Convivio - Review

Intro
Convivio- Highly Recommended
45 Tudor City Pl, New York 10017
Btwn 1st & 2nd Ave
Phone: (212) 599-5045

Another weekend, another Italian restaurant. I've been looking to check out this space for a while - first when it was L'Impero and now in it's current state as Convivio. It was definitely well worth the wait as all the food was pretty solid - huge flavors here. Surprisingly the pastas were not as impressive as the rest of the menu. Overall, I give the restaurant an 86/100

Our Menu
1) Fegatini rustic chicken liver crostini, marsala onions**
2) Cuore d' Antra grilled duck hearts, arugula, parmigiano, pinenuts **
3) Quaglia grilled quail skewer, pancetta, vin cotto *
4) Lingua slow poached veal tongue, salsa verde
5) Fusili neopolitan pork shoulder ragu, cacciocavallo fonduta *
6) Capalletti (special) oxtail filled pasta, cauliflower puree, fresh black truffle**
7) Sgombo al Carbone charcoal grilled spanish mackerel, salame piccante, local potaoes, salmoriglio **
8) Pork Loin (special) *
9) Polipo alla Piastra seared octopus, fried cauliflower caponata **
10) Budino warm dark chocolate, hazelnut gelato, candied hazlenuts **
11) Pistachio cake *
12) Gelati milk chocolate, pistachio *
13) Coconut Gelato and Braised Pineapple **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Rich chicken livers, sweet marsala onions on some crispy bread. Even though I see this all over the city, I still can't get enough of this stuff. The ones at Gottino were better though.
2) Tender and flavorful duck hearts, peppery arugula, shaved parmiggiano, with a slightly sweet dressing. There was also a pickled sweet and pretty spicy pepper which made the dish really sing. I don't know what it is with Italian restos and spicy peppers these days, but I really dig it.
3) A nice juicy quail that was cooked well. I think the dish was combined with garlic chives and pickled red onions.
4) Veal tongue with a salsa verde and some mozzarella I think. Tender tongue, but after the previous 3 apps which had huge flavors, this was a little unmemorable.
5) This was the dish I've been waiting for after watching Colamecco's Food Show - handmade fusili with a pork ragu topped with a cacciocavallo cream sauce. I've been complaining about fresh pasta in NYC a lot recently (pasta that is too soft), but this place gets no complaints from me. The texture was perfectly al dente and the fonduta was a great touch. However, the pork pieces were a tad dry and after the huge app flavors, the ragu was a bit of a letdown. Still a very good dish to me though and definitely inspired to try making handmade fusili.
6) Silky pasta filled with flavorful oxtail, combined with the sweet cauliflower puree, and the earthiness of some shaved black truffle. The flavors were dyno-mite! Pretty subtle actually, but paired well together. I forgot how fun real black truffles are...too used to the truffle oil.
7) Huge flavored fish dish here. The mackerel was moist and oily (in a good way) topped with capers and almost a mayo like sauce. Really fun dish to eat.
8) As most of you know by now, I love pork. Anytime I see it on the menu I have to order it. This was decent. Crispy skin that was wonderfully fatty and full of flavor and a nice broth on the bottom to drench the meat in. Unfortunately, the meat was a tad dry for me - not ridiculously so, but a tiny bit. Still a good dish overall in my opinion - worth it for the sides, broth, and crispy skin.
9) Our friend ordered this dish, so I had one bite of the octopus. Could be the most memorable bite of the night. A great char flavor and very tender and flavorful octopus.
10) Budino was such an amazing dish. The actual chocolate cake was insanely chocolaty with almost a brulee thing going on - as the top of the cake was very crispy. The inside was warm and delicious. Add the nicely flavored hazelnut gelato and you have a sinfully rich dessert.
11) Wife ordered this dish and don't remember much about it. Almost like a pistachio cheesecake, but lighter? Good, but the buddino and coconut thing were f'n on.
12) Gelati flavors were pretty good, but the texture was a little lacking. Still good overall though.
13) This was a great, great dessert. The coconut gelato had such an intense coconut flavor without being very sweet at all. The spongecake filled with pineapple reminded me of the fruit spongecakes you get in chinatown.

Overall Restaurant Experience (86/100)

• Food 8.7/10 – Oddly enough, unlike most Italian restaurants, I felt more impressed with the apps, entrees, and desserts over the pastas. The pasta was still very solid, but everything else was very good to great. Really nothing bad imho.
  
• Service 5.0/10 – The waitstaff here either needs to be retrained or they need to hire more people. When we first satdown, it took about 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge us and we had to wave them over. Then, the sommellier took another 5-10 minutes to get to us. Then, we had to wave someone over to order the food and it took another 5-10 minutes for the waitress to get over there. The waitress was nice, but that was ridiculous. The first course also took a long time to come out, but at least once the first dish came out everything came out in a perfect pace. Good thing we enjoyed the conversation with friends, otherwise I'd be pretty pissed. Surprisingly, they were on top of the crumbs doing a sweep of the table after every course.
  
• Atmosphere 7.8/10 – You're standard white table cloth place that looks nice and sleek inside. Kinda reminded of a DB Bistro feel for some reason, but much brighter inside. Place consisted of loads of people maybe in their 30's or late 20's - a mix of couples and groups of 5-6 maybe. The place does not seem very big, maybe seating 60? We got reservations two nights before for a Friday and were seated promptly. Place was a tad loud though. The other thing is it's pretty tough to find the place if you've never been to Tudor City.
  
• Price 8.5/10 – A pretty good value in my opinion - $59 for 4 courses and we were pretty stuffed afterwards. Would definitely pay that price again. Funny thing is they also gave a discount at Alto, their fancier place. First time I've ever seen a high quality restaurant give out discounts to another restaurant - must be a sign of the times.
  

Closing Comments
This maybe my new favorite Italian restaurant in NYC - even though the service sucked hard. Next time I'm gunning for the carbonara and the pecorino potatoes.