212-497-8090
85 Tenth Ave
Near 16th Street
Rating: Addictive
Cuisine: Italian Nouveau
Entree Price: $27-$55
Meals: Dinner Daily, Lunch Wed-Fri.
Most addictive dish: any of the pastas
Review
With 40 foot plus ceilings, a striking central staircase and opulent columns, Del Posto’s distinctive old-school coolness seems equally at home on the edge of the meat packing district or in Vegas. You might even say it's an Italian restaurant on steroids.
Complimenting the space’s overtures to sophistication, is a menu that caters to lovers of experimental Italian cuisine. The dishes change frequently, and the team excels at inventive pastas such as the semolina crespelle with sweet garlic, pancetta and pesto and original fish preparations like the braised wild bass with scorzonero.
The food at Del Posto is at times just great and at other times transcendental. Some of the dishes (like the fungi and the scallops with speck, salsify and olive sauce) blurred the line between food and sex.
All in all, this is another roaring success for Batali and Bastianich. I just wish the space didn't feel so showy.