My fiance and I recently ate at Babbo on a trip to new york. I lurk and never post but in this case I feel I need to. In a nutshell, we thought the meal was less than mediocre and we were in one of those pizza hut commercials where at the end of the meal a guy in a white hat pops out of the kitchen and reveals that everyone has been eating pizza hut lasagna. We had the traditional tasting menu and were very disappointed by every dish. The chick pea amuse tasted like it was out of a can. Culatello was dry and ramps were painfully garlicky and soggy. Pappardelle was tasteless, dry and cold and had probably been sitting in the kitchen for 15 minutes. Duck tortelli was chewy and tasteless and the sauce was lousy. Guinea hen was OK but nothing special. The rest of the meal consisted of a a tiny piece of cheese followed by 3 (why 3?) desserts, none of which were creative or interesting in any way. On top of all of that every piece of bread was burnt to the stage that it was charcoal on the bottom. The burnt parts were inedible. Is there something authentic about burnt bread? Service was inconsistent. Some staff were good and some were not. We mentioned how disappointed we were at some point and the waiter said very sarcastically "I'll tell the kitchen to try harder". He clearly could not care less. Every restaurant has its bad nights and bad dishes and I realize that and that's why I like to give tasting menus a try as normally you get one dish that is excellent. There was absolutely nothing on the traditional menu that lived up to Batali's reputation. Babbo appears to be coasting on its former reputation. I will never bother again.
