[Dave H]

Bruni's judgment is in: a rather harshly worded one-star. He ate considerably better than we did, which is what saves it from a Satisfactory. It's not clear whether Jesikka and I just ordered badly, or the food has improved over the past month (as rumored), or it's just wildly inconsistent (as it appears to me, and as Bruni hints).

What is clear is that he hate hate hates the decor, atmosphere, and concept. IMO justifiably so.

[oakapple]

Dave H, on Apr 24 2007, 08:40 PM, said:

Bruni's judgment is in: a rather harshly worded one-star. He ate considerably better than we did, which is what saves it from a Satisfactory. It's not clear whether Jesikka and I just ordered badly, or the food has improved over the past month (as rumored), or it's just wildly inconsistent (as it appears to me, and as Bruni hints).

What is clear is that he hate hate hates the decor, atmosphere, and concept. IMO justifiably so.

It was about the weakest one star that I can recall.

[H. du Bois]

Dave H, on Apr 24 2007, 11:40 PM, said:

It's not clear whether Jesikka and I just ordered badly, or the food has improved over the past month (as rumored), or it's just wildly inconsistent (as it appears to me, and as Bruni hints).

I think it's wildly inconsistent. The food and service were both very good the night I dined there, though clearly rare few others have had the same experience. And I'd never have fought my way through a scrum just in order to dine out, so again, the timing was good.

I'm not sure that one star is going to detract from its popularity much, though - this isn't a place people are battling to be at just for the food.

This post has been edited by H. du Bois: 25 April 2007 - 08:04 AM

[BanjoDan]

I happend to love this place. I ate once at a small cramped table and a few times at the bar which is much more fun. I never liked the food at pastis or schiller's and can't be bothered with Balthazar except for brunch, but I really liked the food at Morandi. Meatballs, Veal Chop, fried stuffed olives, and the pasta with lemon and cheese all delicious and keep me coming back.. plus they have a decent cheap bottle of Aglianico which always makes me happy. And it may be loud but it's fun, I can go for a million nice quiet dinners all over town but on a thursday friday or saturday night i want a little more than that with my dining experience before going out. to all the haters be damned.. best veal chop I've had in a long time.

[Nathan]

this place has a while to go before it's another Balthazar or Pastis. it may not be critic proof after all.

it was nearly dead at 11:00 last night (and Thursday is a weekend night!...it wasn't raining yet either)

[flinflon28]

Nathan, on Apr 27 2007, 06:46 AM, said:

this place has a while to go before it's another Balthazar or Pastis.  it may not be critic proof after all.

it was nearly dead at 11:00 last night (and Thursday is a weekend night!...it wasn't raining yet either)

Yesterday was a strange night though.

I visited two bars last night and both were nearly empty.

[Nathan]

hmm....the WV seemed quite busy last night.

the Waverly Inn was packed, with paparazzi parked outside (literally), EO was busy, Little Branch was busy, etc....

but Morandi was dead. I guarantee you that Balthazar, Pastis and Schiller's were full at eleven last night.

[weinoo]

Has anyone been since the departure of Jody Williams?

[jimk]

weinoo, on Aug 26 2008, 09:51 AM, said:

Has anyone been since the departure of Jody Williams?

I was there a couple of weeks ago and it was a mixed experience. Carciofi alla giudea were competent, burrata with heirloom tomatoes was outstanding but that's more about shopping than cooking. Pastas were great - perfectly al dente which is something you don't often find nowadays; a really nice cacio e pepe stands out in my mind, and I remember feeling like the pastas were generous portions and good value for the $. The major let-down was a pork special which the server had rather imprecisely described as "pork cooked with milk so that it's very tender." I asked if "cooked" meant braised, and if this was the milk-braised pork prep (a la Marcella Hazan) that Tony Liu did at August a few years ago and the waiter assured me yes, the same thing. Turns out the pork was roasted, not braised and appeared that the pan was degazed with milk to make a sauce but it certainly wasn't anything like tender - cooked medium to medium/well I'd say. I pointed out to the server that brased and roasted aren't the same thing and they offered to make me a new one or bring something else but we were running late for another event so I made the best of it. Pork was a huge portion but was priced somewhere closed to $30, which I think is a lot for a pork chop with no sides. We did have the potatoes alla nonna (or some such name) which were good - mashed with lots of pan drippings is what it seemed to be.

I never went under Williams so can't really compare before/after. It's close to our apartment but as good as the pastas were the service was so scatter-brained and the noise level in the room so deafening that I don't know that we'll be back all that often.

