'Inoteca
Katrina took me and Homer out to celebrate our new jobs on Sunday. We went to an Italian "tapas" place called 'Inoteca, located in the lower east side. Getting there was sort of a fiasco, note to readers, Delancey is north of the Brooklyn Bridge, not south!
When we arrived around 8:30 pm on Sunday, the place looked pretty packed. Not crammed to capacity, but decently full. The wait was 10 minutes, and we went to the bar to grab a glass of white wine. The restaurant has very large windows, and a cool breeze sort of wafted inwards. I could definitely seem myself coming back on a hot summer night. [Note: image courtesy of
below 14th I forgot my camera... apologies.]
Then we were seated at our table-- the menu is basically in Italian, and we found that we really needed a translation. Since our waiter was nowhere in sight, we flagged the hostess and asked for our waiter. Soon, a sprightly, curly-haired waiter was at our attention. He explained that the whole center of the menu consisted of sandwiches, from the Tramezzini to Panini to Bruschette. After going into pretty excruciating detail on each menu item, we said, "Let's order!"
The waiter then looked confused, and he said, "Let me find your server." Whoa, wait a second. He spent 10 minutes with us going through every time of the menu, and he wasn't even our server? I was pretty impressed at that point. They really made an effort to give good service!
A tall, perky girl came by next and we proceeded to order everything the previous waiter had suggested... heheh, we wanted a nice meal!
Three plates were presented initially, a calamari salad, porchetta and the truffled egg toast. We started with a calamari salad-- pretty fresh and tasty. Lots of onions, and you could taste the crispness of the dressing. While we were diving into the salad, a guy stopped at our table and said, "I know the calamari salad is good, but you have to eat the truffled egg toast while its still hot."
Wow. They actually care enough about the customer experience to tell you to get eating while its still good. I was really impressed at the attentiveness of the staff. And they did it in a very non-obtrusive, friendly way. How many places do you find like that? Especially in New York city!
So we then sliced up the truffled egg toast
($7). It was truly
amazing. A thick crunchy slice of toast with an egg in the middle, covered with loads of oozing cheese. Delicious! If you're a fan of eggs benedict, you will love this dish. Especially the way the yolk from the egg spills over the crunchy bread. Yum. (I am currently contemplating how to recreate this menu item at home... hmmmm)
The porchetta
($15) was a panini sandwich with a whole roasted suckling pig. The meat was very tender and soft. On the side was horseradish, a sort of tomatoe-y onion garnish and some greens. I really enjoyed this dish, but at this point, I was afraid I was going to get full, so Homer ate the last half of my panini. (Actually I only offered him a quarter, but he misheard me, so I just let him scarf it down).
The next three dishes that arrived at the table were polpette (meatballs), fritelle (fritter with cabbage and onions) and a shrimp dish-- I forget the name.
The shrimp dish
($15) was absolutely amazing... Katrina kept saying "amazing, amazing" over and over again. Heheh, we sure weren't the quietest diners in the restaurant! Imagine a JUMBO piece of shrimp, but jumbo, compare the shrimp with your arm. Okay, well maybe it wasn't
that big, but it was still quite a large piece of shrimp. Each shrimp was wrapped in crunchy bacon and coved in a very light, clear brown sauce. I have no idea what it was, but the dish was totally delicious. Taking a bit into the shrimp was like biting into heaven. So juicy, tender, flavorful yet crunchy due to the contrast of the salty bacon. I can't explain it, but you just have to order this item if you decide to check out 'Inoteca.
After the shrimp, the other two dishes sort of paled in comparison. They were still delicious, but they were just eclipsed. The meatballs
($8) tasted sort of like regular meatballs-- I love meatballs by the way. The fritelle (I forget the price on this one) was pretty tasty. It was a light, crispy fritter with onions and cabbage. Very different from the other dishes that we'd had in the evening.
For dessert, we ordered the affogato
($5), at least I think that's what it was called and a almond custard. The affogato was simply vanilla ice cream with an espresso shot poured over it. Very simple and delicious. My favorite dessert was the almond custard though. The texture sort of like silken tofu with a sweet light flavor. It just melted in my mouth. Highly recommended!
In short, we had a fabulous meal at 'Inoteca, and I highly recommend that you check it out the next time you go to the Lower East Side. You could even plan an evening around it, 'Inoteca for dinner and then hit up some of the cool bars in the area.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the wine. We had very delicious, full-bodied bottle of red wine
($29). It was really great-- unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the bottle, but we wrote it down, so I'll post it when I get the name. The restaurant may actually be known more for its wine than the food-- they have an incredible selection of wines by the glass, and even more (obviously) by the bottle. Check it out!
'Inoteca. 98 Rivington St. 212.614.0473. Reservations for parties of 6 or greater. Prix-fix menu available for parties of 10 or more
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