This weekend, Matt and I had a house guest, so we decided to push ourselves a little when we took her out for dinner on Saturday night. Read: We never go out for Italian. After scouring the interweb and blogoverse, we decided on Alta Voce (318 5th Ave btwn 3rd and 4th Sts.), which was pretty well represented in terms of reviews. Despite calling an hour and half ahead of time for a reservation and the fact that the space was pretty empty for 8 pm on Saturday night, we were sat in the downstairs portion of the space, away from the highly advertised live pianist and right in front of the kitchen. Ignoring the flourescent light that blasted us whenever the kitchen was opened was fairly difficult and became a little more so as the evening wore on. The decor was decent. Unmemorable. Think mid 90s psuedo-Tuscan goes to Pottery Barn shlock scattered about and barren white space besides.
Service is not an issue at Alta Voce (which we discovered as the night progressed). The cocktails were excellent, with the one exception of using olives with the pit still inside. Personally, I just think this is awkward and messy. Imagine standing at the bar, with your date, drinking your 10$ Grey Goose Martini and having to stick your fingers in your mouth to take out the pit. 'Nough said. We decided to order two appetizers . . .
Vongole Oreganale was a predictable but nonetheless delicious, breaded clam on the half shelf in a garlic butter sauce. The serving is not enough for four to share, so plan accordingly!
Bresola Ripena was our favorite appetizer, hands down. The goat cheese was light, just barely breaded and when taken with the astringent greens it was served with, made the most beautiful combintation on the tounge. We probably should have ordered two. And apologies for the butchery of the name of this dish, but I think we devoured it before we could get the name written down correctly for our notes.
On to entrees!
Here's where the night got a little fishy. Matt and our visitor, Bridgette, both ordered fish free dishes. Sarah and myself went all-out under the sea . We'll start sans-fish.
Pollo atta Voce got little to no complaints from anyone. Chicken topped with prosciutto and fontina, in a white wine truffle cream sauce. Served with lackluster scalloped potatoes (that looked more like the home fries from brunch earlier in the day, more to come on that later). The chicken was tender, the sauce added a perfect texture and the mildness of the cheese really tied this dish together.
Malfatti con Anatara e Funghi similiarly impressed our group. Homemade pasta, seared duck breast, dried cranberries and mushrooms blended to create an earthy and rustic but never gritty dish. Beautifully refined. The cranberries must have been sauteed for a while because they barely seemed dried, veritably bursting with truffle oil and duck fat. I think that this was the first dish finished at the table, just because it was so so good. Highly recommended!
and on to the disappointments . . .
Enticed by one of her new buzzfoods, radicchio, she ordered one of the nightly specials-- spagghetti with scallops, mussels, shrimp and (ding.ding.ding) radicchio sautéed in a light garlic white wine sauce. The entree arrived in a shallow bowl that was much too small for the portion, encircled with whole mussels that were practically falling off the dish itself. A bowl for empty shells had to be requsted from the waiter. Nonetheless, she enthusuastically dug in, only to be confronted with the unfortunate reality that there was something terribly wrong with the dish. Take a moment to read some of her notes on the experience...
"I've eaten all the spaghetti from the dish and I don't want to eat the rest of it. I'm planning on complaining to the manager for the first time ever. The seafood has officially killed the dish. The scallops are like stinky little raisins and the mussels were gritty."
"Maybe it's because my hands smell like high tide, but my skin crawls when thinking about this dish."
She lauded the texture of the pasta and the added bitter tang of the radicchio, but it's needless to say that no one else at the table wanted to try her dish.
My dish was the seafood special. I adore seafood so I went all out. I should have realized that a dish with a "salmon and tilapia terrine, mussels, shrimp, scallops in a zuppa de clams" was just a way to get rid of some old fish. The terrine looked like a pineapple from hell, garnished with about six inches of rosemary that killed any flavor in the dish other than the canned tomato sauce that was slathered all over the fish. Adjectives that come to mind are "high tide", "tinny" and "vague". I think the truest culprit was the scallops, which were the smallest I've ever seen (maybe a hybrid bay scallop?) and just rank. I was totally disappointed in this dish but managed to eat most of it, because I'm a trooper that way.
After Sarah complained, the compensation began! Normally, we're not a digestif kind of crowd, but because we knew this would be the first post here at EATER SCHMEATER we decided to partake in after dinner cocktails with our deserts. We were comp'd the Seasonal Berry Tart, which had a delicious graham cracker crust with not-so-fresh (obviously) strawberries and ordered the Tiramisu and the Bonnet di Ciocolatte. Both of our ordered deserts were standard and well put together. The chocolate though, was by far the most memorable--velvety and dark without being too heavy. Just delicious!
In addition to the comp'd dessert, we were given four shots of Limoncello after the sweets and Sarah's entree was half priced. I think that this was totally reasonable, although I wonder what would have happened if I had complained about my dish as well.
