NYC: L’Artusi – Modern Italian restaurant in West Village

Tina and I had a lot to celebrate this summer, but both of us were busy, so it was late August until we finally found a night to go out.

We decided to go to L’Artusi, which is a modern Italian restaurant just across the street from the place, where I was spending a big chunk of my summer, and I had been eying up the cozy sidewalk patio for weeks.

We walked up without a reservation and was told to expect a 1 hour wait, which was fine with us, as it was enough time to grab a cocktail at nearby Wilfie & Nell but still manageable in terms of potential development of hangry-ness.

The timing turned out to be perfect, as the text from L’artusi with a notification that our table was ready came just as we had finished our cocktails and our talk with the bartender at Wilfie & Nell, telling him about Tina’s Danish knækbrød and our new shop.

At L’Artusi we were assigned two seats at the bar with a full view of the action in the kitchen. I’m always impressed by how smooth and flawless everything seems to be, and I sometimes wonder whether those open kitchens are just for display, and whether there’s a real kitchen with chaos, dropped stuff, and staff yelling at each other hidden somewhere out of sight:)

The food at L’Artusi was very good. Tina’s favorite was the grilled peach salad while mine was the scallops with corn puree. We also had a pasta dish which was as good as you’d expect it to be at an Italian restaurant, and a cheese platter which was ok. The cheese was good, but the crackers tasted a bit burnt in a way that I didn’t like along with the cheese. Regarding cheese platters in general, I’m always a bit conflicted about cheese when dining out. Not a lot of work goes into the cheese platter, and the cheeses are often marked up significantly in restaurants compared to the cost of buying cheese from one of the excellent cheese mongers in New York City.

Overall, I think l’Artusi is a very good place for dinner and a great place to start a night out. Perfect for those who want to dine somewhere trendy, but with delicious food, and who appreciate the authenticity-feel of a neighborhood gem that has been around for a while.

L’Artusi, 228 W 10th St, West Village, New York