like it was made with precision and love in the kitchen. Although both pastas were great, I think I still prefer my pastas with a tomato base because I still really missed that element in both of the pastas. That being said, the spaghetti that came out looked simple (served with tomato and basil) but fantastic. I tried the tagliatelle (served with bitter greens, maitake mushrooms and aged goat cheese) and really enjoyed it as well.
Despite all this pasta, we still had room for dessert. We split the chocolate cake (served with salted caramel gelato and chocolate butterscotch) and the warm banana bread (served with butterscotch pudding and chocolate gelato). I am a huge fan of butterscotch in any form so both of these desserts were amazing. I preferred the banana bread, although I thought it was a bit heavy on the nuts and could have been a bit softer and fluffier.
Overall, this was a great dining experience. It was pretty typical "New York" night out with a high-end decor and very attentive service. We probably had about 4-5 different waiters/servers/bus boys who came around and helped to clear our table, take our orders and ask if needed anything. I did still think that it was a bit expensive for what it was but it's ok to splurge like this every once in a while, especially if you have a friend in town. Total bill: $82/pp with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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