[sickchangeup]

Living up the block, and having been here many many times, I came to realize that I had in fact not returned since Tony Liu took over. I realized this when on a spur we decided we wanted Jody's meatball's, walked on over, took a seat and were handed menus. That's when it hit - oh yeah, it's a new chef!

This menu is HUGE in comparison. I had a mini-Shopsin's moment when handed the menu, only if Shopsins were in Italian. And apart from the big selling holdovers like the Foccacia Caprese, Fried Artichokes, Stuffed Olives, Taglietelle ala Bolognese and Cacio e Pepe, there is a lot of new food on the menu including most all of the specials.

In point of fact, we skipped our meatballs. Instead we went for the "Timbalo", a daily special which the server described (incorrectly) as a meatball pie. So I have the same issue as jimk with waiters being off the mark here and there - but in this case it turned out great. For $29 we got this MASSIVE dough covered penne/zitti pasta stuffed pie with a whole boiled egg or two here and there, a meatball or two, some sausage stuffed in there - but mostly delicious pasta, sauce and peas and a ton of it. We wound up taking 1/3 of it home, this thing could seriously feed a family.

I guess I'm officially excited after a very minimal sneak peak. Unfortunately the breakfast menu (I work from Morandi in the mornings a lot during the summer - free wifi) hasn't changed as much yet, nor has the lunch sandwich menu. But with the exception of the bisteca per due (aged porterhouse for two), which used to come with more rosemary potatoes than one could eat, but now comes with fried peppers from the looks of it, the changes appear to be for the better. If I had to describe the change in a sentence, I'd say it's less weird stuff (no risotto with blueberries anymore) more yummy looking stuff (grilled quail with pork sausage, polenta & concord grapes just caught my eye). Prices look to have been corrected a touch as well if I'm not mistaken.

Any others dined here recently?

[Sneakeater]

Timbalo is the dish from that movie Big Night, right?

I can't believe you got to have it.

[sickchangeup]

Sneakeater, on Nov 21 2008, 12:24 PM, said:

Timbalo is the dish from that movie Big Night, right?

I can't believe you got to have it.

Google shows the Big Night dish as "timpano", but google images of "timpano" look pretty much like what I ate (which Morandi calls timballo) - so I'm guessing yes! Just show up on a Wednesday, and it's yours too :-)

[jimk]

sickchangeup, on Nov 21 2008, 11:01 AM, said:

Living up the block, and having been here many many times, I came to realize that I had in fact not returned since Tony Liu took over.  I realized this when on a spur we decided we wanted Jody's meatball's, walked on over, took a seat and were handed menus.  That's when it hit - oh yeah, it's a new chef!

This menu is HUGE in comparison.  I had a mini-Shopsin's moment when handed the menu, only if Shopsins were in Italian.  And apart from the big selling holdovers like the Foccacia Caprese, Fried Artichokes, Stuffed Olives, Taglietelle ala Bolognese and Cacio e Pepe, there is a lot of new food on the menu including most all of the specials.

In point of fact, we skipped our meatballs.  Instead we went for the "Timbalo", a daily special which the server described (incorrectly) as a meatball pie.  So I have the same issue as jimk with waiters being off the mark here and there - but in this case it turned out great.  For $29 we got this MASSIVE dough covered penne/zitti pasta stuffed pie with a whole boiled egg or two here and there, a meatball or two, some sausage stuffed in there - but mostly delicious pasta, sauce and peas and a ton of it.  We wound up taking 1/3 of it home, this thing could seriously feed a family.

I guess I'm officially excited after a very minimal sneak peak.  Unfortunately the breakfast menu (I work from Morandi in the mornings a lot during the summer - free wifi) hasn't changed as much yet, nor has the lunch sandwich menu.  But with the exception of the bisteca per due (aged porterhouse for two), which used to come with more rosemary potatoes than one could eat, but now comes with fried peppers from the looks of it, the changes appear to be for the better.  If I had to describe the change in a sentence, I'd say it's less weird stuff (no risotto with blueberries anymore) more yummy looking stuff (grilled quail with pork sausage, polenta & concord grapes just caught my eye).  Prices look to have been corrected a touch as well if I'm not mistaken. 

Any others dined here recently?

Wow - thanks for the update. I was underwhelmed by the visit I described above but am ready to give it another shot - the Timballo sounds fantastic and appears to be their regular Wednesday special.