This Perbacco NYC Review is one of our many NYC Restaurant Reviews. Visiting New York? See all of our posts tagged NYC.
Italian food isn't what I normally go out to eat, so when TravelSort Clients visiting NYC ask for a recommendation of a cozy Italian restaurant with good food, but not overly formal or pretentious, I've previously not had a personally vetted recommendation.
Well, now I do. Thanks to a visiting friend who was introduced to Perbacco by Italian friends of hers, we recently tried out the “new” Perbacco of Chef Clelia Bendandi, who hails from Rome and now helms Perbacco's kitchen, turning out small plates that pair well with the 80 or so Italian wines of this food-oriented wine bar.
Getting to Perbacco
Perbacco is located at 234 East 4th Street, between Avenue A and Avenue B, in the East Village. It's a stone's throw from one of favorite NYC restaurants, Issan/North Thai specialist Somtum Der.
If taking the subway, the closest stop is the F line's 2nd Avenue stop, or you can walk from the L line's 1st Avenue stop or from Astor Place on the 4 or 6 train. If taking the bus on 2nd Avenue, either get on the express 15 Select bus service to Houston, than walk up Avenue A, or on the local bus, use the 3rd Street stop and walk to 4th Street then east towards Avenue B.
Perbacco Menu and Food
Perbacco's menu consists primarily of new dishes by Clelia Bendandi, but there are also some favorites from the old Perbacco, such as the Creme Brulee di Parmigiano Reggiano with aged spicy Balsamic reduction.
Traditionally Italians eat pastas as first courses, not as mains, so you'll find pasta dishes under the “Primi Piatti” heading.
Main dishes are typically fish, chicken or meat, and that's what you'll find under “Secondi Piatti.” Note that all of the dishes were either chicken, fish or seafood, apart from the beef tripe dish, so don't come here expecting either vegetarian or meat mains.
Often it's tempting to try a variety of different tastes by ordering a number of appetizers, and that certainly works well at Perbacco. We shared three appetizers, followed by several pastas. While we also ordered a chicken dish, the kitchen by mistake made a seafood pasta for us, and was late in firing up the chicken dish. More on that later. Here are my personal favorites of the dishes we tried:
1. Creme Brulee di Parmigiano Reggiano
While I didn't manage a very good photo, trust me, this is a must-order, at least if you enjoy creamy dishes, cheese, and a creme brulee type top. I normally don't expect or even want much innovation when it comes to Italian food, but this was both unique and utterly delicious–although rich. You'll want to share this with at least one if not two other people, since a little goes a long way.
2. Pollo Al Taleggio Tartufato
While we brought this home as leftovers, such that it wasn't a good photo candidate, it was fantastic reheated as my lunch a couple days later. It was described as sauteed chicken breast scaloppine with radicchio, taleggio cheese and truffle oil, and also came with silky and garlicky mashed potatoes. The flavors complemented each other well, with the bitter radicchio a nice foil to the chicken, taleggio and rich mashed potatoes. Given how good it was reheated, I can only imagine it would have been even better if we'd had room to eat it at the restaurant.
3. Polpettine Di Clelia
Meatballs are humble comfort food, but these ones were elevated by the mixture of beef, pork, veal, mortadella and spinach.
4. Suppli Di Riso
Our friend recommended ordering these, and while they didn't sound that exciting from the description–fried rice balls stuffed with mozarella and served with tomato basil sauce–they were actually delicious, and much better than most arancini (the Sicilian version, which are round hence the “orange” name) that I've tried.
5. Gnocchetti Gorgonzola
Gnocchi with gorgonzola is classic, but I felt this version was better than others I've tried around the city, with lighter and more pillowy gnocchi.
6. Pasta Carbonara
7. Spaghetti Con La ‘Nduja
While simple, there's something addictive about al dente pasta tossed with Nduja, a Calabrian spicy hot sausage.
8. Linguine Vongole
Plenty of Italian restaurants offer a version of seafood linguine, so while very good, I won't claim that this dish was particularly distinctive. I liked that the mussels, clams, baby octopus and shrimp were perfectly cooked, and of course the pasta was perfectly al dente.
The Service
While I've seen some Yelp reviews deploring the service at Perbacco, ours was very good, especially considering that they were hosting a party of about 20 later that evening. When our original window seats proved too chilly, they willingly moved us to a table that was part of the section they'd reserved for the party, as long as we were willing to finish up at the bar if the table was needed by the party before we were finished.
The only misstep, as mentioned above, was that our original order of the chicken with taleggio cheese, radicchio and truffle oil didn't come out with our other dishes, while an extra pasta dish did. The server who placed the extra pasta dish down mumbled something that we didn't understand, so what looked to be the owner or front of house manager explained that the surprise pasta dish was on the house, and we could choose whether or not to have the chicken dish, a solution that worked for us.
The Verdict
Perbacco isn't a place I would have tried on my own, since we rarely go out for Italian, but I'm very happy to have tried it and to know about it. It's rather chilly inside there right now (there may be some issues with the heater) but we'll most likely return there, perhaps with friends who prefer Italian cuisine or whenever we have a craving for the Parmesan creme brulee, gnocchi or excellent meatballs.
If you've been to Perbacco, what was your experience?
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