<< previous review   next review >>

reviews

“Convivio”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	Midtown	Moderate	Great

gu a ridiculous (borderline lethal) richness. The ragu also manages to strikes the perfect balance between sweet and heat—the sauce plays around with your tongue, so you never quite know what you’re gonna get. It’s amazingly fun to eat. The taralli ($24), a corkscrew shaped pasta made from Durham wheat, is tossed with ribbons of grilled sepia, breadcrumbs, crumbled hunks of sweet sausage and some chile flake (again, there’s that perfect seasoning that really brings the flavors of these pastas into focus) and is set in a rustic chopped tomato sauce. This is probably the most home-styled dish of the lot, a real soulful pasta that tastes like it was made from a recipe passed down from mother to daughter over decades. I’d like it passed over to me now, please.

Entrees also offer many choices from fish to meat, game and poultry, so it’s possible to eat here a dozen times and never repeat a meal. We were disappointed in the octopus ($27) with lemon, red peppers and big bright green castelvetrano olives the size of sourball candies, because the octopus tasted like someone had forgotten it was on the grill, gone to take a phone call, and returned to find it charred and rubbery, and still decided to serve it. Not good. But the whole roasted squab was perfectly cooked, moist and pink and tender, served with a wonderful combination of olives, pistachios, olives, and confited lemon. The Vitello a Latte (milk-braised veal shoulder) served with broccoli rabe and marble potatoes  ($29) is good in a rather old school meat-n-potatoes kind of way; it would not have been out of place at Tony Soprano’s dinner table. While the entrees were quite good, the pastas were so special that perhaps the chef might consider adding a pasta-tasting menu as an alternative to the prix fixe? Please?

Desserts were wonderful, especially a tartaletta, a small buttery tart topped with nectarines and filled with almond paste that tasted a bit like a financier ($12), airy ricotta dumplings with chocolate and vanilla-orange dipping sauces ($11), and an affogato with ricotta cheese gelato ($11). I am not a chocolate lover, but I really enjoyed the Sicilian Torta, chocolate layered with cannoli filling.

As it may appear from my review, my dinner at Convivio was terrific, and the food, the wine, and the company of two great friends went a long way to help lift my mood. I was a clutch of nerves at the start of dinner. T ... [more, click below]

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  

 Make a reservation

<< previous review   next review >>

Posted: August 14, 2008

Other restaurants in Midtown :
+ Lever House   + Aquavit   + RM   + Joseph's (formerly Citarella The Restaurant)   + Town   + Artisanal   + The Oyster Bar   + Geisha   + David Burke and Donatella Restaurant   + Riingo   + Amma   + Cafe Sabarsky   + The Stone Rose Lounge   + BLT Steak   + V, The Steakhouse-- Closed   + Bar Masa   + Cafe Gray   + The Bar Room at The Modern   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + Bistro du Vent-- Closed   + Shaburi   + Xing   + The Modern   + Bar Americain   + Alto   + Park Blue   + Mainland-- Closed   + Nobu 57   + Quality Meats   + Dona-- CLOSED   + Daisy May's   + 7Square-- CLOSED   + Amalia   + Fireside   + Anthos   + Patroon   + BLT Market   + Toloache   + Mia Dona   + Park Avenue Summer   + Convivio   + The Oak Room by guest reviewer Julie Besonen   + At Vermilion by guest reviewer Elaine Weiner   + Lunching at Inakaya, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Marea, by Guest Reviewer Susan Kane Walkush   + Le Bernardin   + New York Central -- A Reason To Eat at the Grand Hyatt Again   + Pampano Botaneria by Dara Pollak   

Share ! Post a comment