From the makers that brought you Dirty French, Parm, and Santina comes one the newest additions to the Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick family. Carbone is an old-school restaurant that houses waiters in bowties, Durata plates, and rustic room separators that come from recycled material. The dichotomy that exists between these pieces is only a mere part of the charm that makes this restaurant a fantastic Italian meal.

For starters, Carbone’s bread makes going to this place worth it immediately. I’ve never been so impressed with bread before…and that’s saying a lot, considering it’s one of my favourite foods! It’s hot. It’s garlic bread that has just come out of the oven, and it comes with fresh mozzarella (dripping in olive oil/ that sauce that comes in those bags of mozzarella), and salami. In one word: perfection. I’d go back here for the bread alone.

For starters, we ordered the Cesar salad. It’s nothing insanely special, but it’s prepared in front of you, tableside, and comes with fresh Parmesan, anchovies (if you so wish), and homemade crotons, which are really just the garlic bread, in smaller pieces, and cooked a little longer. (Also to note: the service here is outstanding. Elegant waiters attend to your table without giving off a pretentious vibe, which is a super hard balance to achieve in a restaurant setting, but also makes your dining infinitely more enjoyable).

Next up we split two orders of the spicy rigatoni vodka, a very pleasant pasta with a tasty sauce and noodles that were clearly made in-house. The creamy sauce was the perfect consistency, and spiced just enough to remind you to slow down your eating pace. While not one of the best pastas I’ve had in this city (especially considering the accompanying price tag $$$$), it’s the quintessential comfort food, and a great preamble to the star course – the veal parm.

Although something you wouldn’t think a ‘fancier’ NY restaurant would excel at, Carbone’s veal parm is everything you want your fried meat and cheese meal to have. The veal was a very generous portion (you’d hope with those prices!) and housed the perfect combination of sauce and cheese. My only wish is that it could have been hotter in temperature before arriving at the table. I also sincerely wish we had been able to try their famous meatballs, which I’ve heard a lot about but our order was too packed for that this time. Something to look forward next year!

(Also super nice is the space between tables in this restaurant! Although difficult to get a reservation here, there were many tables that were empty and this made us feel like we weren’t being rushed out for another turnover – something that happens often in NY).

8.5/10