Overall, all four diners enjoyed the meal as a whole. The atmosphere was great, allowed us to be as loud as we wanted and very accommodating. Our waiter was a little dim, not sure when to fire our entrees, messed up the wine service but I won't criticize the restaurant on that front. A warning to future diners, stay away from fish dishes but believe in the duck. I would go back just for that duck. In fact, I think we'd all give it another chance.
Service is not an issue at Alta Voce (which we discovered as the night progressed). The cocktails were excellent, with the one exception of using olives with the pit still inside. Personally, I just think this is awkward and messy. Imagine standing at the bar, with your date, drinking your 10$ Grey Goose Martini and having to stick your fingers in your mouth to take out the pit. 'Nough said. We decided to order two appetizers . . .
Vongole Oreganale was a predictable but nonetheless delicious, breaded clam on the half shelf in a garlic butter sauce. The serving is not enough for four to share, so plan accordingly!
Bresola Ripena was our favorite appetizer, hands down. The goat cheese was light, just barely breaded and when taken with the astringent greens it was served with, made the most beautiful combintation on the tounge. We probably should have ordered two. And apologies for the butchery of the name of this dish, but I think we devoured it before we could get the name written down correctly for our notes.
On to entrees!
Here's where the night got a little fishy. Matt and our visitor, Bridgette, both ordered fish free dishes. Sarah and myself went all-out under the sea . We'll start sans-fish.
Pollo atta Voce got little to no complaints from anyone. Chicken topped with prosciutto and fontina, in a white wine truffle cream sauce. Served with lackluster scalloped potatoes (that looked more like the home fries from brunch earlier in the day, more to come on that later). The chicken was tender, the sauce added a perfect texture and the mildness of the cheese really tied this dish together.
Malfatti con Anatara e Funghi similiarly impressed our group. Homemade pasta, seared duck breast, dried cranberries and mushrooms blended to create an earthy and rustic but never gritty dish. Beautifully refined. The cranberries must have been sauteed for a while because they barely seemed dried, veritably bursting with truffle oil and duck fat. I think that this was the first dish finished at the table, just because it was so so good. Highly recommended!
and on to the disappointments . . .
Enticed by one of her new buzzfoods, radicchio, she ordered one of the nightly specials-- spagghetti with scallops, mussels, shrimp and (ding.ding.ding) radicchio sautéed in a light garlic white wine sauce. The entree arrived in a shallow bowl that was much too small for the portion, encircled with whole mussels that were practically falling off the dish itself. A bowl for empty shells had to be requsted from the waiter. Nonetheless, she enthusuastically dug in, only to be confronted with the unfortunate reality that there was something terribly wrong with the dish. Take a moment to read some of her notes on the experience...
"I've eaten all the spaghetti from the dish and I don't want to eat the rest of it. I'm planning on complaining to the manager for the first time ever. The seafood has officially killed the dish. The scallops are like stinky little raisins and the mussels were gritty."
"Maybe it's because my hands smell like high tide, but my skin crawls when thinking about this dish."
She lauded the texture of the pasta and the added bitter tang of the radicchio, but it's needless to say that no one else at the table wanted to try her dish.
My dish was the seafood special. I adore seafood so I went all out. I should have realized that a dish with a "salmon and tilapia terrine, mussels, shrimp, scallops in a zuppa de clams" was just a way to get rid of some old fish. The terrine looked like a pineapple from hell, garnished with about six inches of rosemary that killed any flavor in the dish other than the canned tomato sauce that was slathered all over the fish. Adjectives that come to mind are "high tide", "tinny" and "vague". I think the truest culprit was the scallops, which were the smallest I've ever seen (maybe a hybrid bay scallop?) and just rank. I was totally disappointed in this dish but managed to eat most of it, because I'm a trooper that way.
After Sarah complained, the compensation began! Normally, we're not a digestif kind of crowd, but because we knew this would be the first post here at EATER SCHMEATER we decided to partake in after dinner cocktails with our deserts. We were comp'd the Seasonal Berry Tart, which had a delicious graham cracker crust with not-so-fresh (obviously) strawberries and ordered the Tiramisu and the Bonnet di Ciocolatte. Both of our ordered deserts were standard and well put together. The chocolate though, was by far the most memorable--velvety and dark without being too heavy. Just delicious!
In addition to the comp'd dessert, we were given four shots of Limoncello after the sweets and Sarah's entree was half priced. I think that this was totally reasonable, although I wonder what would have happened if I had complained about my dish as well.
Overall, all four diners enjoyed the meal as a whole. The atmosphere was great, allowed us to be as loud as we wanted and very accommodating. Our waiter was a little dim, not sure when to fire our entrees, messed up the wine service but I won't criticize the restaurant on that front. A warning to future diners, stay away from fish dishes but believe in the duck. I would go back just for that duck. In fact, I think we'd all give it another chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment