Felidia Restaurant is the flagship NYC restaurant of Lidia Bastianich (not counting her collaboration with Mario Batali on Del Posto) and my husband had enjoyed a couple of business dinners, so I was looking forward to trying it.
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Felidia Location and Getting There
Felidia is located at 243 East 58th Street near 2nd Avenue, so the closest subway stop is 59th Street and Lexington Ave. (4, 5, 6, N, R trains). There's also an express bus stop at 57th Street and 2nd Ave. (SBS 15).
The Scene
We'd reserved an early dinner for 6:15pm on a Saturday evening, since we were with friends, and with our kids. Even so, we were ushered to the second floor, as the lower level was full of diners, mostly couples in their late 30s-60s. Saturday nights are popular of course, so I'd recommend a reservation if dining for dinner on Fridays or Saturdays.
Felidia Menu and Food
Felidia divides its menu into Dall'Orto (Garden), Dai Campi (Field, where most of the pastas are found), Dal Mare (Seafood) and Dalla Terra (Land; poultry and meat dishes). Since there isn't a kids' menu we ordered for our son off of the regular dinner menu.
The complimentary bread basket was good, particularly the squid ink bread and the accompanying pesto for dipping. I had to ask for water, however, and also had to ask for water to be refilled.
My husband ordered the Carbonara Di Verdure, consisting of artichoke and spring vegetable layers topped with a fried farm egg and crispy bacon. It was delicious and one of the highlights of the meal, but it was a tiny portion for $24.
One of our friends ordered seared Yellowfin Tuna with some summer caponata and a delicious eggplant sauce. This was solid, although not very distinctive, as so many restaurants do a version of this.
Our son chose the Cappellacci Di Ortiche, tortelli shaped pasta with a filling of nettles and burrata, sauteed with tomato and butter. While tasty, I was hoping for a more distinctive nettle taste to it; had I not known from the menu of the filling ingredients, I wouldn't have been able to identify anything other than burrata cheese in the filling.
My husband had previously enjoyed a pasta with lamb ragu, so he ordered it again. I tried it, and it was good, but again not exceptional; I've had better pasta with lamb ragu in NYC.
For myself I ordered the Pappardelle, which came with spinach pappardelle and a duck and mushroom ragu. Parmesan was grated at the table, and I did really enjoy my dish, as did my husband. Still, as with the other dishes, even though we ordered full portions of the pastas, we were all (including our son) still a bit hungry afterwards.
The Verdict
While we enjoyed our dinner at Felidia and the food was better than average, the prices were high for the portion sizes and mediocre service. I will give it another try sometime for lunch, which is better priced, and will update my review then, but we're not rushing back. For similar pricing, I'd much rather go to Tsushima for Japanese cuisine or Blue Smoke for bbq. Or if I had the time, I'd just make similar dishes at home, since the dishes were more along the lines of “very good, but I could make this myself” rather than “incredible, I would never be able to replicate this at home.”
If you've dined recently at Felidia, what was your experience?
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