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Scalini Fedeli


oakapple

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I had dinner last night at Scalini Fedeli (165 Duane, just west of Hudson St). This is the space Bouley occupied before moving to its present digs. Scalini is a pricey restaurant that gets mixed reviews. The New Jersey outpost of the same restaurant gets rave after rave. An underwhelmed William Grimes awarded just one lonely star in a 1999 review, but Bob Lape awarded three in Crain's New York Business.

The on-line menu at the restaurant's website says that there are three options: prix fixe at $60, degustation menu at $70, or seasonal game menu at $75. Only the first was available last night. The menu showed over a dozen choices for both the first and second courses (some of which have price supplements). To these, the waiter added a recited lengthly list of daily specials. I find this extremely irritating. A restaurant of this calibre can afford to print a new menu as frequently as necessary, especially when the specials are so numerous. By the time the waiter gets to the end of his list, you've already forgotten the first thing he mentioned. It is too tedious to ask him to go through the whole list again.

Anyhow, we both started with the Soft Egg Yolk Raviolo, with Ricotta and Spinach, covered in truffle butter. This was absolutely outstanding. The dish has been justly praised on several websites, suggesting it's a regular on the menu. Curiously, the menu on restaurant's own website doesn't list it, although the one on menupagesdoes. By the way, the amuse was also an excellent raviolo, although I've forgotten what it consisted of.

For the entrée, I had the slow roasted breast of duck and leg confit with a mustard seed and black olive sauce. It comes with a Sicilian risotto. This was one of the more ample duck portions I've had, cooked beautifully to a medium rare temperature. There were a good 10-12 slices of duck breast, along with the leg-and-thigh confit served in a separate bowl. (I couldn't understand the reason for separating them.) The mustard seed and black olive sauce didn't quite work for me. It left an aftertaste that was just slightly bitter. It remains, however, one of the best servings of duck that I've encountered.

My companion had the roasted veal chop in a porcini dijon and green peppercorn sauce. This looked terrific, and he pronounced himself pleased.

After a pre-dessert of two sorbets, I had the carmelized apple tart (the waiter's recommendation), and my companion had the passion fruit panna cotta. I would judge the apple tart a success, but not anything special.

Service was excellent. Tables are well spaced, and the noise level was low. The restaurant was a little under half-full when we left at about 8:00pm. On yesterday's showing, I would say the New York Times rating of one star definitely cannot be justified. Scalini Fedeli is at least at the high end of the two-star category. Further visits might show it to be worthy of three.

Edited by oakapple (log)
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I have been to S. F. perhaps 10 times in the last year, and I have rarely left without thinking that this restaurant remains one of the best kept secrets in the city. Apart from the somewhat hotel-like ambience and the "authentic" staff (who resemble characters from the "Godfather"), this place should be full every night. I certainly know where I can go for a strong meal on a Friday without a hastle.

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I still have trouble getting over the fact that when they first opened, they posted a Zagat review that said something like a 26 overall rating -- except that it was for the original in New Jersey. Dishonest, I believe.

It's the same chef, same management, same cuisine, same name. Since their NY outpost was too new at the time to have its own Zagat review, I don't think it's unreasonable to post the New Jersey rating.

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I disagree.

1) They did not mention in the ad that it was a review of their NJ restaurant so it was difinitely IMHO extremely misleading. At the time I wrote to them and told them so but ofcourse never received an answer. It did anger many people at the time and many of them did not go there for that reason, including myself.

2) You seem to imply that because a restauranter receives a very good review any or all of his other restaurants should also be very good. Sorry, but it just ain't so. Take Jean Georges. He now owns 16 restaurants and we have been to 7 of them and the quality is just not the same or even close in any of them as compared to his signature NY restaurant Jean Georges. The same may be said about quite a few other chefs who have turned themselves into factories. On WQXR this morning Frank Bruni of the NYT discussed an article in Q2 addressing just that problem.

Hank

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I still have trouble getting over the fact that when they first opened, they posted a Zagat review that said something like a 26 overall rating -- except that it was for the original in New Jersey. Dishonest, I believe.

It's the same chef, same management, same cuisine, same name. Since their NY outpost was too new at the time to have its own Zagat review, I don't think it's unreasonable to post the New Jersey rating.

...same servers, same room, same cooks, same runners, same wine list, and if NY's zagat ratings were in any way in line with NJ's, then i'd almost make a concession. but it's misleading.

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1) They did not mention in the ad that it was a review of their NJ restaurant so it was difinitely IMHO extremely misleading. At the time I wrote to them and told them so but ofcourse never received an answer. It did anger many people at the time and many of them did not go there for that reason, including myself.

I guess it takes a little more than a slightly disingenuous Zagat quote to get me angry at a restaurant. Anyhow, that was about five years ago, and the NY Scalini Fedeli now has its own reputation. I think the Statute of Limitations has expired.

2) You seem to imply that because a restauranter receives a very good review any or all of his other restaurants should also be very good. Sorry, but it just ain't so. Take Jean Georges. He now owns 16 restaurants and we have been to 7 of them and the quality is just not the same or even close in any of them as compared to his signature NY restaurant Jean Georges.

I'm absolutely not implying that. JGV's sixteen restaurants are generally very different from one another, and at some of them his involvement is pretty minimal. It would be wrong for JGV to quote reviews of Jean Georges in advertising for Spice Market, suggesting that the two experiences are at all similar.

But Scalini Fedeli in TriBeCa is the Manhattan outpost of an identically-named and substantially alike restaurant operated by the same team just a few miles away. Given that set of facts, I think it was defensible to use reviews of the NJ location in their publicity. The analogy would be a musical that has previously played in other cities. Invariably, the pre-opening publicity will quote reviews from earlier engagements, even though the new run of it won't necessarily be identical.

The same may be said about quite a few other chefs who have turned themselves into factories. On WQXR this morning Frank Bruni of the NYT discussed an article in Q2 addressing just that problem.

Where is this article in Q2?

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The analogy would be a musical that has previously played in other cities. Invariably, the pre-opening publicity will quote reviews from earlier engagements, even though the new run of it won't necessarily be identical.

i don't think that's a very good analogy. i think our perception of NJ zagat ratings, and how they might be misinterpreted by NYers, differs.

a 26 in NY is more than slightly different than a 26 in NJ.

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At this point, I think we've sufficiently touched on the issue of Scalini Fedeli posting the Zagat review from their NJ restaurant in the NYC location, which seems to have happened more than a few years ago anyway. So let's move on.

--

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