I have high expectations when Danny Meyer opens a restaurant. Union Square Hospitality Group is responsible for some of my favorite establishments, Eleven Madison Park, Union Square Cafe, Shake Shack, and more. He is known for bringing great food to the table with spectacular service.
I met with two girlfriends for lunch, all three of us culinary school grads who had gone in different directions. Mary Helen is on the TV production side these days, food shows of course. Anna is food styling all over the place. I’m still putting away on this blog! There was so much to catch up on and so much to celebrate.
With some recommendations from our waitress, ordering was a breeze and soon golden fried artichokes were glowing on our table. I enjoyed them, tender on one side, light and crisp on the other, dipped in an anchovy bread sauce.
Our other appetizer was a salad with celery, fennel, hazelnuts, and pecorino. I didn’t get much fennel but the overall effect was nice and bright, light and refreshing. A few initial bites were extra acidic but it seemed to soak into the salad after a while and mellow out.
After the starters, it seemed like ages before the pastas came out. Thank goodness for a fresh bread basket that we near cleaned by the time Mary Helen asked a server what happened. They explained that we had taken longer with the starters and so they held back the pastas. It still took a while for them to come after that…
The garganelli had the best texture, fresh pasta at it’s finest. The green olives were strong, over-powering even rosemary and certainly masking the rabbit.
The Agnolotti was my favorite flavor profile, a mildly sweet pumpkin filling with a light butter sauce accented with balsamic and ricotta salata. The pasta itself was too soft though, over-cooked and starting to mush together.
The Malfatti fell in the middle, a nice pasta with juicy tears of suckling pig, enjoyable but not memorable.
We chose two desserts and were gifted an extra as an apology for the wait. The Gianduja inside was good but the bread pudding was mushy, like wet soggy bread. The pine nut and lemon tart was just kind of bland. The almond and apple crumb cake with caramel gelato was the best but only average compared to any fruit crumble from anywhere.
Lunch was over-all mediocre. The starters and pastas felt fresh and made with good ingredients, yet nothing stood out as something I’d come for again. The service was so-so and apologetic. The desserts were a fail. The three of us felt like it just cost a little more than it was worth at $49.13 per person (with tax and tip), not the usual reaction when you leave a Danny Meyer place.
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I just saw Danny M give a talk at the 92nd St Y recently. He is absolutely amazing. So composed and so aware. Came away wanting to eat at all his restaurants. Btw, roman style fried artichokes are among the greatest things ever invented. Sorry you didn’t love. Perhaps he’s getting stretched a little thin.
Bill, I still love many of his establishments and this won’t stop me from going to those. Perhaps, I’ll even give this one another try after they have more time to iron out some more kinks.
Gorgeous pics, as always. Too bad about the fennel salad, however. It’s one of my very favorite flavors.
O man really? just a mediocre lunch? sorry about the bad experience! I thoroughly loved my experience at Maialino. I was in Italy for almost a month couple years ago and never wanted to eat italian food for the longest time until I stopped by Maialino when it opened up. It was sooooooo good but i also have extremely low expectations and a crummy palate haha
hopefully its better next time. cant wait for the food crawllll yippeeee
Patrick, I often experience that same feeling after visiting various different places.
thankfully there was good company! 🙂