Uva

Some restaurants merit absurd activity like waking up at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning in a panic, so that you can be standing outside Prune by 9:45 a.m., teeth brushed, clothes changed, hair combed, and mascara applied, ready for a delicious New York City brunch.

Some restaurants are good but only deserve reasonable behavior. I waited almost an hour for dinner at Uva, and I'm embarrassed to say I did.


Which is not to say that Uva is a bad restaurant. It's good. In fact, if all the dishes tasted like this Burrata Barese (creamy mozzarella with yellow beef tomatoes, fava beans and balsamic glaze), then maybe it would be worth a little New-York-insane-fixation-on-a-long-wait action. E Except even here, things weren't perfect. The fava beans were dry and a pointless, negative addition, but somebody wanted to save ink on the menus and didn't have the cojones to yank them off the dish that night.

The culatello might have made me waver except even my love for charcuterie has to admit that at the end of the day, all the restaurant did was source some good cured pork and slice it thin.

The arancini (deep fried saffron rice balls) tasted like Italian comfort food. Solid, no whirligigs attached.

A special of tuna tartare with pickled onions and roasted endive was not bad except for the fact that the lighting was so poor we couldn't tell the onions from the tuna, and K took a big bit of pure pickled onion, so no one had any tart accompaniment to balance the rich fish.

Don't order the Polpettine di Vitello (mini veal meatballs cooked in a savory tomato sauce, served with grilled ciabatta bread). I know it sounds good, but one bite and it was clear why a mini veal meatball rage has not overtaken the city. Veal must not be fatty enough of a meat to make into a juicy meatball because these suckers were dry and generally not worth your time of day. You deserve better.

Even better than this Polenta Tartufata (fresh polenta filled with robiola cheese in a black truffle sauce.)
Once again, it's good, but it's not marvelous. The polenta tasted a bit dense and mushy, nothing like the truly revelatory polenta at Il Buco. The truffle sauce had a nice heady earthy flavor, but upon further consideration tasted slightly artificial, which doesn't make complete sense because you and can both see little bits of truffle, but at $9 a plate, it'd be hard to believe they are all real fresh little bits of truffle.

The decor in the restaurant itself is cute. The Upper East Side's version of Inoteca, lots of old wood and brick. It'd be a good go-to restaurant if we didn't have to wait so long. Admittedly, the people on the phone said that generally the wait is about "a glass of wine's" worth, so I don't know what was up with our luck that night, but unless you live in the neighborhood, it's not a good enough of a place to merit a subway ride and a possible long wait.

Uva, 1486 Second Avenue (at 77th St.), 212-472-4552