Whenever friends are in town, they would always ask for a meal at a Mario Batali restaurant.
The Italian chef has gained much fame in Hong Kong, with his outpost Lupa, in Central. One foodie friend specifically asked for Batali establishments in New York because he thought the Lupa in Hong Kong isn’t the real deal. I haven’t been to the one in Hong Kong yet but I feel the Lupa concept in New York is a much more casual one with rustic wooden tables closely crammed in a small space. It’s loud, but it’s fun and cosy.
Unfortunately Lupa didn’t have a table for this friend, who’s bringing his daughter to college, so we ended up in Otto Enoteca Pizzeria.
I would say that the restaurant has a split personality. At the bar, it’s a rather upscale affair resembling ones you may find on the Upper East side. The stand-only tables may be a nuisance to the high-heeled, but don’t seem to deter many from having a good time there.
Inside, it’s a family-style affair. Laid-back to the point where sometimes I feel it is borderline chaotic. Many a pre-prom dinner have been staged there because of the proximity to NYU, so it may be a little rowdy.
So this night, I settled into a table just midway between the bar and the back of the restaurant.
“So it’s all pizza and pasta?” my friend asked.
Yes. Otto is where everything is shared, and they’d better be. The size of the salads and pastas is reasonable, but the pizza has a heft to it. It’s thin, but not that thin.
The three of us shared the Otto Chopped Salad, Proscuitto Arugula pizza and the special pasta of the night: linguine topped with truffles. The linguine was cooked al dente (we expect no less from Mr. Batali), but the simplicity of the pasta wowed me. The dish wasn’t inundated with truffle flakes, but enough to give it the aroma throughout. Highly recommended.
And wine is always good at Mario Batali joints. My friend chose a 2004 barolo from Aldo Conterno (he was briefly in the U.S. with intentions of starting a winery in Napa Valley, only to be drafted into the army and went to fight in the Korean War. He didn’t stay in the U.S., obviously.). The wine is so drinkable that it needs not much decanting, with bright fruitiness.
I wouldn’t say that Otto is the most impressive Batali restaurant. I like Lupa’s cosiness and the exceptional quality of food at Del Posto, not so much at Babbo with the stuck-up crowd. But if I really have to choose, I’d still go back to basics to where Batali started: Po. But that’s for another post.
P.S. And do you know that Batali’s co-host on the Chew (which is a very addictive cooking show with quite a bit of heat, and not just from the stove and the spices), Carla Hall, is starting a restaurant in New York, cooking her Southern comfort food. Totally looking forward to that.
Otto Enoteca Pizzeria
1 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003
almost friday 