The food is nice, but the restaurant lost my reservation, seated me at a table in the very loud bar where customers bumped into my table repeatedly. The manager was not at all apologetic. Not a good experience.
I am often surprised by the limits of Pete Wells’ cultural level. It seems to me from the photos that the chairs he refers to as « rattan » are in fact copies of the very famous Marcel Breuer cane dining chairs. But then, Marcel Breuer was only an architect and furniture designer, not a cook.
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Pete doesn't say anything about the sourcing of the sea food. He should have since once again he reviews a restaurant whose prices don't gradually sneak up on you - they sock you in the mouth!
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@ Michael New Jersey
"I also urge you to hang in there with the flat noodles" -- I would rather starve. But, to admit, flat noodles lend themselves to be slurped with chopsticks Japanese style, like vermicelli or spaghetti. This method does not work with macaroni: sucked-in air flows through their axial tunnels and does not move them through the lips into the mouth.
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Commentators: Really? I never heard of White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) food in my life. As for what is Italian and what is not, I give up. Having been to Italy many times, I have realized that Italian food differs with each mile you travel in that country. Those little chefs in the little restaurants in the little villages cook up whatever is fresh in the market that day. To me, Italian food is fresh food that us sourced nearby. From your high horses: Dismount!
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@ John O'Brien NYC
I would call WASP food anything non-ethnic, irrespective of whether it is consumed by New York WASP Democrats or adherents of other political parties.
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If Babs is anything like its sister restaurant Mimi then it's highly skippable; the food at Mimi is largely unremarkable and overpriced. Babs seems to be charging similarly laughable prices. I get it: the rent in the Village is high, and you can't fit many tables into the small spaces. I suppose most people who live in the Village wouldn't blink at buying a bottle or two of $90 wine at a neighborhood restaurant on a casual Tuesday. I do blink, though, and I appreciate Mr. Wells noting, eyebrow slightly raised, that at Babs the numbers can sneak up on you.
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@LJ Molière
I had dinner there last night. Everything was really good, and they have wines priced around $40-$50 too.
Something tells me you have never been to any of these restaurants.
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@ Michael New Jersey
Although I feel honored by your attention to my comments, I am not at all obsessed with any food.
Answer to your question: at home only. In seafood restaurants it is difficult to have a smail quantity of either red or black caviar for a not-hair-raising price.
@Tuvw Xyz
Do you also comment in the Evanston IL daily as much?
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That New York cheap culture ( but expensive in money ) trying to imitate the cliches of Europe and mixing all of them together that they make even less sense than the very little they knew at the beginning. It is all names and stolen ideas without the authenticity or the quality in the making.
May be the clams look good.There are good fish products in the ocean around NY. Why do they use farm raised doradas from Turkey ? Did Trump order them ? And calling them sea breams is a total turn off.
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@JPH USA
You have a good historical point there. The WASP cuisine of the US is derived from Western Europe, with additions of the cuisines of East-European Judaics, Mexico, China, and Japan.
The same goes for clothes: the only true native US style is the Western hat, model porkpie, wide brim, frontal part bent down as a visor. Riding boots with spurs are older than US, and a big single-action six-shooter on a hip is not legally permitted everywhere.
@Tuvw Xyz No .you don't get it.
There were no tomatoes, beans, potatoes, etc in Italy before the 17th century . They all come from South America. Pasta come from China.
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@JPH USA
Thank you for this info. I would have preferred to see these important gastrohistorical facts backed by feferences.
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Mr. Wells's statement that the only Italian thing at this restaurant was tagliatelle in "tagliatelle with clams", set my warning sensors on orange. To confess, I do not like flat noodles, which I find difficult to handle either the Western or Japanese style. Many readers would disagree with me.
As to seafood (other than fish), rather than clams, I much prefer shrimp (peeled when served in a restaurant) and squid, cut into rings and fried or grilled.
I do not know, whether scallops' white adductor muscles -- in French, noix de Saint-Jacques -- are popular in Italy, but they make an excellent dish, particluarly when covered with a thin layer of salmon eggs (red caviar).
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@Tuvw Xyz
Noting your obsession with adding "a thin layer of salmon eggs (red caviar)" to scallops, which you reiterate nearly every week, I ask: Where do you enjoy this particular delight -- at home, in restaurants, or both?
I also urge you to hang in there with the flat noodles. Your persistence will be rewarded.
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