I’m generally pretty averse to going out for Italian food. It’s not that I don’t like it; it’s that pretty much anything a restaurant can make, my mom can make better.
But a few days ago, when Little Brother and I had been spurned once again at Sugarfish, we were looking for somewhere delicious to make our jaunt down to Flatiron, and we settled on Eataly. While we’d already eaten on the top floor terrace overlooking the city, we had yet to sample one of the six restaurants on the ground floor of this upscale Italian food market and court. We chose Manzo, which is billed as a butcher-focused restaurant, but since our visit was timed during restaurant week, we actually ordered off the reasonable $26 prix fixe and therefore didn’t get anything beefy at all.
Little Brother opted for the fresh, house-made mozzarella as his appetizer.
I meanwhile chose the simple arugula, Parmesan, and balsamic salad. Both were tasty and came out quite quickly – almost too quickly.
I know, it’s hard to believe that’s possible. And it’s in no way a criticism of their freshness – both were very obviously made to order. But it did make the lapse between appetizers and entrées… palpable.
We both ordered the bucatini alla grigia, which is basically a white (tomato-free) amatriciana. One of my all-time favorites. And it was delicious, with rich, fatty guanciale. But given how long we waited for it, I have to assume that the pasta was cooked to the chef’s specifications, and I’m starting to tire of restaurants confusing al dente with undercooked. Some of the bucatini didn’t even bend yet. Another 60 seconds could have made this dish positively perfect.
We forewent dessert at the restaurant in favor of pastries from the cannoli and bomboloni stand, where these treats are filled to order with the fillings and add-ins of your choosing.
While there are loads of options, including bases of sheep’s milk ricotta, cow’s milk ricotta, pastry cream, jams, and gianduja, and toppings like pistachios, amaretti, nougat, granola, and candied orange peel, we both went for simplicity. My brother got a bombolono – a sugared Italian doughnut – filled with a simple vanilla pastry cream.
I went instead for a cannolo filled with sheep’s milk ricotta filling folded with toasted pistachios.
Eataly can be an overly touristic experience, but the quality – especially of the base ingredients and the desserts – makes it worth braving the crowds.
Eataly – 200 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010