Al di Là

[SobaAddict70]

The risotto special, made with cuttlefish and cuttlefish ink, had a textbook texture - the elusive sweet spot between gloppy and soupy.

But there were missteps. That rabbit, bedecked with olives, was tender the second time I had it, but stringy the first. The chicken, which I sampled once, was dry.

The half-dozen pasta and risotto dishes will probably include tagliatelle with a chunky, immensely flavorful ragù of ground beef, pork and veal. And among the half-dozen entrees will be pan-roasted hanger steak served with a balsamic-sweetened sauce and grilled young chicken, tart with lemon juice.

Al di Là (Frank Bruni)

Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's style of reviewing and the New York Times star system can be found here.

Soba

[Sneakeater]

I'm out of the business of second-guessing star ratings (OK: this is probably my very favorite restaurant, and I'd probably give it only one star, according to my understanding of how the stars work). But if anybody wants to say anything bad about Al Di La, I'm going to have to invite them to step outside.

Edited January 11, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[rich]

I'm out of the business of second-guessing star ratings (OK:  this is probably my very favorite restaurant, and I'd probably give it only one star, according to my understanding of how the stars work).  But if anybody wants to say anything bad about Al Di La, I'm going to have to invite them to step outside.

←

I don't think there's anything bad to say about the place, but I think other neighborhood Italians are equal if not better in certain respects. Two places in Queens come to mind - Park Side and Sapori d'Ischia. But both have more of a southern tilt, so they're a bit different in style and presentation.

It's similar to Di Fara in a sense - very good but doesn't quite match the hype.

[therese]

Dinner here a couple of Sundays ago with my husband and children (their first visit to NYC---you can check out the other places we dined here) and a couple of friend who live a short bike ride away from Al di La. We were a bit late (having taken the subway, and estimated too little time for the trip) for our scheduled rendezvous of 5:45 PM, but our friends had done some fast talking and scored us a large enough table in the adjacent wine bar around the corner.

I can't quite recall what all of us consumed, but I'll do my best:

Daughter: Carpaccio, followed by Tagliatelle al Ragu, followed by Gianduiotto

Son: appetizer I can't recall, followed by Fegato alla Veneziana, followed by Gianduiotto

Husband: appetizer I can't recall, followed by Spaghetti alle Vongole, followed by sorbet

Me: Grilled Sardines with Arugula, followed by Casunziei, followed by an almond and apricot tart

Our friends: only vague details

Service was friendly but uneven, with lots of misplaced dishes and confusion over whether we'd ordered something or not. But okay for a trattoria.

Food was similarly uneven. High points were the carpaccio, tagliatelle, calves liver (by report) and spaghetti with clams (again by report).

My grilled sardines were okay, nothing special. The casunziei (ravioli stuffed with beets and ricotta) were positively afloat in butter and grated cheese that overwhelmed whatever flavor the filling might have had, and without the expected poppy seeds. My dessert featured a dry, not-too-tasty nut crust and insufficient fruit to make up for it.

The children had both chosen a dessert, gianduiotto, described as "chocolate ice cream with hazelnuts served in a tall glass with whipped cream." They'd both had gianduiotto candies before, and so were a bit nonplussed to find the dessert comprised almost entirely of whipped cream, with relatively little in the way of either ice cream or nuts. My daughter's not a huge fan of whipped cream (some is okay, just not an entire glass of it) so her brother ate most of her dessert.

So, in summary, a nice neighborhood place, but I can't recommend going out of your way to eat there, at least based on our visit (and of course your mileage may vary, etc.).

[Sneakeater]

That's the problem with giving general recommendations of places in your neighborhood: you never can be sure how important it is that they're in your neighborhood, you know the owners, etc.

I agree that I'd have a hard time advising people to get on a subway for an hour to go to Al Di La. Good thing you were visiting people from the area.

[therese]

That's the problem with giving general recommendations of places in your neighborhood:  you never can be sure how important it is that they're in your neighborhood, you know the owners, etc.

I agree that I'd have a hard time advising people to get on a subway for an hour to go to Al Di La.  Good thing you were visiting people from the area.

