One Fifth Ave
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212.995.9559
http://www.ottopizzeria.com
It is always exciting when you go to a celebrity chef’s restaurant, possibly even more exciting when it is an Iron Chef. This trip to Mario Batali’s OTTO was no exception. Located in the West Village close to NYU, one would expect OTTO to be a tiny and tight. It is quiet the opposite. When you walk in you enter in to a spacious bar area. Once you pass the bar area you enter a very large dining area.
Dining with a friend who has become quite the foodie, the decision was made to share a pizza and a pasta dish. For the pasta dish we went with the Tacozzette Con Stracotto, which is a pork shoulder with a tomato basil sauce. As for the Pizza, we opted a special Truffle (black), Guanciale and Egg pizza.
Now we ordered the pizza and read egg, but did not realize that it would arrive with a full fried egg in the middle of the pizza. This was something new and very interesting. The smell and flavor of the truffle was well apparent. I really enjoyed the pizza, but I was glad I split it with someone, as I doubt I would have been able to eat all of it. The pasta in my opinion is the best pasta I have ever eaten, albeit I have never been to another Batali restaurant. Of course as you would expect, it was fresh pasta cooked al dente that was perfectly mixed it the sauce. I can tell you if I make it back to Otto, I will make sure to order this pasta dish again.
To finish off our meal, we also got the gelato sampler, which offers a scoop of 3 different flavors. There were many to choose from, but we settled on Guiness, Hazelnut and Creme Fraiche. I have to say that Hazelnut was the best of the 3 flavors. Great end to an amazing meal. OTTO is a place you have to check out, and what makes things even better is that it is very affordable.