L’artusi L’artusi, sister restaurant to the teeny Dell’anima, is the expanded version. The space is bigger (2 floors), the open kitchen/counter is longer, the menu, though similar, has more items. The first floor is still packed and noisy, but the second floor is more conversation friendly. Our party of 6 was lucky enough to get seated in the semi-private room (2nd floor), which is surrounded by windows, viewing the wine collection.
We started with a bottle of Tralivio, which everyone seemed to really like. Angie liked the finish, while I was really intrigued by how it seemed to be almost salted (it’s not actually salted), which really picked up the flavors.
I love that they have a crudo (raw) section. The scallops are sliced nice and thin, giving a completely different texture than sushi.
The hamachi looks like little bunches of flowers set on thinly sliced granny smith apples.
The Carpaccio was really beautiful, pounded paper thin, like tissue paper thin, and sprinkled with rock salt and teeny rye crumbs. I couldn’t really taste the horseradish aioli, but we loved it.
We chose to have the octopus dish as an appetizer course (since we were sharing a whole bunch of stuff anyway). It’s a really unique dish displaying octopus in a fried pocket and then thinly sliced on top. Celery root puree and celery leaves both decorate and flavor the dish.
We ordered tons of pastas, which are fresh with the exception of the spaghetti and meatballs. The Orecchiette was the only one a bit under-cooked (a little hard) but the sausage was so flavorful.
The Tagliatelle with Speck and Chives is like a light version of carbonara, which basically makes it better. You have to eat it hot though because if the sauce cools to much, it starts getting sticker and the pasta clumps together.
The Pizzocheri with sage and brussels sprouts is a rich and creamy dish for dairy lovers. You can try to feel better by convincing yourself that the whole wheat pasta makes up for it.
The Garganelli was my favorite pasta (judging just the pasta, not the sauces) but the rabbit ragu ranked pretty high as well, comforting and less exotic.
The Spaghetti and Meatballs had extra little chunks of pork, adding more texture and flavor. The meatballs have an excellent kick, but this was the one dish we thought was too salty.
The Cavatelli with Canneloni Beans and
Cavalo Nero seemed like a play on Pasta Fagioli as a non-soup. It’s probably the lightest of the pasta dishes.
The Wagyu Tongue is thinly sliced and set up as an open faced sandwich. It really melts in your mouth and tastes very beefy.
The Wild Boar was tender and piled onto creamy polenta, ultra rich and comforting. Too much of it was too heavy for me but Lon loved it.
With just some minor imperfections, nothing was bad, and everyone had different favorites. The selection is pretty unique and definitely freshly prepared. Most of it is quite heavy though, so while portions look small, you’ll be full.
The dinner was in honor of Angie’s birthday so I made a Scarlet Empress cake. They charge a $2 plating charge, which we thought was reasonable (but not better than free), and also refrigerated the cake. Service was usually pretty good, although they needed a little reminding sometimes, but the overall experience seems worth the prices (crudo $12-$15, pastas $16-19, fish/meat $10-$28).
posted by jessica at 03:39 PM
Filed under Italian, Restaurants.
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Very impressive. You don’t mess around. Way to order!
Another place to add to my NYC list. I adore wild boar and garganelli is one of my favorite pastas.
Looking at your pictures makes me want to go again. Yum yum.
Melissa, we pretty much always order more than the norm, and then stuff ourselves trying to finish it.
EMC, I’m glad you’re coming during better weather! We’ll keep working on finding more places for you.
The tagliatelle looks amazing! Great photos. Thanks for sharing!