←

And it was a lovely evening. Given that I'd picked the restaurant in part because I knew it would be convenient for them it worked out nicely. And they both clearly enjoyed their meals, so that was also nice.

[Sneakeater]

I think this also shows the importance of ambiance.

I think a lot of people's response to Al Di La is colored by how charming the dining room in the main restaurant is. As for the wine bar/overflow dining room, well, all you can say is, it's not.

I know that when I eat in the bar, it's like a completely different (and worse) experience from eating in the restaurant.

Who knows, maybe the point is that you can only accurately evaluate their food if you eat in the bar, free from the distraction of the charms of the restaurant.

Edited August 21, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[H. du Bois]

This is why I hesitate to recommend restaurants - I never know if a place I find charming will have the same effect on others, or if a dish I've found terrific on a weekday night will be up to the same standards during the weekend.

I've never eaten in the wine bar, so I can't speak for how it might impact on the experience. In fact, I can't imagine, somehow, eating there without eating in the main room. Odd.

My experiences there have been different, but the circumstances surrounding them were very different, too. I'm not certain I'd feel quite the same about dining there if I had to go to a great deal of effort to get to it. But within the neighborhood, as a neighborhood place, it's very much beloved.

[therese]

The great deal of effort was really to see our friends, as last time they'd made the trek into Manhattan to dine with us (at 66). And it's not like riding the subway is huge effort in any case.

I think that it being Sunday night might have made the difference---leaving the poppy seeds off the casunziei suggests that the "B" team was running the kitchen.

[Sneakeater]

Before the owners had their son, he was NEVER not in the front and she was NEVER not in the kitchen.

The nerve.

[H. du Bois]

I should say too that I haven't eaten here in a while. There may be slippage. But it could be Sunday night in August issues. (I never find food as good on weekends as on weekdays when I dine out, no matter what time of year).

[Pan]

I had dinner with wine pairings tonight at Al di La, and it was great! We were in their bar around the corner from the restaurant. We got Prosecco, and eventually, when our table was free in the restaurant, my friend decided that we would be better off staying and eating at the bar. So we did. And John, the bartender/sommelier took great care of us! We let him pick the wines for our meal. We started with the Seppia and Oxtail appetizer, which was terrific! It was so full of flavor, peppery and salty (in a good way, as part of the flavor), and the buttery polenta was a perfect foil for it. I'm having trouble remembering the wine pairing after all that wine we drank, but it was a very clean-tasting white wine that went perfectly with the dish. For our primo, we shared the casunziei (essentially ravioli stuffed with finely minced beets and ricotta, in a very buttery sauce with poppyseeds and cheese). I like beets a lot and liked the earthiness of the high-quality beets in the ravioli; my dining partner doesn't love beets and still felt that of its type, the dish was as good as it could be. It was paired with a wonderful Riesling from Slovenia which had a fragrance reminiscent of Muscat wine, but wasn't as sweet. For our secondi, I had the calf liver alla Veneziana in a sherry reduction with caramelized onions and polenta, and my friend had hanger steak in some other kind of wine reduction with arugula salad. We also had a contorno of Savoy cabbage stems. We both thought it was all delicious, but the real standout was the fantastic liver dish. The pairing was a dry red Burgundy that I might not have liked so much by itself, but that went well with the red meat. For dessert, we shared a wonderfully spongy pear-and-chocolate cake with creme fraiche and were also given excellent biscotti with a strong orange taste and almonds. We didn't order wine with dessert but were given a taste of a red Moscato that we found perhaps a bit too syrupy (but hey, it was a taste on the house), and a pour of a sparkling wine (cabernet, I think?) that we enjoyed. [Edit: I just remember that we were also given a pour of Tortolato, which is a delicious moderately sweet wine.] Given the quality of the service and the free pours (there was also a taste of a Bordeaux), I tipped over 30%, and John deserved every penny. We closed out the place, and far from rushing us, he spent the time to talk to us and share wine with us. It was really a great evening, and I would love to go back! Right now, I am high on alcohol, giddy, and happy, and I just had the best Italian meal I've had since my first trip to Lupa (not my second or third trips there) -- and the value was great!

Edited December 15, 2006 by Pan (log)