Bar Stuzzichini - Review

Intro
Bar Stuzzichini - Recommended
928 Broadway, New York 10010
Btwn 21st & 22nd St
Phone: 212-780-5100

I’ve wanted to stop by Bar Stuzzichini for a while, since NY Magazine has been raving about it. I was a little hesitant since the chowhounder’s are split about this place. Some love it, some hate it. My buddy and I are in the group that are believers. The place serves great tapas – Italian style. Overall, I give the restaurant an 84/100.

My Menu

1) Polpo – Not Recommneded
2) Carciofi - Recommended
3) Scamorza Alla Brace – Highly Recommended
4) Prociutto di Parma – Highly Recommended
5) Arancini – Highly Recommended (must have)
6) Mezzi Rigatoni Con Ragu – Highly Recommended (must have)

Dish Comments
1) Grilled octopus served cold. A lot of reviewers were raving about this dish, but I don’t know why. The octopus is charred, which tastes bitter when it’s cold – still tender though. With the quality of the other dishes, I would get another Salumi.
2) Classic Roman dish – fried artichokes. Very tasty, but the leaves were a tad tougher than I would like. Still very flavorful and addicting like popcorn.
3) Smokey, creamy mozzarella grilled and topped with chili oil. This is amazing. Chili oil is not too spicy, but adds a little heat which is wonderful with the mozzarella.
4) Great prociutto thinly sliced. Nuff said.
5) Fried risotto filled with mozzarella and another cheese. This is ridiculously good. Rich cheesiness and great risotto fried to a crisp. Quite honestly better than some of the arancini I had in Rome.
6) Rigatoni cooked nicely with a ridiculously good meat sauce – braised meat (chicken and pork I think?), and sausage. The best chicken I’ve had in a long, long time.

Overall Restaurant Experience (84/100)

• Food 8.8/10 – Tasty Italian food.
• Service 7.8/10 – Waiters are over attentive, but still very nice.
• Atmosphere 8.5/10 – Located where Komegashi used to be. Way to big a place for this type of food in my opinion. Also, looks like a steakhouse. Crowd was a mix of families and very attractive ladies. They have seats at the bar where they cook the Stuzzichini, which is where we sat. No reservations and no wait at 7:20 on a Thursday. It was empty the majority of the time, which is a bad omen. Towards the end it was half empty.
• Price 7.5/10 – Price was moderately expensive ($60 a person), but the portions are very tiny. $22 for 5 appetizers, but they’re probably 3 tiny bites per appetizer. I wasn’t that hungry, so I didn’t mind, but don’t expect big Italian-American sized portions.

Closing Comments
Even though the price is a tad expensive, I do like this place and am curious to try the other pasta dishes. Hopefully, this place stays in business, but based on the crowd I would doubt it.