Aaron T

I had dinner at Fiamma last night and it was excellent. I think it is one of the best new restaurants that I have been to in a while. I was not sure what to expect considering that this is a Steve Hanson restaurant, but I was more than pleasantly suprised by my delicious meal. My only minor complaint was the olive puree that they served instead of butter that several posters commented on above. We sat upstairs and I thought the room looked great. The lighting was nicely done and the chairs were interesting, having armrests on only one side. The ceiling was also very high, which made the room (which is somewhat narrow) seem larger. The mirrors on the wall at head height (while seated) also open up the restaurant. The service was good, professional without being stuffy or overly informal. The restaurant had a smart-casual vibe to it. The menu is divided into 3 sections - apps, pastas, and meats & fishes. There are several choices in each section, but not so many, which I hope reflects a sound editing process. We started by sharing a pasta - ricotta cheese tortelli with asparagus tips, basil oil, tomatos and pecorino cheese shaved tableside. Shaving the cheese tableside could have come across as too precious, but here I thought it worked. This was the best dish we had - simply wonderful - apparently they make all of their pastas in house. For mains, I had the seared big eye tuna which had some herbs on it and was alongside a pile of chopped cooked zucchini and eggplant and some grapes that were yellow and seemed halfway between raisins and grapes. The tuna tasted fresh and had a light sauce. I am not a huge eggplant fan so I can't vouch for those, but the yellow raisin things were also good. The other entree was a special, a grilled red snapper which came with some veggies and some home made potato chips (although the waiter had described them as roasted fingerling potatos, which they weren't). Both fish dishes were quite tasty. For dessert we were pretty full but couldn't decide on 1 to split so we got 2. I picked out the hazelnut chocolate torte that another eGulletteer enjoyed and our other dessert was roasted figs and almond cake. I thought the hazelnut chocolate torte was very rich, but I ate every bite. Each dessert had 2 components. They were both plated very nicely. There was a ribbon of dark chocolate seperating the hazelnut torte from the gelato. The figs were in one pile and the almond cake was next to it. The almond cake complemented the figs nicely. Finally came some petit fours and with the check the waiter brought 2 small boxes of chocolate, a gift from the pastry chef, Elizabeth Katz. The waiter made sure to mention her name a couple of times, which I thought was nice as sometimes the pastry chefs do not get their due. I would definately go back. It was all around good service, good food, great atmosphere. I would request to sit on the 2nd floor as I thought it looked better than the 1st floor, which looked fine too. I think this is my 2nd favorite Italian in the city, after Lupa. Next time I plan to make my own pasta tasting as there are several more I would like to try.

Admin: The currrent discussion thread for Ouest may be found here I had dinner at Ouest, Tom Valenti's much praised (in the press) restaurant in the Upper West Side on Sunday night and overall I don't think it deserves its hype. We sat upstairs and not in one of the dramatic red booths so maybe I was missing some of the effect. I thought it was a nice looking restaurant - dark wood and red leather - a tavern look. Service was ok - water glasses were never refilled without prompting and one time when I asked for more water my glass was refilled, but not my dining companions whose glasses were also empty. I know this place isn't going for the refill your glass after every sip, but we felt ignored except when they came to take away a course and bring the next one. I started with the gravlax on pancake. It was delicious and there was also some salmon roe on the plate which was a nice touch and completed the dish. There was a small amount of sour cream between the salmon & the pancake. The other app was a salad that I didn't try. For mains I had short ribs. They were very tender and came with some cooked veggies but the dish was nothing to get excited about. It was fine, but not nearly as tasty as what other chefs around town have been doing with short ribs. The waiter did recommend a grilled chicken dish, which was juicy, and tasted better than my short ribs. For dessert we split a lemon dessert which had a strange name I had never heard of. It was a lemon mousse with caramelized sugar on top (like the top of a creme brulee) and with some rasberries underneath the mouse and a red rasberry sauce around the circular dessert for a nice color contrast plating. The lemon flavor was strong, a plus, and every bite of this was eaten. I thought my meal was good, but nothing worth going out of my way for. I think if this restaurant was in a different nabe I don't think it would have been raved about so much. The prices were fair, but at that range there are a lot of places downtown I'd rather go. Valenti's famous lamb shanks are only available on mondays & tuesdays. A friend had recommened the sunday special of meatloaf, but I didn't order it as it contains pork, which I generally don't eat.

I heartily agree with Yvonne & Mr. Tommy. The food was delicious and was consistently good for all seven courses. I managed to pick the other choice from Yvonne most of the time and they were excellent as well, especially the seared foie gras in course 4. I haven't had so much good food or so much good food talk in quite some time.