Scuderia

I felt a bit special last week, with reservations to Scuderia just days after their official open.

Sadly, I should have realized that there would be restaurant opening blues. First of all, they placed the three of us at this tiny table that was really meant for an intimate party of two. I know this is New York, and it's no big deal to get smooshed in, but it's a little bit of a big deal when it's a large restaurant and there are giant communal tables begging for my toosh's presence, but instead remain largely unoccupied throughout the bulk of the meal.

Second, the restaurant seems to be reaching for its version of Otto (which I visited later in the week and will blog about later), but it fails in its attempt at high quality home-style Italian. These meatballs were unexceptional, as was the underlying polenta. For some knock-your-socks-off polenta, head to Il Buco.

Third of all, they don't seem to realize potential patrons may be geographically challenged like myself, and insist on listing their address as 10 Downing on their website, nevermind that there is a restaurant called 10 Downing on 10 Downing Street, and Scuderia is really on Sixth Ave.

Fourth, these herbed french fries should have been a no-brainer yum yum, but they lacked the perfect balance of crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with a good sprinkling of sea salt, instead it was just soft and soft without the salt.

Fifth, when we wanted to order cocktails, they hadn't gotten around to making a cocktail list, so our poor waitress had to run to the bar with a spiral binder and scrawl the options. We got what was basically limoncello and sparkling wine, and whoowheee I think it might have been a bit strong.



Sixth, the portions at Scuderia are rather small. This spaghetti carbonara was pretty fatty tasting as the chef hadn't completely rendered the pancetta, but it was the most substantial of the entrees. My roommate had cereal when she got home because her skirt steak (below) didn't quite cut it.

Seventh, the food wasn't exceptional. It wasn't awful, but it definitely wasn't great. Take a look at these giant gnocci balls. They were nice and soft, but they weren't exactly ephemeral pillows of potato goodness.

Eighth, luckily it didn't happen to us, but when the gentleman next to us ordered the same skirt steak as the one pictured above, they forgot to give him a serrated steak knife, and the poor fellow was trying to talk politely to his date while sawing with a butter knife.

And ninth, they split the bill all wrong. We three plopped down the requisite number of credit cards for a bill that ran about $150, but somehow two cards were charged around $50, and I was charged about $100. How does that even happen?

And tenth, I haven't even told you about the tiramisu, but I'll leave that for another post as well.

All in all, I wouldn't wholly condemn this restaurant, as I've never launched one myself and have no idea what sorts of nonsense typically goes down opening weeks, but I'm certainly not going to head back here on my own to give them a second chance. I'll need to hear a good buzz from some other enterprising soul before I try to make my way back to 10 Downing/257 Sixth Ave.

Scuderia, 257 Sixth Ave. (b/n Houston and Bleeker), 212-206-9111