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“Uovo-- CLOSED”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	East Village	Moderate	Good

t was free and they had just forgotten to serve it to us. The waiter explained Uovo’s bread policy this way: “I know isn’t that bread great? It’s sort of a secret. We don’t charge for it, but you have to ask for it. If you don’t ask for it, you don’t get it. You just get the toasted pumpkin seeds.”

Okay.

Now, I liked those spiced toasted pumpkin seeds, but what is up with making the bread some secret password thing? The bread is magnificent. Either give it to all your tables or put it on the menu and let people order it and pay for it. Why make it a secret? This is a restaurant. Aren’t you supposed to want people to know about and eat all wonderful things your kitchen makes? Not sure what the purpose of the secret bread is, but if you go to Uovo, make sure and ask for it. It’s awesome. (And since the rest of the menu at times isn’t, you’ll need it.)

Hamilton does know his way around a sardine, and his grilled sardines ($11) were spot on. He grills two fat and meaty ones, well seasoned with cumin, garlic, and coriander, and squeezed with lemon, and serves them with caper berries. They were sweet, salty, a bit unctuous, crispy skinned, and delicious. Hamilton’s take on an heirloom tomato salad ($10) is interesting. He serves sliced tomatoes—sliced way too thin for a salad, more for a fixin’ on a sandwich—and then warms them up and tops them off with a beautiful grilled plop of manouri cheese—a wonderful Greek cheese that can be made from sheep or goat's milk, that is sort of like a creamier ricotta. It was a fine salad, swimming in a pond of amazing fruity olive oil, but what it lacked was a spritz of lemon and some coarse sea salt. And I also think it’s sort of a shame to warm up late summer tomatoes, but the grilled cheese part of it was fun and tasty.

Allow me to just interject here with this one little side note. I don’t know about you but my main problem with food lately is a lack of salt and acid. Food needs to be seasoned and it needs, most of the time, a hit of acid in some form or another—vinegar, citrus, wine—pick one. These are notes that make flavors sing. One chef who does get these two elements right consistently is Akhtar Nawab at Craftbar. Say what you will about the new design—actually I wish people would stop knocking his place down because it is no longer what it used to b ... [more, click below]

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Posted: August 21, 2005

Other restaurants in East Village :
+ Yujin-- Closed   + Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar   + Mermaid Inn   + Five Points   + Lavagna   + Five Points   + Bond Street   + Jewel Bako   + Alphabet Kitchen   + In Vino   + Bao 111   + Chikalicious   + Il Buco   + Hearth   + Lima's Taste   + Mercadito   + Hedeh   + Momofuku   + Una Pizza Napoletana   + Winebar   + Uovo-- CLOSED   + Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction   + Gotham Bar & Grill   + Colors   + Chinatown Brasserie   + Knife and Fork   + European Union-- NEW CHEF; SEE APRIL 2007 Review   + Aroma Kitchen and Winebar   + Stand   + European Union   + Mercat   + Gemma   + Back Forty   + The Smith   + Seymour Burton   + Belcourt   + Graffiti   + The Redhead   + Double Crown    + Apiary   + Joe Doe   + Apiary by guest reviewer Kiri Tannenbaum   + DBGB   + Northern Spy   + Goat Town   + Saxon + Parole   + Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria   + Acme   + Calliope   + Nicoletta   + JEPPNEY by Claire Jaffe   + Feast   

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