restaurant review: del posto

Restaurant: Del Posto
Location: 85 Tenth Ave., New York 10011
Telephone: 212-497-8090
Website: delpost.com

Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $100+

What I ordered:
- Bellini
Il menu Del Posto -
- Antipasta: insalata d’estiva, summer squashes, warm almonds and ruchetta
- Bis 2 Tastes of Pasta: rabbit panzotti with pencil asparagus and black truffle butter (pictured), orecchiette with lamb neck sausage, morels and spring onion
- Secondi: tomato and cerignola braised tuna with chipotle & avocado
- Dolci: gelati e sorbetti del giorno

Ratings:










Comments:

We were unable to make reservations for Babbo, because they were under renovations so we decided to try Mario Batali's other restaurant Del Posto which is located in New York's trendy meat packing district.

Del Posto received two Michelin stars in 2007 and 2008, so we were really looking forward to it. I think this was our first visit to a Michelin star-rated restaurant.

When we first arrived and sat down I think we were pretty taken by the gorgeous interior of the place. Not only did it look elegent, classy and huge, but it somehow retained the comfortable cozy setting. The staff was super attentive, which I would expect from a restaurant of this calibre. And our waiter was extremely helpful with the menu. I think this was probably the best service I've ever received while dining out.

When we finally received our orders we were quite impressed not only by the quality, but the size of the portions. They were definitely generous. Our favorite dish was the rabbit hats in the butter sauce. I don't think I've ever had pasta in butter sauce, but it is to die for. It was so rich and tasty and it balanced the rabbit so well.

Enjoying the ambience of the restaurant was also quite enjoyable. There was an extreme amount of wait staff buzzing around at all times and we noticed a couple of very enchanting elements. The first was how every time a woman placed her purse on the floor a staff member would quickly bring a little unique and adorable looking footstool to place her bag on. The second was the a service station set up in the middle of the dining area. At first I assumed the service station was a place to store cutlery, drinks and whatnot, but after watching the staff in action we realized it was so much more. We watched a waiter plate a fish with great ease and flair as well as prepare a fresh custard on a stovetop on order.

In between dinner and dessert our waiter brought over a cheese cart and asked if we wanted to sample some cheeses picked by Mario's wife. We selected three cheeses and enjoyed them with the most amazing hazelnut and date bread slices. Why cheese always tastes so much better in restaurants than when I buy them at the market I'll never know.

We ordered a dessert of just gelati because we were so completely stuffed with food, but seeing as it was 4 scoops of very decadent gelati I couldn't even finish it. It was two scoops of very rich chocolate, and two scoops of what we think was gingerbread. I really enjoyed the gingerbread was it was light and very interesting tasting. The dessert course came with a complimentary plate of cute Italian desserts such as: candied almonds, biscotti, etc. It was definitely a nice touch, but unfortunlately I was so stuffed I could only try 2 or 3 items.

I was very impressed by Del Posto and must say that it was worth the money. I didn't even write about every thing that made me fall in love with this restaurant as it would make my post extremely long (even moreso than it already is), but I was very happy we were able to go to Del Posto. I hope next time we're in New York we get a chance to visit Babbo.